"Shadow of the Erdtree" may have sold 5 million copies in less than a week, but that doesn't mean it satisfied 5 million copies of the "Tarnished for Elden Ring" DLC. One day after its release, "Shadow of the Erdtree" had a lukewarm "Mixed" rating on Steam. This was because many of them complained that the new bosses seemed overly and arbitrarily difficult. A week later, however, "Shadow of the Erdtree" regained some of its general Steam rating, rising to a "Mostly Positive" rating.

Shadow of the Erdtree has gained an additional 44,000 reviews since last weekend's Steam rating, when 61% of user reviews were positive; with over 70% of the 57,000 reviews now positive, how can we explain this recovery Is it? Did the initially dissatisfied players realize that Namco Bandai's campaign to raise awareness of "Shards of the Scadtree" and play the game with ease? Or were most of the players who ultimately left favorable reviews too busy playing? Perhaps FromSoftware's fan advocacy brigade was trying to counter what appeared to be a review bombing campaign?

A quick survey of Steam reviews over the past few days shows a mix of all three. Most of the recent positive reviews share a very simple theme: yes, it's hard, but the early reviewers were rusty; Steam user Dr. Voidburn said, "Don't listen to the negativity. The big sword still roars."

As one might expect from the positive reviews of FromSoft's games, there was plenty of breathtaking praise for Miyazaki in the mix. Interestingly, however, while there are still a few recent negative reviews that claim the boss difficulty is over-adjusted, most of the complaints over the past couple of days have been performance-related. Players have complained of regular FPS drops and glitches, especially during the final boss fight of the DLC. This is a complaint mentioned in many of the positive reviews.

We will have to wait and see how many millions of Tarnished remain in Shadow of the Erdtree after another weekend of boss battle embarrassment. Until then, if you want to take on the Shadow lands: don't give up, skeletons!