Since its release in 2022, FromSoftware's Elden Ring has been widely recognized as a standard for open-world video games. At the time of its launch, the open-world genre had been the target of some arguably well-deserved criticism, primarily due to the fact that most open-world games were adopting the same bloated model that robbed players of discovery and instead gave them a long list of chores to complete. However, Elden Ring continued and even improved upon what The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild started by offering players a world where exploration is a reward rather than a requirement. Now, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has graced the stage with an encore of the base game's performance.