This year, FromSoftware released a DLC for their massively successful game, Elden Ring. In the lead-up to the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, there was much excitement and expectation. This DLC even made me return to Elden Ring and got me reinvested in a game I thought I was done with. However, I don’t think anyone was expecting how massive Shadow of the Erdtree was going to be or how much content was going to be in it.
The Game Awards have caused a stir this year by allowing Shadow of the Erdtree to be considered for Game of the Year. This is unprecedented. Shadow of the Erdtree is “just a DLC.” Therefore, it should be treated as such. Right?
Shadow of the Erdtree is a DLC in name only. Not only does it do everything that a sequel normally sets out to do, its story stands on its own while offering a massive amount of content. I have spent over 100 hours in the Land of Shadow, fighting bosses, uncovering secrets, and having the time of my life.
What is a Game Worth?
Quick question: what is forty dollars worth to you? I’ll go first. For $40, I could buy dinner for myself and one friend at a sit-down restaurant. That’s about two hours’ worth of enjoyment for my money. Alternatively, I could buy two tickets to see Wicked in theaters. Based on the runtime, that’s about three hours of enjoyment, or six hours if I see two movies alone.
Right now, I could take $40 and buy Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The Lost Crown is a game in a series I love, made by a Triple-A game company. Expected playtime? 15 hours, or 20-25 hours if you’re going for full completion. At its price, that is a respectable amount of content for a game.
$40 is the same price I paid for the Pathless. The Pathless beautifully portrays a world in ruin and captures the feeling of undertaking long-lost rights. I have logged 32 hours in The Pathless and loved every single second of it. Those 32 hours are dwarfed three times over by the amount of time I spent with Shadow of the Erdtree.
Right now, Shadow of the Erdtree is forty dollars on Steam. That may be the best forty dollars you spend all year. I have bought full games that have offered significantly less content for the same price as this DLC. In today’s world, it is very rare to ever get 100 hours worth of content out of anything worth $40, let alone expect it.
Beyond simply the hours I spent, I’ve had unforgettable experiences, and I enjoyed every single hour I toiled away. I became a dragon, had an epic fight against an entire squad of NPCs, and faced down Messmer himself. That is an enormous amount of content you can get for only $40.
In Name Only
What do you think of when you hear the phrase “DLC?” I think of the Lair of the Shadow Broker, a DLC for Mass Effect 2. At the time, this was one of the best DLCs around. It expanded the story of Mass Effect 2, provided some crucial set-up for the sequel, and was just good. It was an addition to a game I loved, provided a few new weapons, a set of great missions, and brought back a fan-favorite character. However, it was by no means its own game, and it wasn’t expected to be. After all, it was only DLC.
The Shadow of the Erdtree is a massive outlier for a DLC. It goes far beyond the scale of what is normally expected for a DLC. Shadow of the Erdtree provides enough content for a full game, and its story stands on its own. The DLC even tells a narrative that happens pretty much entirely independently of what happens in the main game.
In fact, Shadow of the Erdtree stands so much on its own that there is no interaction between any of the characters between the base game and the DLC. That was actually one of my gripes with the game. That lack of interaction is not something I would normally expect from a DLC. However, I would expect it from a sequel.
As a DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree stands in a class that few can rival. If you download Shadow of the Erdtree prepared for an extra 15-20 hours of content, you will be unprepared for the fully fledged-out game that awaits you. Shadow of the Erdtree is anything but “just a DLC.”
A Dangerous Precedent?
I’ve heard my fair share of outcry that Shadow of the Erdtree is going to be considered for Game of the Year. The most common opinion I’ve heard is that this is a dangerous precedent and will negatively affect Game Awards in the future. Maybe so. I’m not an expert on the gaming industry; I’m just an enjoyer of it. However, that does seem like a precedent that can be exploited in the future.
Despite the outcry of a DLC getting a Game of the Year nomination, some people seem to have forgotten why Shadow of the Erdtree was so special. Shadow of the Erdtree outperforms most full games in terms of content and blows most DLCs out of the water. Nominating a DLC may be a dangerous precedent to set, but implying that Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t worthy of recognition because it’s just a DLC is wholly unfair.
Shadow of Erdtree is a massive labor of love that is more than deserving of attention. The biggest problem seems to be that the existing categories do a very poor job of accounting for something like Shadow of the Erdtree.
The Place of DLC
How do we reconcile the fact that a DLC can outperform most full games? How should Shadow of the Erdtree be recognized? Should such a massive undertaking that has so much content go unmentioned at the Game Awards and be consigned to being considered “just a DLC?”
For most of these questions, I don’t have an answer. My personal game of the year is not Shadow of the Erdtree. It’s not any of the nominees. That honor goes to the Pristine Cut of Slay the Princess… which is also a DLC (albeit a free one). I think that answers the most important question. “Should a DLC get to be considered on even playing ground with a full game?” In my eyes, it already is.
The Pristine Cut massively expands on a game I love and offers a more complete experience that I don’t know how I lived without. The fact that it was an addition to my favorite game is, honestly, irrelevant in my eyes. Just like Shadow of the Erdtree, The Pristine Cut made the game I love better. Both games made their base game feel incomplete without its DLC. This just goes to show that our favorite game of the year rarely has anything to do with whether or not it’s a DLC.
Follow Your Bliss
I normally don’t involve myself with the Game Awards. Like the Oscars or any awards platform, the Game Awards has a weirdly corporate feel I don’t love. The Game Awards have always felt like it’s more about the industry and less about the players. This year’s nominees certainly don’t represent me as a player if my game of the year is any indication. Some years, my favorite game is one that I just discovered that came out years prior.
Regardless of how you feel about the Game Awards, Shadow of the Erdtree does deserve to be recognized. It is not Shadow of the Erdtree’s fault that the classification of “DLC” fails to encompass this triumph of a game. FromSoftware delivered a full game’s worth of content and a stunning continuation of the story of Elden Ring… that I haven’t quite finished. Once again, FromSoftware has delivered more content than I know what to do with!
Don’t let the Game Awards take away your enjoyment of your favorite games or tell you what your game of the year should be. Ultimately, these rewards have very little bearing on what you will like the most. Go out and find your next favorite game, even if it is “just” a DLC.
