Overall a great expansion of the base game. Comes with all of the positives of the base game with world design and gameplay. And all the negatives of the base game, often barren open areas with just enough treasures and secrets hidden throughout that make me, to my own detriment, scour every morsel. Often found myself riding around on my horse, running past all the enemies just to look for items and things, which wasn't all that fun. The other negative being bosses and enemies with long-ass chains of attacks requiring the player to be dodging/blocking for a while before they can get an attack in. It might be slightly worse in this DLC than in the base game.

I did find lots of time to take some time and appreciate my surroundings, though, which were as beautiful as always, maybe even a step up from the base game. The use of color in this DLC is breathtaking at times. The sense of verticality in the world design is also a step up. I really enjoyed how they did a separate progression system.

I really enjoyed myself with this DLC. I think it will be years before I revisit Elden Ring for long enough to reach the DLC. Game has overall took me around 200 hours to complete. That time commitment is going to be a lot harder to stomach when I've already seen all the game has to offer more or less.