Elden Ring Nightreign Review

Elden Ring Nightreign

One of Fromsoft’s boldest ideas yet succeeds in some places and falters in others.

Introduction: A Daring Leap Into Unfamiliar Waters

Fromsoft has always been a developer that has excelled at one thing: Big, terrifying boss fights and stories that pit you against an impressive roster of human and supernatural enemies alike. Enter Nightreign, a game that has blown the standard Fromsoft formula out of the water in favor of a new direction: a multiplayer, rogue-like experience whose primary focus is playing with others. Now I’m going to be the first to admit I was skeptical about a multiplayer-only Soulsborne game. I have long been a fan of their games from the Dark Souls series all the way towards their most recent entries like Sekiro and the base Elden Ring game.

Until this point, they had never strayed away from the formula that had brought them success. We’ve gotten half a dozen games in the past decade, with each one upping the stakes. But you know what they say: fortune favors the bold. Nightreign is here to change that frame of mind that we’ve all grown so accustomed to loving. Does this experiment succeed where other developers have failed? Well, in short, Fromsoft has gone out and released one of their most difficult bosses in years: Finding two people to play with.

World: A Familiar Playground with Plenty of Toys

I’ll go out on a limb here and say if you’re expecting the usual Fromsoft formula as far as a story, you should probably stop reading this review here. Everything that is so ingrained in our minds as far as how these games progress should be forgotten for this entry. Nightreign is by every extension of the word a totally different game than those released by Fromsoft in the past decade. The story can be dumbed down to a simple sentence: you are fighting the night lord in a realm that exists parallel to the events of the Elden Ring base game.

In this parallel timeline, you play as one of eight Nightfarers as they attempt to stop the Night’s Tide from consuming this timeline’s Roundtable Hold. What transpires from that point is you and 2 other players, or you can run it solo if you’re so bold, must survive to Night 3 so that you can defeat a Night Lord and stem the tide, and well, that’s pretty much it from a story perspective. If you’re here for the usual Fromsoft story, deep with the hidden lore aspects and set bosses standing in between you and your ascension to godhood, I imagine you won’t be happy reading this. The world is more or less just the standard cutout, with the world of Limveld looking very similar to some of the vistas from Elden Ring back in 2022.

What separates this game is the fact that the map is different every time you venture outside the Roundtable Hold. Sure you have the run-of-the-mill assets from the base game, but more often than not, these vistas are varied in both the enemies you see as well as the bosses that prowl its dark dungeons and dilapidated ruins. You have a host of places you can visit ,from ruins and castles to the standard Evergaols that pepper the countryside in Elden Ring, and each one serves a purpose in helping you in your journey of defeating the Nightlord. Everything looks and feels as good as it did in 2022, and I think it’s nearly perfect from a world standpoint, as it feels like this twisted version of a place we’re all so familiar with. The story might be mostly absent, but I think most fans of Fromsoft games, as well as fans of Elden Ring will feel mostly at home here. But here’s the thing, the world and everything in it might feel by all accounts standard, but what really separates this game from those in the past is the gameplay, and I have to admit it’s a great time when all the pieces are moving in unison.

Gameplay: A Host of Options Catered To The Player

Now let’s draw a little attention to the elephant in the room. I think it’s no secret that the game is nearly identical to the base Elden Ring game, and by extension Shadow of the Erdtree, in how it plays. Combat feels smooth and everything feels refined in a way that most of us Fromsoft fans are familiar with. Where this entry becomes different then those we’ve seen before is that the whole system has been more or less thrown on its head from that point on.

Instead of the standard formula of building your character from the ground up, you are instead treated to a host of characters, called Nightfarers, who each fill most of the roles we all know so well. We have classes such as the Raider, who fill the stereotypical role of wielding the biggest weapons possible, the Recluse, who is a magic based caster who can wield a variety of different sorceries, and the Duchess, who is a more nimble assassin based Nightfarer who relies on her agility more then her raw strength. And that’s just a small taste of the eight Nightfarers currently in the game. Each one fills a niche so that everyone should be able to find one that fits their desired playstyle. The gameplay is nearly identical to what we saw in the base Elden Ring game, and anyone who prefers that level of freedom will love it from a combat perspective.

Once you actually get out into the world, you are treated to the meat of the game, which more or less amounts to a roguelike, soulsborne experience with a lot of familiar elements from Elden Ring. You and your team start on a randomized map with tons of landmarks and different places you can go to level up and get weapons that will assist you on your journey. The host of expeditions you have the chance to choose from, and the Nightlords that are attached to them, all have certain quirks and aspects that make them unique from each other. This is where the concept of a randomly generated map can blur the lines between having an easy run and one where you have to get a little creative. Each of these ruins and castles you find scattered throughout the map usually always have an element attached to them, as seen by their icons on the map. What these mean is that once you defeat the boss in that specific area, you are more likely to find a weapon with that specific elemental affinity attached to it.

You see, each expedition boss has a predetermined weakness that doesn’t change from run to run. The first boss is weak to holy damage, the second is weak to poison, and so on. What this aspect of the game leads to is a mad dash around the map where you are juggling between expanding your armory of weapons while also trying to level up and get as many flasks as possible. As you progress through the three days, fighting dozens of bosses along the way, you are expected to think on your feet as the Night’s Tide slowly pushes you towards the center of the map. Don’t find the elemental weapons you need for the specific boss? That’s too bad. Better find some grease. Were all the churches of Marika on the opposite side of the map, and you only ended up with 4 flask uses? Well, you’ve got to make it work. The game thrives on the idea of communication and working with your team to come out on top.

With a group of people you can talk to, this can feel like one of the most fun Fromsoft ideas to date, but running Nightreign solo is a different story. The cracks really start to show when you go into matchmaking because of a few things that are strangely absent from a multiplayer-focused game. The first thing is a lack of voice chat in-game. Sure, you can ping places of interest on your map, but there really isn’t any other way to communicate besides hoping they plan on working with you. Another weirdly absent aspect is the idea that solo running was not optimized at release. This isn’t saying you couldn’t do it, and from what I’ve seen, some crazy people have, but it’s pretty obvious that it wasn’ t balanced for solo expeditions right away.

To add to the bag of things that are weirdly absent is the idea of duo runs. It is something I honestly expected to be there day one, but thankfully, Fromsoft has already gone out and said they plan on adding it to the game soon. Overall, I think they will end up adding some form of voice chat, optimization for solo and duo play, and further tweaking, but for now, I think the game is best played with two other people that you can voice chat with in either Discord, TeamSpeak, or whatever tickles your fancy. That is pretty much the only way I have played it so far, besides a couple of solo runs, and the experience clearly feels tailored to groups of three.

Final Thoughts: One Last Vacation In The Lands Between

As we wrap this review up, I can honestly say I’m impressed. Fromsoft took a big gamble by pursuing a game of this caliber that is outside their usual palette, and dare I say it is a great experience when it’s firing on all cylinders. Certain things, such as a lack of in-game chat and weird balancing issues for anything other than the three-person queue, make it a little trivial, but the game plays flawlessly for the most part and retains much of what made the 2022 Elden Ring game so fun. You have a host of interesting characters at your disposal, and a ton of bosses who very much feel like the Soulsborne bosses we’re all so used to. It looks good, it plays well, and if you can find some people to play with, I can almost guarantee you’ll love it and play it for hours on end.