Elden Ring Nightreign Review - Fort, Night?

Elden Ring Nightreign is not Elden Ring. I know Elden Ring is right there in the title, but trust me when I say that if you approach this one like it's just another Shadow of the Erdtree-style expansion, you're going to be either baffled or disappointed.

If you want to have a good time with Elden Ring Nightreign, it's best to think of it not as a Soulslike but as a multiplayer experiment in the genre. Happily, a good time is very much there to be had, although it's not without its caveats.

What begins as a slightly janky-feeling, strangely "off" version of the megahit base game slowly opens up and reveals its addictive core concepts over time. Elden Ring Nightreign embarks on its own journey, and while it wears the (god)skin of its larger cousin, it's a unique, compelling beast in its own right.

Just What the Heck Is Elden Ring Nightreign?

In essence, Elden Ring Nightreign offers a hyper-condensed, frantic version of the standard Souls exploration-combat loop. Each run takes place over three days; on the first two, you'll be exploring as many locations as possible to scavenge for weapons and supplies, all while defeating some very familiar-looking minibosses.

The third day sees you and your buddies (or just you, if you're a masochist) taking on a Nightlord, one of the new bosses created solely for Nightreign. They're formidable foes that will require exactly the same careful approach and tactical understanding you'd expect from an Elden Ring encounter.

It's a system that takes some getting used to. As a player who likes to take their time and explore every nook and cranny of FromSoftware's beautifully crafted locations, Nightreign's breakneck speed alienated me at first. Over time, however, I managed to attune to its uptempo polyrhythms.

This is also very much a game designed around its co-op component. While Nightreign does support solo play, I wouldn't recommend it; the solo runs I tried were fairly miserable, and publisher Bandai Namco has also made it clear this is an experience intended for three players.

Assuming you can assemble a squad, then, Elden Ring Nightreign very much wants you to hit the ground running; quite literally, in fact. As soon as the spectral birds that are your carriers drop you in Limveld, it's up to you to decide where to go, what to do, and how best to spend your time.

Eventually, optimal routes will begin to reveal themselves, and it won't be long before you're creating complex routes in your mind, planning which locations should be visited and on what days. What starts as an intimidating, overwhelming core loop quickly becomes intoxicating.

Elden Ring Nightreign's Combat Feels Great

It helps that Elden Ring Nightreign's combat is...well, it's Elden Ring's combat, and for my money, it's the sharpest, smoothest iteration of the series' trademark weighty action-RPG fighting we've seen so far.

While most weapons and moves feel largely the same as they do in Elden Ring, a couple of key improvements have been made. Bows feel great now, having been given a similar treatment to magic's glow-up in Elden Ring; you can now easily and quickly fire off arrows, making archer Ironeye feel like a true master of his craft.

Since Nightreign is a multiplayer game, customizable characters have been done away with in favor of character archetypes. There are six to start, plus two more you'll unlock in due course, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Wylder, for instance, is a jack-of-all-trades greatsword wielder with a gap-closing hookshot, while the Recluse is a magic user whose unique skill must be used well in order to balance her insatiable hunger for mana. The aforementioned Ironeye is a mobile archer, while the Raider is a fearsome Viking type with a huge axe.

Each archetype feels distinct and enjoyable, and they slot into groups well. Trying out combinations of these characters is one of Nightreign's great joys, as is finding synergies between their core skills. Lining up the perfect Ironeye arrow after the Recluse has marked an enemy for extra damage feels sublime.

Outside of the character archetype changes, Nightreign's combat is largely untouched from the Elden Ring salad days. If you loved the way Elden Ring felt to play, then you're going to enjoy the core loop in Nightreign as well. If you didn't, there's nothing here to convert you.

Limveld Gets Repetitive Quickly in Elden Ring Nightreign

It's outside of that core combat, when it comes time to explore Nightreign's map, that things start to feel a touch more wobbly. Limveld itself is procedurally generated, but its locations aren't; every castle, camp, and ruin has the same layout.

For that reason, it really doesn't take long for things to start feeling repetitive. The pool of locations in Nightreign is pretty small, and once you've seen one ruin, you've seen 'em all. It doesn't matter whether it's Albinauric archers or Beastmen of Farum Azula waiting for you there; they're still lurking in the same dilapidated old buildings.

Repetition sets in worryingly quickly in Elden Ring Nightreign. I think a few more locations, or perhaps even a few more layouts for existing locations, would work wonders. As it is, despite its procedural generation shaking up positioning, Limveld feels decidedly more staid and dull than its bigger cousin.

Not only that, but on a number of my runs, I encountered three camps that all had the same bosses lying in wait for me. One set of Redmane Knights on a run is acceptable, but two is pushing it, and three feels like a programming error. Simply put, Nightreign needs more variety in its map and enemy design.

Happily, however, there are some elements that break things up a little. Shifting Earth events add new geographical features to Limveld, like a swamp of Scarlet Rot, a frigid mountain to climb, or an honest-to-Marika entire city that you and your team can explore.

Engaging in these extra events can be hugely dangerous, but it can also result in some pretty tasty rewards for your squad. Of course, the layout of these Shifting Earth events doesn't change much from run to run either, so it's a temporary balm for the repetition, but it's nice nonetheless.

Elden Ring Nightreign's Lore Sure Is There

I'm a lorehound when it comes to FromSoftware games, and I admit that the lore and storytelling in Elden Ring Nightreign just doesn't feel like it has the spark of the base game (or, indeed, of the original Dark Souls or Bloodborne).

This time around, storytelling is mostly achieved via text-based character stories called "remembrances". Each character has a backstory, and you can advance that story by collecting memory fragments from the world, some of which will trigger objectives you can tackle on your next run.

These objectives might, for instance, involve finding an item in a certain location, or beating a boss or a Nightlord in order to progress. Completing them rewards you with more backstory for the character in question, and you may also uncover relationships between characters, friendly or adversarial.

The thing is that Elden Ring - and, indeed, the Souls series in general - is very often more focused on the world rather than those who live in it. I don't really find Nightreign's characters particularly interesting, and since Limgrave's procedural generation makes it feel a little uncanny, I can't say the world is too compelling either.

Thankfully, the lore and story very much take a backseat to Nightreign's gameplay, so if you just want to focus on slaying bosses and learning synergies, you can very much do that.

It is also worth noting that FromSoftware games often benefit from the tireless efforts of lore archaeologists to uncover every nook and cranny of their stories, and naturally, at the time of writing, they haven't had the time to do so. Nightreign may, in due course, benefit from a thorough excavation of its narrative.

Bosses Are Where Elden Ring Nightreign Truly Shines

If you've played a FromSoftware game before, you'll know that boss encounters are arguably where the studio truly shines, and I'm very happy to report that Elden Ring Nightreign is no exception in this area.

To put it simply, Nightreign's boss encounters are an exhilarating rush. Each of its eight Nightlords feels distinct, and while some of them are a touch more uninspired than others (there's yet another big ol' dragon in here), they all thrillingly demand their own tactical adaptation.

The first boss, for instance, is Gladius, a three-headed dog that swings a chain around and commands fire. Partway through the fight, Gladius suddenly splits into three separate dogs, and you'll need to keep an eye on all three before they recombine in order to win.

My personal favorite was the Augur, an Elden Beast-like being made of water that gracefully flits around the arena, splashing you with tidal waves and summoning explosive jellyfish to keep you on your toes. It may not have been the most mechanically challenging fight, but it shows FromSoftware's majestic grandeur is still very much in evidence.

I won't spoil Nightreign's boss surprises, but suffice it to say I came away thoroughly satisfied with each of its Nightlords. There are only eight, too, as far as I'm aware; I'm sure FromSoftware will add more through paid DLC, but this isn't a live-service title, so don't expect monthly updates with more bosses.

You can, of course, continue to hunt down remembrances and play Nightreign after its final boss encounter has ended, but not every game needs to demand every waking hour of your time, and Nightreign's determination to give you a way out if you want one at its conclusion is commendable.

Elden Ring Nightreign Review - Final Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised by Elden Ring Nightreign. What cautiously won me over in the network test became an addictive compulsion over the course of my time with FromSoftware's multiplayer experiment, and I have no trouble unreservedly recommending it to anyone who loves Souls games' core combat loop.

I only wish Limveld was a more lively, vibrant place. Its procedural generation feels particularly uninspired, and although that can help with route optimization, I'd rather be wrongfooted and have to adapt than see the same scenery over and over again.

Still, focusing on Nightreign's excellent boss encounters and range of build synergies should keep combat-happy Nightfarers sated. Just don't look too closely at the arenas you're fighting the monsters in.

Elden Ring Nightreign was reviewed over approximately 35 hours of gameplay on PC using a code provided by the publisher. All screenshots were taken during the review process.