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With Elden Ring Nightreign, FromSoftware has created the definitive blueprint of the way to use the elements of an current sport to craft a wholly totally different expertise. In doing so, the developer has constructed a refreshingly releasing and versatile co-op expertise that attracts upon Elden Ring’s finest bits whereas persevering with to innovate and push FromSoftware into new territory, even when the matchmaking and co-op nonetheless really feel partially caught up to now.
Evaluate info
Platform reviewed: PS5
Out there on: PS5, Xbox Sequence X|S, PC
Launch date: Might 30, 2025
FromSoftware has at all times reused facets of its earlier video games for brand new IPs or titles. For instance, Bloodborne and Darkish Souls animations may be present in Elden Ring, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice bosses just like the Blazing Bull got a brand new paint job in Elden Ring to create the Fallingstar Beast. It’s a wise, environment friendly technique to continually generate new content material and worlds with out having to redo a bunch of labor.
However right here, the studio goes one step additional and makes use of Elden Ring’s bones to craft a sport in a wholly new style, leading to a intelligent roguelike with much more happening than first meets the attention. On high of that, unsurprisingly, Elden Ring Nightreign is an extremely enjoyable and addictive fight expertise on par with FromSoftware’s different work.
A convergence of worlds
Set in an alternate timeline from the principle lore of Elden Ring, in Nightreign, you play as one in all eight Nightfarers. These are mysterious characters with their very own fight specialisms that act as lessons. They’ve been summoned to the land of Limveld and the Roundtable Maintain. Upon assembly a mysterious hooded maiden, you’re urged to outlive three days in Limveld and defeat the Nightlord who seems on the third day. Fail and you start your journey in Limveld once more from the start of your first day.
Throughout every day, you’ll drop right into a random spot in Limveld and discover the map, gearing up as a hoop of rain referred to as The Evening’s Tide closes in on you from all instructions. Upon exploring throughout a 45-minute run, you’ll come throughout an assortment of castles, outposts, camps, and landmarks from Elden Ring which can be stuffed with randomized enemies, loot, gadgets, consumables, and, most significantly, bosses from the bottom sport and even a few of the older Darkish Souls titles.
You can even discover nods to different FromSoftware video games, whether or not or not it’s a personality’s capacity that resembles a Bloodborne weapon or reference to a beloved Souls NPC.
Regardless of seeing bosses and references from outdated video games pop up, they by no means felt like eye-rolling fan-service moments. It was really fascinating to see how these challenges from older video games have been up to date to maintain up with Elden Ring’s fight, and there are compelling lore tidbits hidden away within the sport that trace at what has triggered these many worlds to collide and why these Nightfarers have been introduced collectively.
Studying the lay of the land
Whereas it takes a number of runs by way of Limveld to attune to the sport’s quicker tempo and freeform construction, by the point I tackled my first Nightlord, I used to be already hooked on the charming concoction FromSoftware had cooked up.
As a substitute of a guiding path pulling you and your mates from location to location, Nightreign is all about studying the way to benefit from every day in Limveld. Whether or not that’s working from boss to boss at every landmark to refill on Runes and upgrades to acquire new weapons or stage up, exploring caves to search out smithing stones to boost your armaments, or traversing the map to search out additional therapeutic flasks to enhance your survivability.
Greatest bit
Lastly defeating the Darkdrift Knight after a number of makes an attempt, solely succeeding as a result of my rapier dealt rot harm and slowly ticked down his well being as all of us dodged assaults with low well being and no therapeutic flasks left. The Darkdrift Knight is the toughest combat within the sport, I believe, and the satisfaction, rush, and aid at lastly beating it was immense.
It is extremely straightforward to suppose Nightreign is a brainless boss rush, fight sandbox at first look, however it’s really a thought of roguelite that focuses on map information, the place to search out the very best loot, and when it’s best to regulate methods in the same technique to a battle royale or extraction sport. The satisfaction of doing this additionally jogs my memory loads of the very best puzzle video games like Return of the Obra Dinn or Blue Prince, the place you lastly decipher how a mechanic works or uncover a clue.
Studying the map and the way to optimize my runs by way of Limveld was one of the crucial satisfying elements of Nightreign. It isn’t one thing I anticipated to be as very important as it’s, however by way of speaking with others in voice chat, sharing findings from our personal particular person runs, and mixing concepts, we finally discovered buried methods.
Examples embrace determining the way to max out our stage or discovering the way to acquire probably the most legendary weapons in a run to extend our possibilities of defeating the Nightlords. This sense of participant discovery and word-of-mouth information that was rife all through Elden Ring’s launch is simply as potent right here in Nightreign, and it’s a part of the magic that makes it work, particularly if you’ll be able to play with a big group of buddies or Discord server.
The identical goes for the sport’s overarching development, which revolves round randomized relics you unlock on the finish of runs by way of Limveld. Three of those may be outfitted earlier than every run on every character within the Roundtable Maintain and unlock small buffs like additional elemental harm, or greater Nightfarer bonuses like enhancing Nightfarer talents or permitting you to share the therapeutic out of your therapeutic flasks together with your co-op companions – providing you with triple the therapeutic if standing close to one another.
I heard about talents on these that I by no means noticed from different folks whereas taking part in throughout the evaluation interval, and the pliability of Elden Ring’s many levelling programs, elemental harm sorts, weapons, and the Nightfarers themselves open up the likelihood for tons of, if not 1000’s, of construct combos and optimizations.
Play your means
Nightreign is about doing as a lot as you possibly can with the little time you may have, rewarding gamers who stick collectively and soften bosses in seconds. It encourages groups to mix talents and assaults to stun foes rapidly, whereas speaking to make sure they’re all on the identical web page.
This makes it an extremely laborious sport to play alone (which is an choice that’s out there). Whereas it may be executed, the sport’s enemy scaling and development rewards groups that may full as many aims as attainable, which simply isn’t straightforward to do by yourself.
I might spend ages speaking at size in regards to the Nightlords themselves, however in actuality, followers already know what to anticipate, and the precise construction and programs in Nightreign are much more modern. Even nonetheless, these Nightfarer fights are unbelievable spectacles, and a few of the finest FromSoftware has made. They’re brimming with troublesome strikes to grasp and a mix of talents and types to study, all set in opposition to a formidable, bombastic orchestral soundtrack for every one. FromSoftware merely doesn’t miss with regards to fight and enemy design, and Nightreign is not any totally different.
One space FromSoftware might have fumbled is the Nightfarers. Whereas they may have felt like low-cost compelled lessons, they’re really actually versatile and well-rounded archetypes, with talents which have a wide range of makes use of. For starters, each Nightfarer can use any weapon or merchandise. If you wish to play the katana-wielding, parry-centric Executor with a dagger, you possibly can, although you gained’t be as efficient as you’d be with a katana.
This implies you possibly can craft your construct on the fly and also you by no means really feel locked right into a sure playstyle, permitting you to adapt throughout your run by way of Limveld. Bows don’t have ammo, and weight isn’t factored in both, which provides the sport’s fight a brisk velocity and tempo that isn’t present in Elden Ring. It additionally removes loads of the limitations to having fun with the sport’s large number of weapon sorts, as you possibly can principally decide up something and start utilizing it immediately. Sure, they really made ranged fight and magic enjoyable right here.
On high of that, the power kits for every Nightfarer are multi-faceted with a number of makes use of that aren’t instantly apparent. For instance, Ironeye, the archer, can use his Single Shot final capacity to fireplace an enormous supersonic arrow. That arrow can be utilized to stun bigger bosses, wipe out hordes of mobs, and in addition revive teammates immediately if they’re downed. Not solely can it do these issues individually, however it’s also possible to do all three directly with a well-placed shot, and it has saved my staff’s run many occasions.
Every character and their talents can be utilized in some ways to deal harm and in addition help your occasion and discovering the way to utilise them in new methods is simply as satisfying as discovering Limveld itself. You can even simply use three of 1 Nightfarer or any mixture and succeed, eradicating much more limitations, as you don’t want any explicit Nightfarer to return out victorious (even when a few of them have stronger talents than others).
Some main limitations to Nightreign, nonetheless, do emerge after a number of hours. As a result of a lot of Nightreign comes from Elden Ring, it’s crucial that you’ve got that current information to get pleasure from what Nightreign is providing. You may’t sit and attempt to combat the Golden Hippopotamus repeatedly to study its assaults, as a result of the following time you run by way of Limveld, it might be in a unique location or not spawn in any respect.
The identical goes for the Nightlords. You may’t simply skip to the third day and observe them again and again, it is advisable full a full 45-minute run by way of Limveld to achieve them once more, which is taxing. So, it is advisable be conversant in Elden Ring’s fight and have accomplished each the bottom sport and the Shadow of the Erdtree enlargement due to the problem of a few of these Nightlords.
Whereas returning gamers will be capable to decide issues up after a number of runs, it appears like Nightreign is constructed for the hardcore Soulslike gamers and addicts who’ve memorised each assault sample in Elden Ring and throughout FromSoftware’s pantheon of titles.
One other key subject on the time of this evaluation is the matchmaking and lack of crossplay. Throughout the pre-release interval, we had points creating lobbies utilizing passwords the place matchmaking would fail or just not put gamers collectively once we all tried to matchmake with the identical password set. Nightreign undoubtedly retains a few of the dated multiplayer quirks of FromSoftware’s different video games.
Additionally it is unforgivable in my eye that within the 12 months 2025 Nightreign doesn’t have crossplay, and due to the demanding nature of the sport and the reliance on communication, I merely don’t see how one can full any of the Nightlord bosses reliably, particularly the harder ones, with out buddies whom you already know and other people you possibly can discuss to. I don’t essentially suppose it is a straight-up weak point of the sport, however it’s an enormous situation hooked up to the sport that may forestall lots of people from seeing every part it has to supply.
Ought to I play Elden Ring Nightreign?
Play it if…
Do not play it if…
Accessibility
Elden Ring Nightreign gives restricted accessibility choices. There are primary velocity changes for the digicam and aiming with ranged weapons. There are not any issue settings, and the sport is finest performed in a co-op occasion of three, the place you possibly can talk, which will not be attainable for everybody.
There’s additionally no subtitle customization or HUD alteration choices, and there are not any specialist choices for these with eyesight or listening to points. Whilst you can rebind some controls on console, you can not rebind each button, doubtlessly stopping some folks from taking part in on customized controllers.
How I reviewed Elden Ring Nightreign
I performed Elden Ring Nightreign for 30 hours, finishing all the sport’s Nightlord bosses and experiencing many of the world and map occasions out there. I performed the sport fully in efficiency mode on PS5 with a DualSense Edge controller on a Gigabyte M28U gaming monitor and utilizing SteelSeries Area 3 pc audio system.
This evaluation was carried out in an surroundings the place I used to be in a position to staff up with different creators and journalists reviewing the sport to play with them and full the sport’s varied challenges.
First reviewed Might 2025