Elden Ring Nightreign
Nine years ago, the DLC for Dark Souls II contained a multiplayer boss featuring three humanoid enemies wearing famous armour sets from the Dark Souls series. This otherwise innocuous multiplayer encounter was nevertheless ridiculed by many players who took exception to the developers blatantly recycling their own content. Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say. But here comes Elden Ring Nightreign — a FromSoftware title where reusing assets in a multiplayer environment is the entire point! Talk about coming full circle.
So yeah, it’s tempting to label this as low-hanging fruit. It’s Elden Ring getting a multiplayer arcade mode borrowing ideas from Fortnite and assets from FromSoftware’s own back catalogue. What a great way to keep the brand relevant in between big releases, eh? But to say this would be ignoring the simple fact that both as a design experiment, and as a standalone video game, Elden Ring Nightreign is a fantastic ride for established fans.
It’s a spin-off set in an alternate reality of the Lands Between where a band of heroes fight against a sinister Nightlord hellbent on plunging the world into darkness. A party of three players start by selecting a preset character before airdropping into a semi-randomised map dense with familiar treasure, weaponry, and deadly adversaries. Together the team must survive two days on this shrinking battlefield, all the while strengthening their characters in time for a final showdown against the Nightlord’s avatar.
What’s fascinating about this setup is how well FromSoftware’s traditional formula translates to the faster pace of the multiplayer genre. The fixed roster of characters can now sprint at high speed, with their growth patterns being automated for maximum velocity. The weapon upgrade system is also simplified, with many recognisable armaments from Elden Ring’s vast collection now sorted into random drops based on rarity. These weapons also provide passive buffs which further enhance a character’s build, even when they’re not equipped. However, players have limited inventory slots, so there will be some tough choices to make about what to carry during every run.
The kicker is that Nightreign doesn’t allow much downtime to stop and review details like these. Players are always moving because at set points during the day, the map becomes engulfed in an apocalyptic storm which gradually saps the health of characters caught within its perimeter. Whilst savvy players may occasionally brave these kill zones to rack up extra runes and collectables, the encroaching cataclysm limits exploration and forces the party to constantly reassess their plans. It’s a frantic experience, and an incredibly fun one if you can cope with the pace.
Inevitably, there are occasions when it all goes spectacularly wrong. This game is very hard, and sometimes the biggest challenge (aside from just not dying), is in the communication between team members. Teamwork is essential for doing well here, which is why the lack of voice chat can hinder matchmaking parties. This, combined with the blitzkrieg pace and ruthless combat loop, has the potential to bamboozle novice and expert players alike.
But as is the way with modern FromSoftware games, persevering is always worthwhile. Indeed, after some disastrous runs in the beginning, my two brothers and I rethought our approach by designating someone to lead and mark our every destination on the world map. The intense pace gradually became more manageable thereafter. After beating the game multiple times since, our subsequent runs have become even less regimented and more organic. It’s been a satisfying journey to master. Not everyone will have the luxury of playing with a regular group, mind, but the rapidly improving community means there is hope for matchmaking yet. Just know that everything is balanced around 3-player parties, so playing alone in the solo mode is a daunting task. (The disappointing absence of a 2-player mode is an oversight FromSoftware has promised to address in a future update.)
I’m sure some will be tempted to label Elden Ring Nightreign as the hardest game of its lineage, and there are some unarguable points supporting that view. There’s no way to practice boss fights, for one. Whereas players could simply walk back through the fog door for another try in Dark Souls, the roguelike structure of Nightreign means replaying a roughly 40-minute session to achieve the same. The quality of each player’s character build also fluctuates depending on what equipment they find from random drops, and if the map doesn’t spawn rewards matching an element the chosen Nightlord is weak to, it can make the final boss fight even harder than usual.
Such trial and error is part of the roguelike genre’s appeal, though. The stakes feel high in every run as players desperately try to cobble together an effective fighting force with whatever tools and trickery they can muster. It’s a different approach to the constructed character building of Elden Ring where players have complete control over their stats and equipment. To that end, learning the nuances of the eight preset characters is a reward unto itself.
Perhaps you’ll choose the Recluse whose complex sorceries allow her to unleash devastating cocktails of fire-breathing magic, or instead just play as the Raider and ravage those bosses with stance-breaking uppercuts! My personal favourite is Ironeye — the irreplaceable archer who can expose enemy weaknesses before shooting them down with a rechargeable “Ultimate Shot” piercing through enemies and downed allies alike (yes, fallen players can now be revived by hitting them!). Even better is that ranged weapons never need reloading. Note to FromSoftware: please feel absolutely free to recycle this content for future games, thanks!
What’s more is that each character has their own quest chain with dedicated cutscenes, special challenges, and rewards. It’s something that attempts the unthinkable by making Nightreign a meaningful part of the Elden Ring canon. It’s also something that will keep players engaged in what is, difficulty aside, a pretty short game.
One sore point concerns the relic system. Relics are persistent rewards providing passive bonuses. The problem is that most of these bonuses feel weak, and have colour restrictions making character loadouts harder to assemble. Certain unique relics are undeniably stronger, but that only serves to make the random versions even more unattractive. There’s no customisation here, so the whole system ends up feeling like a lucky dip resulting in schizophrenic drops possessing mismatched “bonuses” players will immediately ignore. Relics feel like a concession to this arcade style of design which has a limited sense of progression. I suppose it would feel demoralising if you failed a long run with absolutely nothing to show for it. Relics at least give you something to work for.
Much better in their execution are the Nightlord bosses. They showcase a wonderful array of art styles and character designs, and scale to the 3-player format nicely. Consider what passes for the tutorial boss in Gladius, Beast of Night — a three-headed Cerberus which splits into three separate canine monstrosities when its health drops below a certain level. Very cool! The boss who wields madness magic is the standout though, possessing the clever gimmicks, tense music, and frenzied psychology needed for an epic encounter. It might even be the best boss FromSoftware has ever designed, at least from a multiplayer perspective.
Throw in a few cameos from the Dark Souls franchise (Smelter Demon represent!); random events where the map transforms to incorporate famous biomes from the Elden Ring universe (more poison swamps!); along with the emergence of “Everdark Sovereigns” acting as expert versions of the regular Nightlords. Established fans will adore this stuff. And so it tracks that Elden Ring Nightreign is the most fun I’ve had playing a video game this year, whilst simultaneously being a quality product I would never recommend to anyone who isn’t already a member of the FromSoftware faithful.
Elden Ring Nightreign on Steam »
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