In typical From Software fashion, Elden Ring: Nightreign sets out to be a truly hardcore PvE experience. However, this time the pain is shared between three Nightfarers as they must band together to use what little time they have to banish the Nightlords and cleanse their curse from the realm.
Nightreign brings something unique to the table by combining the standard fare of challenging PvE combat, battle royale timed gameplay, and roguelike aspects, but it also creates a Venn diagram that may not appeal to a large audience, even typical From Software fans. Furthermore, the overall content pales in comparison to either Elden Ring or its DLC. That being said, it can also lead to some of the greatest feelings of accomplishment currently available in cooperative gaming.
We are all forsaken
There was a time when someone could have put the words ‘Elden Ring’ and ‘multiplayer’ together and I would have been more excited than a kid during Christmas. You see, Elden Ring, and its expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, is one of my favorite games of all time and the idea of playing through its beautiful and challenging world with a friend is something I dream of.
However, Nightreign is not that dream. Instead, it’s an appropriately named nightmare where you must band together with other Nightfarers to stave off the darkness. Instead of a self-paced tour of the Lands Between, players are expected to frantically rush around Limveld grinding enemies for runes, slaying bosses for weapon drops, and visiting churches to increase their flask charges.
There’s no time for the weary to rest in these scenarios, as players have about 15 minutes to prepare for the boss at the end of each day while the Night Tide periodically closes in, causing cursed rain that quickly drains their health. Those who make it to the end of the second day will be greeted by one of many powerful bosses called Nightlords, whose defeat will provide a bounty of rewards.
You will witness true horror
Elden Ring Nightreign is without a doubt the most challenging game I’ve ever played. The learning curve is basically a cliff, and I pity the wave of casual From Software fans who pick up this title and attempt their first few sessions in solo mode. For those wondering, solo expeditions are an option in Nightreign but they are highly discouraged before becoming intimately familiar with the game and having a solid inventory of relics.
Due to the nature of playing Nightreign in a pre-release review state, I initially couldn’t find anyone to match with, so I played my first few expeditions solo. This was a terrible mistake as I approached the game like Elden Ring. I slowly scoured the area I was dropped into for weak enemies to gain runes for leveling and scavenging for a handful of better weapons.
This went on fine for the first couple of minutes until I attempted to tackle the first boss I came across. This was a fire giant, and while actually one of the weaker bosses in Nightreign, it still managed to kill me in a single attack. I respawned, and even though I lost all my runes and was de-leveled, I headed back for round two.
Eventually, I slayed the giant and tried to claim my prize, but the Night’s Tide had already set in, and I was slowly melting in the rain. Since I died outside of the safe zone, all of my runes and, therefore, the levels I had previously earned were lost forever. Having realized how quickly the tide could set in, I made for what seemed like the middle of the map, but unfortunately, this was a bold assumption, and once again, I got caught in the rain while attempting to take down an Elder Lion.
As the tide closes in, it shifts position, and the only ‘safe’ area is where the Erdtree finally appears on the minimap, near the end of each day. By this point, I was so underleveled and undergeared that I barely beat the wave of minions leading up to the Night 1 boss, which managed to down me after two attacks. For my efforts, I was rewarded a common Relic and a trifle of murk to spend at the Small Jar Bazaar.
With a bit more knowledge on how the game works, and a small buff from the relic, I tried to solo the first expedition, Tricephalos, a few more times but never made it passed the first night. At this point, I was about ready to throw in the towel. I’ve beaten every boss in Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, but I couldn’t even clear a single instance in Nightreign? Soloing in Nightreign feels like if you had 10 minutes to farm in Elden Ring before having to fight Morgott, and every time you di,e you have to start back at level 1.
Thankfully, after I was able to get connected with the rest of the reviewer community, I learned how this game truly works. Nightreign isn’t a slow burn. There’s no time to grind every enemy in sight and take in the views. Instead, it’s a speed runner’s haven.
Jump into an expedition. Scout your surroundings when you land. Mark the nearest church and slay some mini-bosses found in forts or ruins along the way. Kill things as you run past them and don’t stay in one spot for too long. Move on to the next church or complete an Evergaol if you were lucky enough to snag a Stonesword key. There needs to be constant, efficient movement.
One for all, all for one
Once you’ve got the movement and objective patterns down, the next most important aspect of the game is teamwork. While enemies are more powerful in 3-player expeditions, the battles are significantly easier, but still far from a walk in the park.
The main reason behind the lessened difficulty is that getting downed isn’t game over during the boss fights. Instead, you’ll receive a partially filled black circle over your head that can be destroyed by your teammates to revive you. The more times you’re downed, the more segments of the circle fill, capping at 3 (this takes a long time to break).
The other major benefit of teamwork, besides general knowledge sharing and being able to coordinate attacks, is that each of the 8 Nightfarers has unique passive and active skills that complement each other.
For example, the Guardian is an excellent tank who can draw enemy attention while even providing temporary invincibility to his allies. While the Guardian provides a distraction, this is the perfect time for melee damage dealers like Executor to close in or the ranged Ironeye to exploit marked enemies.
Despite the benefits of grouping up, the Nightlords are still some of the toughest bosses ever designed, and any of them could easily overwhelm even a well-prepared group of Nightfarers. The first, Gladius, Beast of Night, wasn’t the easiest, but he’s the gatekeeper to unlocking another 6 Nightlords of varying difficulty.
These range from Augur, which is an aquatic bullet sponge that spawns tentacles and jellyfish, to Libra the Equilibrious Beast, who will unleash a constant barrage of attacks that rivals Consort Radahn. Finally, taking down any of these Nightlords feels great. Still, the mountain of corpses you’ll accumulate along the way can definitely be draining, and it can be painful to fail 30+ minute runs to walk away mostly empty-handed repeatedly.
Inch wide, mile deep
One of my biggest complaints about Nightreign is its overall lack of content variety. Although Limveld is supposed to be about the size of Limgrave, it feels significantly smaller. This could be because the map periodically gets smaller throughout an expedition, so you never see all of it at once, but I feel like it’s because assets feel repetitive with nothing being truly grandiose.
Sure, there are castles and grand churches, but nothing to the scale or uniqueness of Stormveil Castle. There are also a lot of bosses, but the only ones that feel as special as the bosses in Elden Ring are the Nightlords. Once you get a few runs under your belt, everything else just feels like trash to grind through.
That being said, there are a lot of ways to enjoy the content that is available. Each of the eight classes plays completely differently, and relics can provide passive buffs that enhance or alter how a class plays. There are also a lot of weapon and spell options that provide a ton of combat combinations that can be tailored to the specific boss you’re fighting. Finally, Shifting Earth events can take place that temporarily alter the map to provide new challenges and opportunities for powerful rewards.
Another issue is that Nightreign just isn’t as visually as impressive as its predecessors. This is likely in part due to toning down visual and lighting effects for multiplayer performance, but the procedurally generated maps also likely play a role. As I mentioned previously, a lot of the assets are reused multiple times, and few areas feel unique or majestic in the way they do in Elden Ring. It’s not that the environments and enemies don’t look great, but the same magic isn’t there.
Finally, a major technical limitation is the lack of cross-platform play, which would have greatly improved Nightreign, considering how heavily it leans on its multiplayer aspect. This means that friends who don’t have the same systems, and especially households that typically don’t have duplicate systems, won’t be able to play together. This seems like an understandable error a decade ago, but not in the always online culture of 2025.
In the end, Nightreign manages to offer up something unique that I’m sure a certain audience will find a vast amount of enjoyment in, but in the process, it sacrifices a lot of what made Elden Ring so special. Teaming up with some friends to take on some of the most challenging bosses ever designed is certainly a good time, but the repetitive nature of the content will only sustain most players for so long, and the poor casual players who expected co-op Elden Ring will get torn to shreds. Finally, a lack of cross-platform play matchmaking is a huge disadvantage for players in terms of both compatibility and potentially longer queue times. While I appreciate the attempt at innovation, I’m wary of Nightreign’s lasting power.
Full disclosure: A copy of this game was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
