Elden Ring: Nightreign launches Thursday, and the reviews are out. Many reviewers find this multiplayer-focused standalone game set in FromSoft’s popular Elden Ring universe to be a great spin-off, though not without its issues.
Publisher Bandai Namco describes the new game as a “co-op survival action game where you navigate a vast and dangerous field with other players,” in its launch video. Focused on three-player action, the title drops you into viciously beautiful lands like the ones we first saw in the original Elden Ring.
You’ll start each session as a level 1 character, choosing your path as you level up by fighting enemies, searching for treasure, weapons, and items, or infiltrating bases to get information to help you in your journey. You can also, said the narrator in the video, fight the big bad monsters that lurk in infested areas if you’re game.
The organizing metaphor here feels a lot like Fortnite, with players dropping into a map with an ever-constricting circle that keeps things interesting.
Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland writes that while the title initially seems like a semi-randomized multiplayer action game with time limits that won’t work with Elden Ring’s more strategic, measured approach, it actually does.
“The game condenses all the essential parts of Elden Ring down to their barest essence, tweaking things just enough to distill the flavor of a full-fledged Elden Ring playthrough into zippy runs of less than an hour each,” he wrote in his review.
IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman agrees, writing:
“Under the right conditions, Nightreign’s 45-ish minute runs are positively thrilling. They are packed with surprising encounters, challenging decisions, satisfying opportunities for teamwork, and some of the best boss battles FromSoftware has ever come up with – and that’s a very high bar.”
Saltzman goes further to call the single-player option unbalanced (and too difficult), noting that the developer definitely wants you to play the game with at least two other people.
NPR’s James Perkins Mastromarino also likes the game, calling it a “mini supercharged Elden Ring for co-op fanatics,” noting that players who prefer to immerse themselves in the fantasy worlds might not love this title as much, as it forces gamers to rush to each new objective.
Not everyone loves the title, of course, with Video Game Chronicle’s Jordan Middler critiquing Nightreign as a “clumsy multiplayer sideshow to the generation’s best RPG.” It’s too different a game than the initial Elden Ring, says Middler, and that takes away some of the magic in playing it.
Ultimately, whether you love the game will likely come down to how much you enjoy the new format and its Fortnite-esque organizing metaphors. It may not be for you if you would rather take a slower, more strategic approach that encourages exploration while you level up. If, however, you want to play a new style of game in the gorgeously goth lands of the Elden Ring universe, Nightreign could be just what you need.
You can buy your own copy of Elden Ring: NightReign now for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. It launches May 29 to all platforms.