Game Title: Elden Ring Nightreign
Platforms:
- PC (May 30, 2025)
- Xbox Series X/S (May 30, 2025)
- Xbox One (May 30, 2025)
- PlayStation 5 (May 30, 2025)
- PlayStation 4 (May 30, 2025)
Trailers:
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – REVEAL GAMEPLAY TRAILER
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Official Overview Trailer
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN | Official Launch Trailer
Developer: FROMSOFTWARE
Reviews aggregates:
OpenCritic: 80 average – 79% recommend – 73 reviews
Metacritic: 78/100 – 53 reviews
Some Reviews:
GameSpot – Richard Wakeling – 9 / 10
Elden Ring Nightreign's announcement was a genuine surprise. The details explaining the kind of game it was were even more surprising. This peculiar mix of a From Software RPG spliced with elements of roguelites and battle royales sounds like the kind of experimental concept no game studio would actually devote money to. But here's From Software, tapping into its creativity to put its own weird, bold spin on a thrilling cooperative multiplayer experience. Even if the end result were middling, this is the kind of risk worth celebrating, but doubly so now that it turned out to be such a fantastic, anomalous thing. The part of From Software's collective brain that created oddities like Metal Wolf Chaos and Otogi: Myth of Demons is still very much alive and well.
Fextralife – 8.7 / 10.0
Elden Ring Nightreign is a must-play for any souls combat fan, and an excellent experience to tackle with your friends. The smartest asset reuse in the industry, it masterfully delivers addictive gameplay with some innovative ideas that only slightly miss the mark on execution and leave you wishing they had added more new content.
Game Rant – Matt Karoglou – 9 / 10
But even with a few minor gripes against it, Elden Ring Nightreign never stops being fun, whether it's your first Expedition or your hundredth. For fans of roguelikes and FromSoftware games, Elden Ring Nightreign's gameplay feels like a match made in heaven, and FromSoftware deserves praise for its skillful pivot of the award-winning Elden Ring formula into a whole new subgenre that is bound to become one of 2025's most-played games.
Connor Makar – VG247 – 4 / 5
I can not help but to love Elden Ring Nightreign. It's a strange beast, kitbashed from parts of Elden Ring that feel clunky in places (god, the vaulting system can be frustrating at times). It has bugs, and it has blemishes. It's not a traditional Soulslike experience and as such will surely turn away fresh faces and diehard veterans alike. But it's also a celebration of you, the massive community of Soulslike players, and, specifically Elden Ring players. It's a game and a story about you, and all the weirdos you've met along the way. If this is a send off to Elden Ring and The Lands Between, it's a perfect one.
Eurogamer – Ed Nightingale – 4 / 5
I don't expect Nightreign to compete for time with established online multiplayer giants, then. But what's here is a brilliant foundation for a longterm game, if only FromSoftware would support it as a live service beyond its forthcoming DLC. Am I being greedy? Probably. But Nightreign has so much long-term potential, through adding more Nightlords, more Nightfarers (and costumes), more randomised map events. While I bemoan developers for chasing live-service trends – and we've seen plenty fail – Nightreign deserves to be a hit. It's proven to me, a staunch solo player, that multiplayer Souls can be just as fun, just as challenging, and just as satisfying when played together. After beating that cerberus, I went back to help a fellow player defeat it too and shared in their elation when we won together. What a thrill! After all, a problem shared is a problem Souled.
Hardcore Gamer – Adam Beck – 4 / 5
Elden Ring: Nightreign is a drastically different game from Elden Ring, meshing some of the mechanics we’ve become used to in the award-winning RPG with a rougelike adventure. It’s a fantastic and highly engaging side of Elden Ring we didn’t think we needed, and yet it somehow works perfectly. Putting the player on a timer and having to quickly think on their feet is rewarding, at least until you wipe at the end of a long run. There’s a significant difficulty spike playing Nightreign as it’s a borderline randomizer. On some runs, it will hand out equipment that will be helpful for your character, while other times give you the short end of the stick. And because each match can take upwards of 45 minutes, getting to the final boss and wiping almost immediately feels discouraging. With that said, the highs outweigh the lows as FromSoftware has created a fantastic template we hope they will expand upon in the future.
Shacknews – Sam Chandler – 9 / 10
Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t your dad’s Dark Souls game. It’s not a slow, methodical, and exploration-driven experience. It is high octane, caffeine into the veins, run until you drop. The game kept me up at night, well past my bedtime, as I tried to clear just one more Expedition – maybe this next run would be the one. I went to sleep with it on my mind and woke up ready to dive back in. Even after rolling credits, I wanted to get in and keep playing. FromSoftware has done it again.
PC Gamer – Tyler Colp – 80 / 100
Nightreign is light on story, but it carries with it my favorite theme core to all of FromSoft's games: The irresistible nature to persevere against what feels like impossible odds. That I can spend three hours getting pummeled by a game as impenetrable as this and still feel the urge to give it another go has me annoyed that the same trick's working on me again. Nightreign may be kind of a mess, but it's a mess made just for me.
TheGamer – James Lucas – 4.5 / 5
Diving into game after game, experiencing that Soulslike loop in a microcosm, was unbelievably satisfying, and those moments of victory have never felt better. There are some minor quirks, like the lack of cross-platform play and spongy bosses, but on the whole, Nightreign is one of the most inventive things to come out of FromSoftware since it coined the Soulslike genre.
Push Square – Aaron Bayne – 8 / 10
Elden Ring Nightreign is a very interesting game that's likely going to divide FromSoftware fans. It's not the hand-crafted RPG that we've come to expect from the storied developer, but it does manage to take much of the gameplay depth of Elden Ring, and retrofit it into a fast-paced multiplayer experience. While we don't think it really holds a candle to games like Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring, it isn't really trying to. This is basically FromSoftware having some fun with its IP, and with a squad of friends, Elden Ring Nightreign is a blast.
IGN – Mitchell Saltzman – 7 / 10
When Elden Ring Nightreign is played exactly as it was designed to be played, it’s one of the finest examples of a three-player co-op game around. The eight character classes are each fun to use and feature a surprising amount of depth despite their limited movesets, the new Nightlord boss battles are among the best FromSoft has ever crafted and make the most of the three-player dynamic, and the fast-paced, race-against-the-clock nature of each run leads to exciting moments of split-second decision making and frantic rushes to try and finish up a fight before the circle closes in. But a lack of crossplay, duo matchmaking, and built-in communication tools makes it hard to create the conditions needed to have this kind of experience unless you’re bringing two real-life friends on every run, and if you want to just play by yourself, I can’t recommend it because of the poor solo mode balancing. All of this amounts to an ambitious spin-off that’s exhilarating when you’re able to create the proper conditions, and one that quickly flips to incredibly frustrating when you’re not.
Tom's Guide – 3.5 / 5
Elden Ring Nightreign takes the Souls formula in a new direction, blending rogue-like elements of Hades with the closing ring as seen in Fortnite to deliver a multiplayer challenge all its own. But with runs inevitably feeling time-consuming and pointless unless successfully besting a boss, and little else on offer in terms of replay value, Nightreign leaves a mixed impression.
Digital Trends – Giovanni Colantonio – 3.5 / 5
Built as a way to capitalize on the success of 2022’s Elden Ring without committing to a full sequel, Nightreign puts a clever co-op spin on the open-world game by turning it into a roguelike. It’s a smart remix that gets more use out of existing assets while inventing a replayable multiplayer game with unexpected strategic depth despite its RPG hooks being much more streamlined than a standard Soulslike. Fully finding that hook takes a lot of effort, but it pays off for those patient enough to push through its most obvious flaws.
TheSixthAxis – Jason Coles – 7 / 10
Elden Ring Nightreign is a fun multiplayer offshoot, but it also doesn't come close to the dizzying heights we're used to seeing from FromSoftware. It's an interesting experiment, and I am glad it exists despite my mixed feelings, but it's a shallow happiness when I expect far more profound experiences from this company.
Xbox Achievements – Josh Wise – 80%
This strange expansion is primarily about mechanics, and, much as I found the landscape disposable, there is enough variation in each of the characters to tempt you into further runs. Each of them has special abilities, pinned to a cooldown, and the room for strategy, especially if you get teammates that know what they’re doing, is rich. What’s more, there are additional characters on the way. FromSoftware has said that Nightreign will not be a live service game, which is just as well. It would be a shame to see this stretched into that purgatory, where games can so easily lose their flavour and shape like chewing gum. Elden Ring doesn’t need content updates, nor a roadmap; it gets by on discontent and fog. Thankfully, there is much of that in Nightreign. Never mind the Nightlord. Try following an ally who strides ahead with no idea where they’re going. Talk about a lack of grace.
43 Comments
I’ve got a feeling this is gonna be a fat 7/10 across the board
EEK it’s kind of falling exactly where I expected it to. I think it’s worth a try in a year’s time when I can convince all my friends to pick it up on discount.
I’m interested to see how good this is for those of us who want to solo because we dont have any friends ~~that will buy it~~
I am so torn on if I should get it. Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time, but I never play multiplayer.
About what I expected. High 70s, low 80s. Shame the solo play isn’t ideal, every review I’ve seen complain about it. That and the limited matchmaking (No duos, no cross play, lack of in game communication tools). Would’ve reviewed much better if those elements were included.
[deleted]
Looks whack ngl
[VGC: 3/5:](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/review/elden-ring-nightreign-review/)
>Elden Ring Nightreign is an overly clumsy attempt to graft multiplayer antics to one of the best RPGs ever. While its rougelike elements may entertain, a lack of variety and uneven combat system ultimately make for a curious sideshow that doesn’t come close to the series that shares its name.
Having only 1 and 3 player modes and no 2 player mode is such an amazing oversight. No clue what they were thinking.
Tldr game is good and shines when playing 3 player coop but its only balanced for 3 player coop and solo is not ideal. These are the biggest problems from what they are saying
I bet a lot of (loud)people that play this is going to be upset it isn’t the normal soulslike you would expect from Fromsoft. They are going to expect a new Elden Ring DLC.
gotta wait to see if they add dual que otherwise gonna have to pass
I just really hope they add two-player mode
Is there any progression in this game ?
For an experiment game, that gives players more to play with while waiting on the next big title, this is to be expected. It’ll be fun to goof around for a while.
Not having crossplay at launch is such a head scratcher.
I read PC Gamer’s review and I just know I will love the game: “Nightreign is light on story, but it carries with it my favorite theme core to all of FromSoft’s games: The irresistible nature to persevere against what feels like impossible odds. That I can spend three hours getting pummeled by a game as impenetrable as this and still feel the urge to give it another go has me annoyed that the same trick’s working on me again.
Nightreign may be kind of a mess, but it’s a mess made just for me.”
[https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-nightreign-review/](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-nightreign-review/)
[RPGFan: 75/100](https://www.rpgfan.com/review/elden-ring-nightreign/)
>It feels like you’re being forced to learn on someone else’s schedule, and while that works for a little while, eventually you want them to get on with the lesson and deliver some excellent boss fights without the long, repetitive road beforehand
I’m lucky enough to have two friends who adore Elden Ring as much as I do, so will almost certainly be down to play this whenever we’re all free at the same time. So it’s a must-buy for me, regardless of the review scores it picks up.
That said, I think this is a guaranteed skip for a lot of From Software’s normal demographic. I’ll be interested to see how the sales of Nightreign shakes up in a few years when they drop figures
Any reviews focusing on the lore unlocking or story side of the game?
So umm next is Armored Core VI – Prequel? DLC?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48BXNduCO5Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48BXNduCO5Y)
Review by Oroboro. The Randomization is not good, boss pool is limited out of 3 per day for each nightlord. only 6 returning bosses from DS Trilogy (or he meant 6 per game idk).
Game will get repetitive after 20 hours.
Seems about right tbh
I don’t get the premise of this game.
It’s basically just the gameplay of Elden Ring in a rogue like mode, right?
What exactly is the appeal?
I can’t imagine why they would make it primarily three-player co-op instead of two. It just seems like a strange decision.
Minimum requirement: Have two friends.
Oof, this is not going to go well.
No cross play is baffling in a co-op game.
First this and now Duskbloods. I don’t like this new direction FromSoft is going!
It seems like they made this for the people who instal the coop mods
Was lucky enough to play the closed beta. I didn’t like it at first and couldn’t really get into what I was supposed to do. After a couple of hours, it started to click. Then I started seeing myself play more and more even though playtime was very limited.
Overall, the learning curve of this new format takes some effort, but once you learn the timers after each circle (closing round), that’s when it gets interesting. Personally, I thought it was pretty fun once you learn the mechanics of the blended souls game and BR style gameplay.
If I’m going to be really honest, I think the reviews so far seem pretty fair. I’ve played all the souls game minus the Dark Souls series and Nightreign is a very radical change to the format we all know while still feeling very souls-like. My only gripe is that the loot you acquire each game is lost, so there really isn’t a sense of satisfaction after picking up some nice loot.
78 on metacritic is grim.
you can say that its not that low, but for a fromsoftware has… lets say “dedicated” fanbase and for their game to rank this low it has to be very mediocre at best or just bad at worst
I’ll happily give this a spin in the future once the balancing/beta testing has been done by all the day 1 players.
As an almost exclusive duo player with a friend it’ll be a while until they add that mode in.
I’m sure it will come eventually. I can wait.
have a feeling it’s gonna get repetitive quick
More scared about the single player sucking
But can you play Nightrein while drinking Nightrain and listening to Nightrain?
I was expecting it to end up at 81. I wasnt far off.
Mixed feelings about this game
Im just patiently watching. Im in the minority that enjoyed elden ring but like most from soft games, put it down before finishing. Also growing semi tired of souls borne games as its all I played for a few years so it feels nice to kinda observe and not worry about fomo for once.
Bro, vg247 gave it 5/5. Update your list
[https://www.vg247.com/elden-ring-nightreign-review](https://www.vg247.com/elden-ring-nightreign-review)
If it dint have the Elden ring brand it would score even less.
Fighting Cowboy gave it a 4/5 with friends. But it sounds like it has all of the issues that anyone paying attention got downvoted for bringing up before.
It’s awful with randoms. He gave it 3/5 with randoms.
He said solo was in between. So 3.5/5. This is because the characters are poorly balanced for solo play. Some are actually fine. But others feel like they’d be legit challenge runs to complete.
Biggest concerns I had were confirmed. It’s going to get stale really quick. The “random” nature of the map isn’t random enough. It’s literally just one map. So, how many random events do we honestly think will be produced to make it seem truly random? It’s a rogue-like that’s not rogue-like enough. Quickly, you’ll assess the map and just take the same couple of routes each time.
Im still going to have fun with it. But it definitely looks like a game to wait for. It’s $40 now. By the time the extra bosses and characters come out, it’ll likely be on sale and you’ll get the finished game for $40.
Going about as I expected for a fromsoft multiplayer game. Always make the worse decisions for no reason in their regular games and doing the same thing here to make a “just okay” game
Its DOA.