Elden Ring is one of the best games ever made, which made me both excited and skeptical of its multiplayer spin-off, Elden Ring Nightreign. While FromSoftware's unmatched action RPG combat remains fun in this fast-paced multiplayer title, the new format removes some of the most important aspects of Elden Ring. Some of the balancing feels off, especially when playing solo, and the playplace fails to live up to the vastness of Elden Ring. Judged on its own merits, Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't offer enough variety in its map, and the extreme fast-pace makes finding loot feel less special, since you don't have the time to really consider what items you're grabbing.

The boss fights are still a ton of fun to do, and having bosses of all sizes and toughness across the map means you are never too far from an exciting encounter. The different points-of-interest are too set when it comes to the loot you find, making it easy to fall into the same strategy each run. A lack of standard multiplayer features like voice chat or cross-play is unexceptable in what is an entirely multiplayer-focused experience. The randomness of the Relic system, which serves as meta progression between runs, makes it feel too random to have a focused goal you are grinding for. Ultimately, Elden Ring Nightreign is carried by the Elden Ring name and it's excellent combat system, with much of the surrounding multiplayer aspects feeling like an afterthought.

Elden Ring Nightreign price and availability

Elden Ring Nightreign is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam, for a slightly reduced price. There are also digital and physical deluxe editions, on top of a physical collector's edition available directly from Bandai Namco. The deluxe upgrade can also be picked up digitally if you bought the base game at no additional cost.

• Standard Edition: $40
• Deluxe Edition: $55, contains DLC classes and bosses, which will release in late 2025
• Collector's Edition: $200, contains digital download code, DLC, physical statue, steel book, tarot cards, and an art book

Fast-paced matches with Fortnite energy

It feels like a battle royale, even if the other players are just FromSoftware bosses

The gameplay of Elden Ring Nightreign is the best part of it, partially because of the core combat experience of Elden Ring. The only modifications made is the quick leveling, which allows you to level at any Site of Grace, but instead of picking a single stat point, you are automatically given skill points based on your class, so you don't have to spend time thinking about it. Much of Nightreign is styled around not having to think too hard. Weapons apply passive skills regardless of whether you are holding them, there are no armor slots to deal with, and the healing flask is set to a button instead of being in the item wheel.

You land at the start of a run, with a set final boss fight you are pushing for on the third night. You will land in a random location, and will need to explore the world, kill enemies, and collect loot. The points of interest on the map move, but they don't necessarily change. There are benefits to this, like additional healing flask charges always being found in churches, but that also lessens the discoverability, which is core to both roguelike runs and the original Elden Ring experience. The map can also show details, which will show the type of weapon you can collect at each location. I get it, because some classes excel with certain weapon types, but it takes away from the randomness of opening a chest containing unknown loot. Instead, each run feels like going through the motions instead of being unique.

Lightning speed makes for some lackluster choices

I don't have to make interesting choices if I don't have time

The fast speed of Elden Ring Nightreign is both a benefit and a curse for the game. Sprinting from boss fight to boss fight with a squad definitely appeals to the battle royale lover in me, as it feels like there are constant encounters, and the randomness of the bosses placed around the map makes these encounters exciting. Where speed becomes an issue is the looting aspect, which already suffers from the standardization of points-of-interest. Often you know the type of loot you will find in each place, but with the storm ring closing pretty rapidly on both days, you don't really have time to think about the loot in front of you. Typically, you almost always just have to take whatever weapons that work for your class that drop, since you often won't have an overabundance of great weapons.

I never felt like I wasn't able to find at least one weapon, but I never had to make a tough choice about what I'm taking and what I'm leaving. This is true for passive boosts that some bosses drop too, as you can have a ton of those boosts, so you never have to make a choice. This type of roguelike format game, or battle royale, succeeds or fails on the loop of each turn, and not having tough choices to make takes away from the unique directions you can go. I didn't take the loot I was presented with to make a certain type of build, I just ended up with whatever loot was available to me. Even in classes that focused entirely on magic, or something else specific, I never felt like I was pressed for magical weapons.

I don't neccesarily believe that slowing this game down will give me the choices I want, but after beating two runs, my flow in a match became static. The opening night was spent gathering additional flasks and Smithing Stones [2], so I could guarantee a weapon upgrade. The second night is spent defeating strong bosses, since they drop the best weapons and a ton of runes for leveling. Some of the unique points-of-interest were easy to ignore, since the game displays the type of loot you can get, and it wasn't always a good fit for my squad, even if in normal Elden Ring I would never pass up an opportunity to see a new area or mechanic.

A rough solo experience and missing features

Releasing a multiplayer game in 2025 without these features deserves criticism

Elden Ring Nightreign has many of the important staples of a multiplayer experience: multiple player classes, several final bosses to take down, and built-in matchmaking. But it's lacking in a few places that just aren't forgivable. The two big misses are the lack of cross-play, which feels like a requirement in 2025 and is frustrating if you game across multiple devices, and a lack of in-game voice chat. While I understand that a tough game like this would create some toxic chatters, the fast-paced nature makes direct communication the way to go over pinging.

In addition to these missing features, Elden Ring Nightreign advertises being able to play solo, but it doesn't tell you the way that the experience is worse. The enemy's health either doesn't scale, or doesn't scale very much, making every boss fight incredibly tough. On top of that, being able to get revived by your teammates is too core to the flow of the big boss fights. When you die most of the time, you respawn nearby and lose one level. But dying against any of the end of the night bosses results in a loss. In a squad, you can endlessly pick up your teammates, if you can get away from the bosses to revive them. Alone, you just lose. An update went you shortly after launch to give solo players a self-revive, but in every run I won, my squad and I got knocked down a ton. It feels like a core part of the experience to get back up several times. If you want to play alone, you should just go play Elden Ring again.

More Elden Ring combat, but not exactly more Elden Ring

Elden Ring Nightreign can't escape sharing the same title as a game of the year winner, which puts expectations on it that it doesn't reach. It's missing the exploration and discovery of Elden Ring, while not having the same level of interesting choices that the best roguelikes offer. Luckily, it features some of the best action RPG combat around, and this is the simplest way to enjoy that combat with your friends. It's not the same experience as Elden Ring, nor is it best in class in the co-op or roguelike genres, but it is fun to run through, especially if you love tough combat.