Elden Ring Nightreign is a deeply flawed multiplayer game I’ve spent over 250 hours in this year

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I surprisingly didn’t immediately love Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. Like many fans of FromSoftware games, I was skeptical about a spinoff designed mostly for multiplayer. I also understood its constraints. Even though the game is a roguelike focused on teamwork – where you try to gain as much strength and helpful abilities as possible before fighting the Nightlord – one thing really stood out to me: it lacks a built-in communication system.

If you’re not playing with friends, like through Discord, you’re stuck relying on the game’s limited tagging system to find help. This often leads to frustrating experiences with unhelpful teammates – you can find tons of stories about it on the game’s subreddit. It’s a significant problem, and honestly, I would have stopped playing Nightreign if I didn’t have two friends who are also fans of FromSoftware games to play with.

The gameplay clips show a huge difference between playing Nightreign with communication and playing without it. Being able to strategize and share items with others makes a much better experience. I recommend playing with communication if possible. If you have friends, especially those who enjoy games like Elden Ring or Dark Souls, you’ll likely have a great time, though be prepared for a challenge with the difficult bosses!

Nightreign is a game where you control a team of Nightfarers, each with unique abilities. You’ll explore randomly generated maps, collecting runes to improve your characters and finding equipment to make them stronger. Each night ends with a challenging boss fight, and after two nights, you’ll face an even tougher boss called a Nightlord. You can fail during a run and keep playing, but if your entire team is defeated by a night boss or the Nightlord, the game is over.

Elden Ring’s Nightreign mode is pretty much what you’d expect from a FromSoftware online experience – and that has its upsides and downsides. The game doesn’t offer much in the way of explanation, and I’m still discovering how different abilities work together, even now.

Okay, so Nightreign isn’t quite as ridiculously broken as Elden Ring was, but it definitely has its issues with balance. Honestly, just recently, one of my teammates was building their whole endgame Deep of Night character around a single flail! It did crazy amounts of damage, and it didn’t even seem justified by the game’s mechanics – it was just overpowered.

My favorite character, Raider, has a ridiculously broken ultimate ability. It summons a huge rock that enemies and bosses fall right through, and it barely shields you from attacks on the ground. But even though it’s completely glitchy and doesn’t work well, I still love using it during boss fights just to watch the hilarious chaos unfold. Check out what happens below:

Nightreign isn’t a great multiplayer game compared to others, but the issues I have with it are actually things I appreciate about FromSoftware’s design choices. I really enjoy how games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne don’t hold your hand and make you figure things out for yourself. Plus, I love the funny, chaotic glitches and imbalances in Elden Ring and the unpredictable situations they create.

Nightreign feels like a celebration of Elden Ring, though it heavily relies on content from that game – many bosses, enemies, and items are brought back. It’s all blended together with the unpredictable nature of a roguelike. For players who know Elden Ring well, like myself (I covered it when it first launched), it’s especially enjoyable to put that knowledge to use with each playthrough.

Nightreign is a great game for fans of Elden Ring who also appreciate the deep, rewarding learning curve found in other FromSoftware titles.

Nightreign is a really enjoyable game, especially if you loved Elden Ring and appreciate the deep, rewarding knowledge system found in other FromSoftware titles like Dark Souls. It takes everything fans love – challenging bosses, mastering skills and spells, and understanding enemy weaknesses – and adds even more with features like Dark Souls-inspired bosses, player invasions, unpredictable events, and a constantly changing game world. It’s a game that truly grabs your attention and keeps you engaged.

I believe that’s why Nightreign really resonated with me this year. Fans of FromSoftware games are currently craving a truly authentic experience. While we’ve enjoyed some great Soulslike games like the Lies of P DLC and The First Berserker: Khazan, many of us are really hoping for a large-scale, immersive Bloodborne or Souls game to fully absorb ourselves in. Nightreign seems perfectly designed to satisfy that craving for those of us who are eager for that familiar feeling.

As a fan, I’ve been really impressed with how FromSoftware has continued to support the game after launch. They added the Everdark Sovereigns, which are basically tougher versions of the Nightlord bosses with some extra tricks, and they were seriously challenging but in a really fun way. Then they dropped Deep of Night, an endgame mode that gets harder as you level up, but rewards you with awesome new passives and relics to customize your build. One of my favorite things about Deep of Night is a modifier that removes all map markers – it forces you to actually learn the levels and rely on your memory and what you can see right in front of you!

We received The Forsaken Hollows DLC sooner than expected! While it didn’t include the highly anticipated weapons, spells, and skills from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, it did add a new map and some fantastic new bosses – two Nightlords and two Nightfarers. These Nightfarers fill gaps in the game’s options, and The Scholar, in particular, makes previously underused Nightreign items much more valuable by upgrading them as you play.

Now that the downloadable content is out, it seems FromSoftware will probably start working on their next big game next year. But if you’re like me and can’t get enough of their challenging action games – like Souls, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring – Nightreign is currently better than ever. It’s packed with content, has lots of characters to unlock and master, and plenty of tough bosses to fight. If you and a friend are looking for a new game to enjoy over the holidays, I highly recommend checking it out.

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2025-12-21 17:03