My first proper Expedition in Elden Ring Nightreign was a torturous 26-minute affair. After completing the tutorial and dying to the classically FromSoft “yes, you’re meant to die to this one” first boss, I picked the Recluse and off I went on my first Expedition with two other random players.
Immediately, I was lost. The land I was dropped into looked a hell of a lot like the Limgrave I’ve spent close to 100 hours in, yes, but still, I was lost. My teammates — clearly a tad more experienced than I was — bolted off in different directions. Before I knew it, boss health bars were appearing at the bottom of my screen and dramatic music was playing, then the health bars disappeared. Colored markers started popping up everywhere, pulling my attention in a hundred different directions. There are new armaments here! No come here, there’s a flask upgrade! No wait, over here, we’re activating another Evergaol boss!
This entire time, I was still trying to figure out how to restore my FP to I could, you know, continue casting spells to kill the low-level mobs we spawned in with.
Somehow, we managed to shamble our way to Day 3. My two teammates — bless their hearts — were extremely patient with my slow ass. We made it all the way to the final boss, a three-headed fire dog named Gladius, and we got him down to a literal sliver of health. And then we wiped and died.
For my time and efforts (if you could call it that), I was rewarded with Relics, which I could then take with me into my next Expedition. I also got a little bit of Murk, which I could use to purchase a few things at the Roundtable Hold. I’d never felt so miserable playing a FromSoft game.
Elden Ring Without the Friction
Look, of course I knew what Elden Ring Nightreign was when I got into it. And yes, I did skip out on playing the beta and maybe that was a mistake, because that left me feeling largely lost during the early hours.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a standalone, multiplayer-focused, rogue-lite expansion based off of FromSoft’s critically acclaimed 2022 open-world RPG. It’s set in a region called Limveld, which looks remarkably similar to Limgrave. While the map layout will never change, its points of interest do, as do the enemy types and bosses you encounter along the way. In a team of three, your job is to survive three days in Limveld and defeat the Nightlord that awaits you at the end.
Right off the bat, I was struck by how frictionless Nightreign wanted to be. One of the first things the game teaches you is that you can double-jump your way up walls (within reason, of course) to get to where you need quickly. Torrent isn’t available here, but you do also have a faster sprint. Limveld is also littered with spirit points that allow you to hop onto your spiritual hawk to fly away, or jump on a spiritstream that lifts you high up into the sky.
The absence of friction makes sense in Nightreign because you’re always on a time limit. You need to gather as many resources as you can during the day, then get ready to fight a horde of enemies at night. With only two full days for resource gathering and leveling up, it feels like you’re constantly in a rush in Nightreign. While I understand the logic behind it, I also can’t help but feel that this goes against the design philosophy of Elden Ring.
FromSoft has always been known for making games that are centered around careful exploration and genius level design. The “go go go” mentality of Nightreign is antithetical to that, which will take a lot of getting used to. I’ll admit that while I was initially excited by the prospect of a rogue-lite Elden Ring, I’m not a fan of this rushed style of gameplay. I was hoping for something akin to Bloodborne‘s Chalice Dungeons perhaps, but with a bit more level and design variety, and Nightreign isn’t quite it for me.
The Unique Classes are Pretty Awesome, Though
That being said, there are several aspects of Nightreign that I’m a huge fan of. The base game comes with eight playable characters (referred to as Nightfarers here), all with unique character skills and ultimate arts. Ironeye, for instance, can identify resource locations, create weak points on foes, and fire a powerful arrow that ignores all defenses and resistances. The Duchess, on the other hand, specializes in more understated techniques, like invisibility and repeating attacks.
In classic FromSoft fashion, the Nightfarers all sport beautiful, striking designs. They’re all voiced too, and you can talk to the ones you’re not playing as in the Roundtable Hold. When embarking on an Expedition, you can’t have any duplicate Nightfarers, forcing you and your team to think about which characters synergize well with each other, and how you can plan your strategy according to who you have.
What I appreciated most about Nightreign was FromSoft’s dedication to the lore of each Nightfarer. These aren’t just playable classes there for the sake of killing things and leveling up. These are actual people with backstories that you can uncover the more you play. As you log more Expeditions with a character, the Roundtable Hold may change, allowing you to talk to new NPCs, find out more about your Nightfarer, and unlock new objectives in Limveld to help uncover more of their story.
Leveling up makes you stronger across the board, and it is possible for Nightfarers to use different weapon types outside of their kit. Don’t expect too much build variety here, though; you’re largely locked into your own specialties for the duration of an Expedition.
The Fun Starts After You Get Past the Learning Curve
The good news is that I did start to enjoy myself quite a bit after getting over the initial hurdle of relearning controls and getting used to the faster pace. After you’ve gotten a few runs under your belt, eventually you start recognizing points of interest and you have a general idea of where things are as you go.
Grab those upgrades, get the new weapons, get those Runes, level up, then go for the boss. Day 2 is when things start to shake up a bit, as that’s when you’ll be strong enough to take on world events and surprise bosses that can also completely derail a run. I had the most fun when it felt like my team and I were up against a wall, instead of just ganking mini-bosses to death and running over their corpses for loot. It was in these moments — where I’d get decimated by a surprise Margit from the sky — that I truly felt like I was playing Elden Ring again. Those moments are rare and precious though, and there were times where I found myself wishing I was back in the base game.
Still, Nightreign manages to capture the zen-like flow that comes with most rogue-lite games. As you clear Expeditions, new ones come up, along with new Nightlords. The bosses, as always, are the main highlight here, and I’m happy to report that the Nightlords all offer a formidable challenge even against a group of three.
The downside is that Nightreign isn’t exactly built with the solo player in mind. While it is possible to play the game alone, you’ll find that the experience is so much harder that it almost borders on unenjoyable and frustrating. FromSoft is actively working on making Nightreign slightly more manageable for solo players, so this may not even be a concern a few weeks from now, but at its core, Nightreign is still very much a multiplayer affair.
When I finally completed the main Expeditions in Nightreign, I felt equal parts exhausted and relieved. Exhausted because you’ll never escape that paralyzing feeling of having so many different things onscreen vying for your attention, and relieved because I never have to go through that experience again. Perhaps I would’ve enjoyed Nightreign a little more without the time constraints of each day, but maybe the key takeaway is that FromSoft should just stick to what they do best: intricate, handcrafted experiences that challenge the solo player.
You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
