Elden Ring Nightreign – Review

When night falls, Elden Ring Nightreign haunts our dreams with a baritone voice, slightly muffled, obsessively repeating: git guuud…

Armored Core, Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring — say these names and you get goosebumps. I don't think there's a true gamer who hasn't played at least one of these titles and boasted to their friends about “how cool it was” and “how good they are”.

Well, there are also those who roll their eyes at these stories (like me) and make excuses like: “I don't have time for these games, bro” or “I'd rather not get angry and smash the TV”.

No matter which camp you're in, you can't say no to a game that bears the FromSoftware signature and can be played in co-op. All you need is a little courage, two skilled friends, a PS5, a headset with a microphone, and a PS Plus subscription. Hmm… that seems like quite a lot, now that I've listed them, but if you've managed to gather them all, it would be a shame not to jump into a session of Elden Ring Nightreign, wouldn't it?

This time, we have a more… atypical review, I think. Because we're talking about a game played by three, we decided to do a trio-review and each give our opinion. What came of it? We'll let you discover in the lines below.

Leo “Leondor” Luția

I haven't been, and I don't think I ever will be, a hardcore gamer. I always choose a relaxing single-player experience with a captivating story over a multiplayer game, where the chances of winning are smaller than a Nintendo Switch Lite screen. It's not that I'm lazy or give up quickly; I simply don't have the time or patience anymore to get worked up over such titles.

Well, my dears, there are many torturous games on the market, but Elden Ring: Nightreign is not on that list…

Long story short: when Elden Ring launched in 2022, I wasn't too interested in it. But after the reviews started coming out – and especially after all the hype in my circle of friends – I said to myself: no more, I have to try it. I went to the Altex near the office during a work break and fell into sin. To my surprise, the game hooked me completely, and I quickly understood why the whole industry was praising it. It still seems to me one of the best titles released in the last 20 years. It's hard, but not so much that it becomes frustrating. FromSoftware's trick was to create a balanced game in all aspects, so that even a casual gamer like myself would feel rewarded when pulling off a combo and taking down a boss.

Now that I've given you a little context, I propose we talk about the elephant in the room: Elden Ring: Nightreign, or, more simply – Elden Ring Online.

I confess that initially I was a bit hesitant about Nightreign… I didn't know whether to play it or offer the code to another colleague at the magazine, much braver and more skilled than me. After a few discussions with Tudor and a few YouTube trailers, I said: “Damn it, I'll take it!” But with one condition: not to play it alone, but with bodyguards. So I summoned my most buffed controller-wielding friends: Tudor-Codrin “Tazhunter” Enea and Silviu “Shogun Daddy” Tănase, and thus I felt motivated and “safe” enough to return to the Lands Between for a second time.And so we did. We had some solid Nightreign sessions that made the thumbstick caps fly off our PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers. We laughed, we screamed, we whispered, we almost cried when the boss needed just one more hit to be defeated. But overall, we had a blast.

I told you at the beginning that I'm not the biggest fan of multiplayer games, but in Nightreign's case, it's precisely this element of collaboration that makes it so good. In just a few hours of playing with the boys, we went through almost every emotional state. Few games manage to do that, at least for me. Each round felt like we were playing a new title.

However, it's not an extremely complex game. The foundation it was built on is relatively simple: you have a sufficiently large piece of the Elden Ring map, with many points of interest and mini-activities to prepare you for nightfall. The rest is sweat, skill, and pressing buttons at the right time.

The game is pretty well optimised on PS5, but it could be better. I say this because I also tested it on PC and was surprised how good it feels at a constant 60 FPS, without frame drops or lag. Visually, it looks pretty much the same as the 2022 game, maybe with minor improvements. Although I'm an amateur Elden Ring player, what I noticed about Nightreign is that you move very, very fast. Many times I missed certain points where I had to perform an action, because it felt like I was sliding on ice. It's not necessarily a bad thing; you'll just have to get used to it.The sessions aren't very long, especially if you're like us and get your arse handed to you pretty quickly, but at the end of the day they're fun. It's the kind of game where, after a session, you call your friend and talk for another hour about the adventures and clumsiness in the game.It's a title I recommend to all fans of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Lies of P and other established games of the genre. Of course, not everything is rosy in Nightreign, because the game has a lot of blue and purple. Just kidding.Now, seriously: it also has some aspects I'm not super thrilled about, such as the lack of a two-player mode or a dedicated voice-chat. I would have liked there to be a common lobby where you could see other players, but let's hope the developers will consider fan feedback and bring improvements.Until then, if you're looking for an online soulslike experience or missed an Elden Ring challenge, then Nightreign might be exactly what you're looking for. Git gud!

Tudor “Tazhunter” Enea

I didn't know what to think when Nightreign was announced. A remix of different elements from Elden Ring, online, with a Fortnite-style approach. Initially, I was sceptical, as I'm the kind of person who only plays single-player titles with complex stories. But the general enthusiasm sparked by this spin-off was contagious, and I decided to try it with Leo and Silviu. Our legendary team achieved a truly commendable feat: getting beaten by the boss on the very first night!Jokes aside, Nightreign proves that the FromSoft team knows very well how to refresh their recipe. This adjacent game to the main series is an inspired collage of all their franchises (except Armored Core) built on the solid foundation of Elden Ring and conceived as a true love letter to the developer's intellectual properties. Familiar enemies and bosses reappear in unexpected contexts, and the battles are exactly as we remember them: difficult and tense. Gaping Dragon will terrify beginners with its deformed appearance, Smelter Demon is as exasperating as in Dark Souls 2, and Nameless King continues to give everyone nightmares. My biggest fear was having to face the aforementioned bastard at the same time as Malenia, but the developers realised that battle would have been too much.

The big surprise was how FromSoftware managed to transpose their most successful soulslike into a Fortnite-style format. Matches are fast (around 45 minutes), a firestorm forms at the edge of the map, forcing players to find its eye, and the character upgrade system is easy to understand and operate. There are eight classes, each with its own abilities and passives. Although each role has recommended weapons, the game encourages experimentation. Do you want a mage who casts spells from their left hand and hits enemies with a huge hammer in their right? Or an archer who prefers to use a spear to defeat enemies from afar? Perhaps a Viking who uses miracles to heal their teammates? Whatever you desire, Nightreign gives you the freedom to build your own style!However, alongside these successful aspects, there are also a few downsides. Firstly, Nightreign is designed to be played in a team of three. If you're not lucky enough to have two friends to accompany you through the Lands Between, the adventure becomes considerably more difficult. Not impossible, but very, very hard. Even if your character is upgraded, some confrontations are specifically designed for teams that can collaborate and communicate. For example, Gladius – an enemy inspired by Cerber, who in the second phase breaks into three dogs/wolves. Each requires the attention of ONE player, and if you're alone, the chances of becoming a chew toy are high. A second drawback is the lack of an integrated voice-chat. This makes coordination extremely difficult when playing with strangers, and limited communication can turn a promising experience into a frustrating one.

Silviu “ShogunDaddy” Tănase

Before its launch, I was looking at this game, at its concept, and somehow, in my head, it couldn't possibly work. Even now, after playing it, I still somehow refuse to believe it works. But at the same time, I know and understand that I'm wrong. I can't be right when I've played Elden Ring in a multiplayer variant that combines familiar elements from other multiplayer games, like Fortnite or other battle royales, and yet I found it extremely fun. I understood somewhere, deep down, that they managed to achieve something bizarre, but which works unexpectedly well.The essence of Elden Ring, of FromSoftware's “soulslike” games, is clearly there: the enemies, the sombre atmosphere, the vast and mysterious land, including the characters who, despite being somewhat predetermined by classes, fully respect the already created universe and refresh it with something unexpected. With exactly the element that was missing from the original game in this format, meaning, you don't play with friends summoned in spectral form just to defeat a boss. You are all side by side, directly involved in the slaughter, in the loot, in the exploration and, most importantly, in the common fight to survive another day.Because of my vehement refusal to understand why this game works so well or why it has such a captivating nature, it's hard for me to classify its success or place it in a clear category. I feel somewhat like the natives of the American continent who couldn't process the appearance of Spanish ships at sea during the discovery of America. I feel like I'm facing a multiplayer game that is writing the future in real-time and has somehow managed to inject more life into an already successful game. I'm not just referring to the fact that it reuses existing content from Elden Ring, but to how, from yesterday's almost dry bread and a few new ingredients, these people managed to serve us a pizza that is not only fresh but also delicious.

I know I've been quite vague and general so far, but I firmly believe that Elden Ring Nightreign must be tried. No matter how many words and reviews you read about it, you won't fully understand what makes it so special and what those essential small changes are until you experience it yourself. From the accelerated speed of the characters and the new, dynamic abilities, to the unique way you traverse the world, without “fall damage” for example, in the constantly shrinking Lands Between, all these small details transform the “soulslike” experience into a completely new, fresh, and captivating adventure. And the fact that it's ideal to play with friends, to have authentic cooperation and a clear common mission of survival in a contradictory, visually beautiful yet “spooky” and unforgiving land, full of all sorts of enemies, makes Nightreign one of the most entertaining multiplayer games released in recent years.And if you don't have the patience to read everything, here's the summary, my conclusion at least: what I find truly unexpected about Nightreign is how it manages to transform each game session into a new story, experienced together with friends. No two expeditions are alike, the map subtly changes, enemy encounters are unpredictable, and split-second choices can decide the fate of the entire team. Sometimes, survival isn't just about skill or strategy, but also about moments of chaos, which I experienced in every match I played, when everything collapses and all you can do is laugh, shout, and go for another “run”. Nightreign forces you to think differently about collaboration and risk, turning each match into a small experiment in collective survival, where every victory is truly earned, and every failure remains something to talk about among friends.

Played on: PS5
Release date: 29 May 2025
Developer:  FromSoftware
Publisher: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco