Nightreign Completely Flips Elden Ring on Its Head, and I Can’t Wait to Play More
No one does it like FromSoftware.
Five years ago if you’d told me I’d play a game that essentially fuses Elden Ring and Fortnite together, I’d have called you crazy. Even less if you’d said I’d actually enjoy it. But that’s exactly what Nightreign is, a complete inversion of the Elden Ring formula that clearly draws inspiration from the battle royale genre — but still manages to feel uniquely Souls-y. It’s a fascinating take on FromSoftware’s trademark style, and feels like it could end up being a genuinely innovative multiplayer game that breaks out of the endless cycle of same-y shooters that we can’t seem to escape. After playing just a few hours, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Nightreign is a game built on the bones of Elden Ring — it uses the same assets, the same map, enemies, etc. But what’s truly remarkable is how utterly different it feels, it’s literally the complete opposite of how you’re supposed to play Elden Ring.
Each match starts with you “dropping” into the map while riding magical birds.
So much of Elden Ring is about methodical exploration, careful planning and leveling of your build, and uncovering secrets. Nightreign throws most of that out the window while retaining the core foundation of Elden Ring — focusing on a mad dash that has you making split-second decision while simultaneously having to rely on your allies, not just your own skills.
Ironically, the easiest comparison to make with Nightreign is indeed Fortnite, but not as we know it now. It’s closer to the original version of Fortnite before it became a battle royale, where you’d be able to explore during the day and have to survive at night.
Each match of Nightreign can last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, depending on how long you can last. Essentially each match is split up into three days, each of which gets increasingly difficult. Your team of three flies in on some ethereal eagles and, during the day, has to explore to find loot, take down enemies, and find Sites of Grace to level up using the experience you’ve gathered. At night, a randomized boss will appear and if your team can survive, you’ll advance to the next day.
Nightreign is a game about constant time management — if you want to play things conservatively or dangerously.
Nightreign essentially strips Elden Ring down to its most core elements, focusing purely on aggression and offense. Everything outside of the core combat has been streamlined to the max. Every enemy you take out will grant you experience, and you can instantly level up at a Site of Grace to boost your health and stats. You don’t get to choose which stats to invest in, it’s all instant.
As you explore you’ll come across new weapons, but you only have six inventory slots and a handful of item slots. Interestingly, every weapon you have in your inventory increases your stats, so it’s best to try and get a full load as quickly as possible. But at the same time, you’ll need to quickly decide which items you want to keep. You can’t spend minutes agonizing over your build, you need to move on immediately.
That’s because a ring of fire is constantly closing in on your position in Nightreign, getting smaller and smaller until it’s a tiny arena for the boss in the middle of the map. Getting caught outside the ring will constantly drain your health, quickly ending your run.
This is where that sense of aggression comes in — you need to be quick about absolutely everything you do, plan out the routes you take, work with your teammates to take down enemies. Anyone on your team can easily place a pin on the map, showing the others where to go or where points of interest are. That offensive formula also applies to your teamwork. Whenever someone gets downed, the only way to get them up is by attacking them to deplete the downed gauge. The higher damage you cause, the quicker you can get teammates up. That means optimizing your offense not only helps you take down tougher enemies, but also ties directly into your defensive options.
The nightly bosses are randomized, pulling enemies from across Elden Ring and even the Dark Souls games. So you need to prepare for every possibility.
Each of the game’s classes has different stats, and completely unique special ability and ultimate ability. For example, the Duchess is a speedy glass cannon of a character, focused on quick hits but with very low health. Their ability is quite interesting though, as it rewinds time and lets you inflict the last attack on an enemy again. So if your other teammate just used an ultimate for huge damage, you can cause it again. On the flipside, the bird-headed Guardian jumps up and lands on the ground like a dragoon, inflicting damage on anything in the area. Not only can you use this to damage enemies, but you can instantly get any downed teammates up because of the damage it causes.
Teamwork is essential in every aspect of Nightreign, and there are so many ways you can strategize. In our preview we only got to test out four classes, the warrior-like Wylder, the tank Guardian, the rogue Duchess, and the mage Recluse. Each of these classes feel drastically different to play, and your team can choose anyone they want. So if you want three Guardians, you can do it.
Nightreign is all about making those snap decisions, and hoping they pay off. At the start of the match does your team stick together to try and take down a fortress, or do you split up to try and find more loot? Do you try and double down into a build for the whip and magic staff you just found, or stick with the sword you’ve been using for thirty minutes?
There’s a real sense of urgency to Nightreign, and this can lead to some truly incredible emergent moments. At one point my team found a cave, and decided to delve into its depths to find some assuredly good treasure. The only problem? Halfway through the cave the ring of fire hit us. The next fifteen minutes then turned into a mad dash to the exit, like a chase sequence where we had to bob and weave between enemies as your health depleted bit by bit.
If you’re elimanted, you do have a chance to respawn as long as a teammate is alive. But this is a Souls game, so you’ll lose levels in the process.
You can find Stonesword Keys scattered across the map, and using one at a specific site lets you summon an optional boss that will give you huge rewards. But as the battle dragged on that ring of fire closed in again, forcing us to give up the fight and run away. Random elements can also affect your playthrough, like a swamp or volcano suddenly appearing — or your world suddenly getting invaded by a dangerous enemy. Nightreign still has all the exciting unpredictability of Elden Ring, but it’s filtered through multiplayer gameplay. Having played six matches, every single one felt different — even as we learned the best strategies and places to go.
The few hours I spent with Nightreign felt like just a small taste — there are more classes to try out, more areas to explore, and a persistent upgrade system that lets you improve classes between matches. I can’t wait to see how much variation there is packed into the randomized elements and bosses, and how much more difficult those second and third nights can be.
I walked away genuinely amazed at how it feels like Nightreign boils down the Soulslike experience to its most basic aspects, and uses that to create a multiplayer experience unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The only real worry I have is the kind of legs this game can have — is it something people can keep playing for years, or a flash in the pan that’ll get a lot of attention for a few months and then fizzle out. Whichever way things go, it feels like I’ve just scratched the surface of Nightreign, and if past Souls games are anything to go by, there’s some surprises still to come.
Nightreign definitely isn’t the game I expected, but it might just be the multiplayer game I’ve been wanting.
