Elden Ring: Nightreign Receives Surprisingly Mixed Review Scores
In what is FromSoftware’s most surprising release in years, Elden Ring spinoff ‘Nightreign’ released last week to an iffy reception. That may seem strange considering the base game’s overwhelming critical success (saying nothing of its DLC that launched last year to a similar reception). However, Nightreign’s focus on a randomised multiplayer experience with battle royale elements mixed in doesn’t seem to be so universally adored.
The game is currently sitting at a 77 on Metacritic with 70% of players recommending it on Steam. These aren’t bad numbers by any means but one might expect a release formulated almost wholly by Elden Ring’s DNA would achieve a better result. Of course, a complete focus on multiplayer with random loot, enemy placement and a shrinking map bring comparisons to battle royales moreso than soulslikes. Unfortunately, according to many reviewers and fans, this makes for an interesting, if not fully fleshed out, test more than anything else.
Image by FromSoftware
Metro Game Central gave the game a 6/10 stating the following:
“FromSoftware struggle to force the square peg of Elden Ring into the round hole of a co-op roguelite, and while they just about manage to make it work the whole game feels like only a half-successful experiment.”
Similarly, Steam reviewer isopodshuffle brings up an important point in their review of the game:
“The core problem is it forgets the thing that makes Souls difficulty actually work: no matter how many times a boss kills you, you can just throw yourself at it again and again”
Image by FromSoftware
With Nightreign’s limited revival system, the strategy found with regular soulslike ventures is very much lost here. Despite that, the game still maintains the difficulty, addictive gameplay and complete replayability (now more than ever) that you’d expect from a FromSoftware release. Whether you decide to pick this up will entirely depend on how badly you want to test your Elden Ring skills in a co-operative multiplayer setting. Its available on all major consoles now for a reduced £34.99 price.
