Elden Ring: Nightreignmarks a departure from the way FromSoftware usually does things. A spinoff game to one of their most successful titles is something they rarely do. If you’re already a fan ofElden Ring, you may want to be aware of just how different theNightreignexperience is before you buy it.
NightreignIs Balanced Around Multiplayer
We knew from the first announcement thatNightreignwas going to be a multiplayer-focused game, with the idea being that three players would form a team using different classes to take on the primary gameplay loop. However, there are lots of video games designed for multiplayer that can accommodate solo play styles as well. Unfortunately,Elden Ring: Nightreigndoes not do this.
This game isalwaysbalanced around the presence of three players. The enemies do not scale to the number of players present in a run. If you are trying to play solo, the enemies are still packing health, damage, and attack patterns designed for a team of three. If you start a run with a team of three but someone drops out for any reason, the game does not lower scaling or difficulty at all to accommodate the smaller team.
This is bad for a few reasons. One, it makes the game difficult to play without having other people to play it with, unless you’re fine with randoms. A game you may play with your friends is fun, but a game you can’t play comfortably or easily when your friends aren’t available is unappealing.
The lack of scaling based on player numbers also means an entire run, which is usually about 40 minutes, can go to waste if you lose one or both of your teammates for any reason. The final bosses ofNightreignare very difficult even with a full team. Your chances of beating them by yourself or down a man are low unless you’re an incredible player who found amazing loot along the way, so what might have been a good run can be instantly ruined by someone on the team losing connection.
To make matters worse, the game punishes players for dropping out of a match early, but this means you also get punished if one of your teammates leaves as you only have two choices: continue the likely doomed run even though you know your chances of victory have been minimized, or dropping out yourself and being punished for doing so.
FromSoftware has stated that it may consider altering the game mechanics to better accommodate less than three players, but for now, be aware that this game was very strictly designed for trios, and you will be punished for operating outside of one.
You Don’t Make Your Own Character inNightreign
Making your own character and your own specialized build is a big part of many FromSoftware games. InElden Ring,your character could look however you wantedand be designed around any build or play style that you wanted.Nightreigndoes not have the same system. Instead, it has a class-based system with fixed characters, sort of likeMarvel RivalsorOverwatch.There are eight different characters with unique classes and kits designed to do different things.
Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The classes are all well-developed, with unique, powerful abilities and noticeable strengths and weaknesses that make team synergy a fun game mechanic in and of itself. It’s just that, if you like the idea of being able to make a character and build from scratch, you don’t have the opportunity to do that inNightreign.
There is, however, some customization and progression available for the various characters. As you play the game, you will unlock in-game currency and rewards that can be used for various purposes. You can unlock relics that have randomized permanent buffs for a character, making them stronger for each subsequent run. There are also alternate costumes you can unlock for each character.
All of this is completely free of micro-transactions as well. You have to play the game to unlock these things within the game, which is a nice change of pace from recent gaming history, if you ask me. There is nopay-to-win experienceinNightreign,which is a big plus for it.
Nightreign Can be a Very Repetitive Experience
There are many things inNightreignthat make its gameplay loop noticeably repetitive. Sure, Soulslike games have always had such an element to them: anytime you die, you often find yourself fighting through the same areas and enemies again. But you did that with the knowledge that, once you were past it, you’d be moving on to a new area with new enemies and a new experience. You don’t get that inNightreignfor a few reasons.
The Map is Pretty Static
Many roguelikesunderstand that map variety is very important. When the idea of a game is to run through it dozens of times, players don’t want to go through the same areas each time.Nightreign’s map does not change much between runs in most cases. A few key locations have randomized locations on the map, but the map itself remains fairly stagnant: there’s always a deep river with a castle in the middle, with a lake near the bottom of the map.
There are random events that change the shape of the map somewhat, but the randomization is never meaningful enough to make the map feel genuinely different. Even worse, many key locations, such as that aforementioned castle, are identical in layout regardless of their position on the map. In other words, once you’ve explored that castle once, you will never have to explore it again, because it’s the same castle in every run.
In regularElden Ring,the map doesn’t change but you don’t notice much, because if you decide to replay the game, you will likely have dozens of hours of separation between you and the last time you explored one of the early sections of the map. But inNightreign,it’s like exploring a very slightly different Limgrave every 40 minutes.
The map does noticeably change after you defeat certain Night Lords (the final bosses) but it’s only fresh for a few runs, because it just becomes the new static map. At any rate, you will find yourself running through the same places with the same aesthetic over and over again in this game. All that really changes is the loot.
The Main Goal of the Game Forces a Meta Playstyle
The primary goal ofElden Ring: Nightreignis to defeat a Night Lord at the end of your run. A final boss that you’ve been gearing up towards over the course of your 40-minute playthrough. Beating a Night Lord means more rewards, which means faster progression, which means an easier time of defeating the next Night Lord. Defeating a Night Lord is very difficult, which unfortunately means that players need to act very efficiently to increase their chances in this game.
Meta chasing can be ignored in games where being off-meta doesn’t really make too big of an impact or there are no downsides to anyone but yourself. You could make a terrible build inElden Ringand have a grand time with it because there was no time limit on your goals, no one being penalized for your choices but you. But inNightreign,not only is there no objective other than defeating bosses, but you’ve only got 40 minutes each run and other players relying on you.
So if you’re taking the game seriously and actually trying to win, you pretty much have to follow a very strict game plan every single run: rush to all of the Shrines of Marika to increase sacred flask charges, go to the easiest bosses on the map so you can get powerful drops, fight the second boss at the castle, tackle any random event that happens to pop up, then square off with the Night Lord.
Because you only have 40 minutes, you’re almost forced to follow this game plan if you’re seriously trying to defeat a Night Lord. There is no real reason to fight any of the lesser enemies on the map. Running past them is more efficient. There is no real reason to explore anywhere, because there’s not enough time and the only drops that really make a difference are sacred tears for your flasks and drops from the bosses.
Not to mention the fact thatNightreignhas a battle royale-style closing circle that forces the players into an increasingly small area on the map as the run progresses. Needless to say, there is very little freedom inNightreignoutside of playing the class you want, assuming you are seriously pursuing the entire point of the game. PlayingNightreignis more like playinga speedrunning gamethan a regular Soulsborne, focused on rote map memorization and efficiently bypassing everything except the meta.
Some people might be into that type of game, but it can quite easily become stale and repetitive.
Ultimately,Elden Ring: Nightreignis an interesting experiment, but I’m not sure if it’s really sticking the landing. If you want to playElden Ringseamlessly with your friends, there is a mod for that. If you want to turnElden Ringinto a boss gauntlet roguelike, there’s a mod for that too, while also utilizing the much bigger map diversity and unlimited time of regularElden Ring.
None of this is to say thatNightreignis a bad game, but outside of its combat mechanics, it’s a pretty big departure from atraditional Soulsborneexperience. While it might be more than enough to justify a $40 purchase for some gamers, understanding what you’re really getting for your money goes a long way.
