Elden Ring Nightreign - Co-op Review
Elden Ring: Nightreign is a massive shake-up to the Soulsborne formula, emphasising PvE co-op for a trio of warriors. Perhaps not the follow-up for 2022’s GOTY Elden Ring anybody expected, Nightreign transplants the familiar verbs and setting of it’s forebear into a PvE Co-op Battle Royale package that highlights what developers can achieve when focusing on creating an experience rather than assets. It felt only natural to thus cooperatively review this hugely subversive genre hybrid is Shaun Nicholls, as well as one of our editors, Stephen del Prado. Join them as they discuss the trials and tribulations of Nightreign.
Stephen: Alright Shaun, I think the first thing I have to admit is that I wasn’t following Nightreign too closely and was sent for a loop when I first dove in – this thing looks and sounds like Elden Ring, but hoo-boy does it feel pretty different in the hands. What were your initial impressions and did you go in with an idea of what to expect or in the dark like myself?
Shaun: Technically speaking, I did know what I was in for, but that was only because I had experienced it during the network test on behalf of Player 2. Before that, though, all I knew about Nightreign was that it was coming. To say I was surprised is an understatement. While the game world, various enemies and boss fights are very much Elden Ring, the speed of the gameplay is what was most surprising.
For those who don’t already know, Nightreign takes the weapon finding RNG of Roguelikes and combines it with the shrinking map often found in a Battle Royale game. As one of the Nightfarer’s, you spend the daylight farming for better weapons and Runes to level up your character. As the day progresses, a ring of blue fire titled “the Night’s Tide’, will shrink down, shepherding the players to an area in which they have to vanquish one of the bosses from a pool of potential opponents. Rinse and repeat, and if you manage to survive the second night, you gain access to your main target, a Nightlord. Taking out each Nightlord will further the storyline, or at least that’s what I assume, as I haven’t managed to defeat the first. Not for lack of trying, but when the game is recommended to be played as a trio, and with a small player pool pre-launch, there were plenty of times when I wanted to play but could not find players to group with. Did you have the same issue when trying to find a game?
Stephen: I certainly did – while it’s entirely possible to play Nightreign solo, it loses a lot of its lustre this way. Despite what I presume is some scaling happening behind the scenes, it still feels incredibly difficult to be going it alone and the three player expedition is such a better experience. If anything, I imagine the best thing solo is for is exploration for the multiplayer proper. Much like you, I’m also yet to defeat the first Expedition Nighlord, which kind of brings me to my first critique; the amount of effort it takes to get to. Often in Souls titles, facing a boss following defeat is a simple process, involving a short run back to its arena. Instead, facing the final foe of an Expedition can be a 60 minute plus ordeal in which there’s little guarantee you and your ragtag band will even make it, thanks to a rotating cast of ‘End of Day’ bosses that may or may not suit your party make-up. It’s really contingent upon players strategically planning their run in Limveld, using the map system to setup waypoints and in many cases, likely find the most efficient route that will provide weapon upgrades, health flask increases and boss encounters in an order that won’t overwhelm. What’s your thoughts on this rather extended gameplay loop?
Shaun: When in the loop I don’t mind it. I think, given there is the player base there to find a game, it is good for those people that potentially don’t have a lot of time to spend on gaming. It’s funny that you mention planning out the run to find the best waypoints and flasks. While I agree with the principle in theory, I have found that the people I play with tend to go moment to moment. Someone will tag a place and if the others agree then they tag it as well and off we go. Others will just go and do their own thing and with my only options being go along for the ride or suffer constant death; I am pretty sure you can guess which option I took. I think the knowledge that the time you have is limited makes players tend to not be risk averse, especially when playing with others and there is the chance to be revived. I found myself gravitating towards the archer purely for this reason, as I was able to use my arrows to help revive in times of need. A way to make up for my lack of skills when it comes to close combat. What was your play style and character when you managed to get into a game?
Stephen: I’ve actually tried out a few of the classes, and I think the one I’ve enjoyed the most is the Duchess, which takes a little while to unlock – I quite enjoy dual wielding up close and personal with the agility to get out of harm’s way. I think I’ve struggled most with magic users like the Recluse to be honest, I just couldn’t get a good feel for the timing of the attacks nor was I able to successfully manage keeping my MP topped up. I’m glad you’ve had the same experience with some groups that I have, namely that on occasion there’s a clearly experienced leader setting waypoints and pushing the group forward, while on others it’s like three chickens with their heads cut off circling around without a plan of attack. A number of times I found myself and one other companion pushing forward while our third trailed doing god knows what until eventually popping back up in time for an End of Day Boss battle which more often than not went south. Despite being what very much looks like an asset flip, Limveld still manages to have a feel of its own, with plenty of secrets hiding beneath the surface. You mentioned earlier the ‘roguelike’ nature of Nightreign, highlighted by Relics which are often enchanted stones gained in a run that will improve characters in some way, particularly Relics going so far as to offer character exclusive upgrades. There are also some other Relics that can be found or purchased that will propel a character story forward, something I stumbled onto by accident. How are you finding the obtuse nature of forward progression for both stories and characters?
Shaun: I guess it has not bothered me quite so much. Most of the time I spent playing Elden Ring originally I was mostly confused and lost, only guided by the Sites of Grace pointing which way I should go next. At least in these instances, while not knowing who or what boss I will face at the end of a night, I know what is going to happen and, essentially, where I have to be at the end of the day. After experiencing Elden Ring, I knew there would be some kind of shenanigans when it came to discovering the narrative, and to be honest, I just assumed that the next chunk would be revealed after beating that first Nightlord. Even without discovering pieces of the narrative constantly, the gameplay loop has kept me engaged enough to look over that for now. If I was to jump into some of the other characters I know I would be able to find some information about what brought them to the Roundtable Hold, but for now I am just trying to maximise my skills with Iron Eye, although it does put me at a distinct disadvantage when I am the only one out of the three still alive during a boss fight. One thing I wanted to talk about, though, and I know this is a bit of a sore point for you, is finding different weapons to boost your character. So, want to tell the lovely readers how you feel about that aspect?
Stephen: It does feel a little bit like the luck of the draw to me, and I have had more than a few occasions where a fellow player is loot hogging, which makes it difficult to improve, especially when you might find yourself having to change weapons entirely just to keep pace with enemies which can feel quite dynamic in terms of difficulty – I’m not sure if there’s any scaling going on under the hood, or if the enemy placement in Limveld is such that there are simply some foes you shouldn’t tackle without a number of levels gained. Murk, the Nightreign stand-in for Souls, governs a lot of what you can do both in and out of an Expedition. Vital for increasing your levels – notable here for being an overall power gain, not just a single stat increase as is the case with a standard Soulsborne title – they’re also spent at merchants found throughout the world, often buying upgrade materials to enhance a weapon, something that’s vital to success as quite often the weapons you find won’t perform at their peak without some investment. Does the semi-random nature of weapon drops impact your enjoyment of Nightreign? It could be that for all intents and purposes Nightreign is actually my first Battle Royale style game so things that are conventional in that particular genre could be going over my head completely!
Shaun: While it is not my first Battle Royale, I have generally not bothered with the genre, mainly because I don’t have the skill to invest the time needed to be decent at them. What I found useful is that even though most of the weapons may not have applied to my character, each weapon had at least one passive effect, and each of these passive effects will be applied to you just for having the weapon in your inventory. I never used a giant greatsword that was almost the size of my archer, but I put the Holy damage it gave to attacks to very good use. Like the weapon types themselves, not every one is going to apply to your build or playstyle, but it does allow the ability to level up without having to find the rare weapons or spend a bunch of runes to upgrade a weapon at a merchant. However, even with those upgrades, there is little to no chance I would be able to take out a Tree Sentinel if I were running solo, and it is the need to defeat these mini-boss characters that populate Limveld to access vital upgrades to damage negation, or health and stamina boosts, along with a whole host of other effects that put me off trying to play the game solo. I am not saying it is not possible for some people, but a scrub like me has no chance.
Stephen: The solo game is ruthless, no question – every enemy is focused completely on you and there are zero breathers in an intense boss battle compared to juggling threat as a trio – I’ll go out on a limb and say anyone besting Nightreign solo has some serious skill behind them. Given we’re playing pre-release with a limited player pool, it will be interesting to see which way patches and updates tune the games balance, but I foresee a number of guides on the ‘best order’ in which to tackle each zone in the not too distant future. I do have concerns that the snails progress at which it feels like my characters are improving may be Nightreign’s downfall, as there is no grinding or even guarantee that the upgrades you secure will be relevant to your character or build. I have to wonder if all of this will play better to people not bringing over a whole heap of FromSoft baggage with them?
Shaun: Right now, it is really hard to get an accurate gauge on the full experience of Nightreign because, as mentioned, there is a really limited pool of players right now. Maybe I have been the one bringing my teams down, maybe the Nightlord Expedition bosses are just that much harder than the regular bosses. I don’t think I will be able to give a solid verdict until after the game is out in the wild, which is unfortunate, but with the heavy reliance on online multiplayer, I think I need to spend more time running the game as a trio before making a final determination. Fortunately, since we write for Player 2, we very much do have the ability to return to this and add an update at some point in the near future.
Stephen: In many ways Nightreign will probably live or die for players based on how well the matchmaking works, or if they have two other friends willing to invest the money and time into buying and playing together – a full party with voice chat is miles ahead of a silent pick-up group that has one or more characters failing to co-operate and coordinate. I think the Nightlords difficulty is similar to a few of the encounters in Elden Ring itself, albeit hugely exacerbated by the inability to run it back anywhere near as rapidly. I think we can absolutely return to Nightreign for a more enlightened verdict once we’ve gotten to grips with it fully when released. As for now, I’ll keep plugging away and hoping to not be the worst member of the group!
Elden Ring: Nightreign was played on PlayStation 5 consoles using code kindly supplied by the publisher.
