Elden Ring Nightreign was announced out of nowhere last year and immediately got a lot of us hyped for more Elden Ring. Bandai Namco and From Software just recently ran a closed beta test and after playing it, I have quite a few thoughts on the matter that I need to voice here.

First and foremost, Elden Ring Nightreign is not what a lot of gamers are expecting. If you wanted more Elden Ring, in a form similar to Shadow of the Erdtree you’re going to be severely disappointed here. Elden Ring Nightreign is a standalone action game that deviates from the “Soulslike” norms. This isn’t a grand scale action adventure open-world RPG “Soulslike”.



Players will pick one of four characters and set forth into the Elden Ring world. This time however, there’s a shady dark presence that threatens to engulf everyone and everything and it’s effectively a race against the clock to survive. If you’ve played a game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, you’ll be familiar with the concept of a circle barrier that constantly closes in that will eat away at your health bar and eventually kill you. The same principle is employed here in Elden Ring Nightreign except it’s an ever-encroaching darkness. Players will have to run away from the terror of the night ‘lest they burn to death.



Where Elden Ring Nightreign differs immensely from its predecessors and the Dark Souls formula lies with the fact that the game is a roguelike survival co-op game at its core. Yup, you read that right. How this works is quite clever in that you’ll choose your playable character, drop into the game’s world and immediately set off in search of boss enemies. Defeat the boss enemy and you’ll be able to upgrade your character either with a new weapon or an augmentation that allows you to do more damage.

Where Elden Ring Nightreign differs immensely from its predecessors and the Dark Souls formula lies with the fact that the game is a roguelike survival co-op game at its core.

Your playable character also has access to two skills which can be used in battle whenever they are fully charged up. Depending on which character you picked, you’ll have access to a different set of skills. Seeing as you play the game co-operatively with 2 other players, your team of 3 will have to face off against enemies together and try to defeat them. If you take too much damage you’ll be downed and your allies will have to attack you to fight off the darkness to help you recover. Working together is therefore essential if you want to achieve victory in Elden Ring Nightreign.



Enemy designs in the game seem very familiar to what we’ve seen before in Elden Ring and some parts of the game’s world looks like they were directly lifted from the original game but inserted into a new region. The overall environmental design is still great though!

Movement and combat in Elden Ring Nightreign differs to Elden Ring quite substantially. Player characters move quite fast and the game is very fast paced compared to the slowness of Elden Ring. You’ll want to rush in, deal damage and quickly escape enemy attacks. It feels refreshing to say the least, especially given how slow you normally have to take things in Soulslike games in general. Players will be able to level up at Lost Graces but because of the encroaching darkness, there really isn’t much time to be defeating lesser foes when there’s bosses to be fought.

You’ll want to rush in, deal damage and quickly escape enemy attacks. It feels refreshing to say the least, especially given how slow you normally have to take things in Soulslike games in general.

Overall the Elden Ring Nightreign closed beta was a lot of fun. It was rough around the edges and there’s a few game mechanics that need to be implemented in the final release build for quality of life purposes. For example, while you can place a marker on the map, it’s quite hard to be able to instruct your teammates to go to a specific location. Being able to “ping” or give instructions/commands would be an immense benefit for teamwork purposes. Additionally, if anyone disconnects, the game doesn’t seem to have scaling and boss enemy HP remains unchanged. This makes things incredibly difficult for players who suddenly find themselves alone on the map facing off against a tough enemy.



Elden Ring Nightreign is something you should keep an eye on. This closed beta was just a taste of things to come and while it was fun thanks to the fast pace and roguelike elements, there’s a lot that From Software needs to address and improve upon before the final release build. Right now it feels like this could have been an add-on DLC to Elden Ring rather than a full standalone title and doubly so due to its normal retail pricing on pre-order. I’m also hoping that a single player mode is introduced because relying on strangers to take out bosses is going to be quite an infuriating affair when they ragequit, disconnect or play in a sub-optimal manner. From Software, if you’re reading this, you have the data from this closed beta, use it and learn from it.

We’re keeping a close eye on Elden Ring Nightreign and are quite optimistic that it will turn out to be a success. Do us all proud!