Well, Tarnished friends, the verdict is in. After waiting for more Elden Ring content, FromSoftware has delivered something nobody quite expected: a co-op action RPG battle royale hybrid that’s got the critics scratching their heads and reaching for coffee. Let me break down what the review landscape looks like for this fascinating experiment in “what if we made Dark Souls but faster and with friends?”
The Numbers Game: How Does It Stack Up?
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Nightreign currently sits at 78 on Metacritic for PS5 and 81 for PC, making it FromSoftware’s lowest-rated game in seven years. Before you panic, remember that a 78 is still what most developers would kill for. Individual outlet scores paint a mixed but generally positive picture: PC Gamer gave it an 80, Game Informer scored it 80, GamesRadar+ awarded three-and-a-half stars out of five, while IGN was more reserved with a 70. Fextralife, one of the most dedicated Souls community sites, provided extensive coverage after spending over 100 hours with the game, and BaziCenter scored it an 85.
But here’s the thing about those scores—they come with some serious caveats that you need to understand before diving in.
The Great Divide: What Critics Actually Think
Reading through the reviews, there’s a fascinating split in how critics approach Nightreign. It’s like watching food critics review a pizza that’s been served as soup—technically edible, potentially delicious, but definitely not what you ordered.
Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc perfectly captures the initial skepticism many reviewers felt. He describes being doubtful about experiencing the Lands Between in a run-based roguelite format with a battle royale-style circle, but notes that around the 12-hour mark, everything clicked into place. Suddenly he found himself becoming a master of this parallel world, efficiently planning routes and calling out key locations for his team.
This seems to be the common thread: Nightreign is a game that reveals itself slowly, and critics who stuck with it found something genuinely compelling.
The Core Experience: Speed vs. Soul
Every single review grapples with the same fundamental tension: Nightreign takes everything you love about FromSoftware’s methodical, atmospheric approach and cranks it up to eleven. GamesRadar+ describes it as an uncharacteristically frantic experience that distills the core Elden Ring elements, while GameSpot characterizes it as a game of striking subversions that asks players to abandon careful exploration and measured combat in favor of speed and aggression.
NPR’s reviewer captures the intensity perfectly, describing how the unrelenting pace makes the original Elden Ring feel leisurely by comparison. Players must ignore most loot-dropping enemies, consume items aggressively, and constantly swap weapons while never having time to properly explore the world’s depths.
The structure is straightforward but demanding: players select from eight Nightfarers at the Roundtable Hold to tackle expeditions set in Limveld, a reimagined version of Elden Ring’s starting area. The goal is surviving three in-game days, which requires defeating enemies for levels, collecting equipment, and facing major bosses at each day’s end. Success leads to a confrontation with the chosen Nightlord.
The Multiplayer Mandate: Friends Required
Here’s where things get spicy, and where most critics agree: Nightreign is fundamentally designed around three-player cooperation. Multiple reviewers emphasize that this is specifically a cooperative game designed for three communicating friends, noting that playing with strangers can be frustrating due to the intense coordination and objective prioritization required.
IGN’s review gets particularly direct about this limitation, stating that if players hope to tackle Nightreign entirely solo and aren’t hardcore Elden Ring players who actively seek additional challenges, the game simply isn’t for them. Kotaku’s assessment is similarly blunt, describing Nightreign as requiring other human beings as its secret ingredient—something FromSoftware cannot patch in later.
This isn’t just about having teammates—it’s about having skilled, communicative teammates. The AV Club review suggests there’s an excellent game hidden within Nightreign, but accessing it requires a dedicated team of friends.
The Character Classes: Eight Ways to Die
Critics seem genuinely impressed with the character design. The eight Nightfarers offer distinct playstyles, with reviewers praising how cleverly FromSoftware adapted character archetypes from Elden Ring and other titles like Bloodborne and Sekiro for the faster-paced gameplay.
The roster includes familiar archetypes: Wylder as the beginner-friendly knight with a grappling hook and explosive crossbow bolts, Guardian as the defensive specialist, Raider as the resilient barbarian, and Recluse as the complex spellcaster who can collect and combine elemental attributes for different magical effects. Fextralife particularly notes the weapon variety available to each class, emphasizing how picking up iconic weapons like Rivers of Blood or Maliketh’s Black Blade creates dramatically different experiences, though they point out that all weapons are recycled from the original Elden Ring with no new additions. Critics note that while Recluse offers potentially the strongest abilities, she requires exceptional resource management and skilled frontline support.
Boss Design: The High Point
If there’s one area where critics universally praise Nightreign, it’s the boss design. Multiple reviews highlight how the presentation during certain boss fights might even surpass the original game due to the focused attention given to these encounters.
PC Gamer’s reviewer expresses genuine excitement describing encounters, such as a Mothra-inspired boss that eventually mounts its partner—a giant stick bug with claws—creating a kaiju cowboy with orbital laser attacks. The reviewer emphasizes how FromSoftware excels at creating boss fights designed to humble players before offering opportunities for ridiculous strategic revenge.
The game features bosses from across FromSoftware’s catalog, including several that debuted in Dark Souls, alongside eight entirely new Night Lords that serve as the ultimate challenges. Critics consistently praise these encounters as spectacular and memorable.
The Repetition Problem
However, critics consistently identify repetition as a major weakness. RPGFan’s reviewer explains that while initial runs feel fresh and exciting, players eventually settle into optimal patterns for their chosen class and preferred upgrades, leading to increasingly similar experiences.
Fextralife’s extensive 100+ hour review echoes these concerns, noting that while the game condenses Elden Ring’s highlights into fast-paced expeditions, the experience can become repetitive after extended play. The environmental design contributes to this issue, with each expedition using the same basic layout built from Limgrave and Liurnia assets. While churches, camps, and locations are randomly placed, the actual designs are recycled. Even the special events like snow or rot areas offer only five variations, and the music rarely changes outside of Nightlord encounters.
The Technical and Social Hurdles
Critics also flag practical concerns beyond the core gameplay. The absence of cross-platform play is noted as creating compatibility issues and potentially longer matchmaking times. FromSoftware has acknowledged they overlooked the duos aspect of multiplayer, though they’re considering addressing this in post-launch support.
Several reviews mention that the single-player mode doesn’t properly balance the challenge for solo play, as every design element assumes three-player coordination. The lack of a restart option for failed expeditions also frustrates critics, forcing teams to wait for death rather than immediately trying again.
The Verdict: A Successful Experiment with Caveats
What emerges from the critical consensus is a picture of a genuinely innovative game that demands specific circumstances to shine. GameSpot suggests that while Nightreign represents the antithesis of typical FromSoftware games, it somehow succeeds as an experimental triumph.
The addictive quality appears undeniable across reviews. Game Informer’s critic admits the game consistently triggered the “just one more run” mentality that defines excellent roguelikes, despite significant caveats about the experience.
GamesRadar+ offers perhaps the most balanced perspective, describing Nightreign as an odd game that will primarily appeal to hardcore Elden Ring fans. It successfully distills and energizes the core Elden Ring experience while providing a definitive soulslike cooperative experience for those with appropriate teammates.
Should You Buy It?
Based on the critical consensus, Nightreign suits a very specific audience: players with two equally skilled and committed friends, those who enjoy roguelike optimization puzzles, and people comfortable investing $40 in a polished but niche experiment.
Critics warn that players hoping for traditional “co-op Elden Ring” may struggle significantly. However, those intrigued by the concept of treating the Lands Between as a competitive arena with three-player teams might discover something genuinely special.
The critical consensus portrays FromSoftware as having created something truly unique—a characteristically challenging and obtuse experience unlike anything else available. Whether this represents a recommendation or warning likely depends on your appetite for entirely novel gaming experiences.
Time will tell whether Nightreign finds its intended audience or remains a fascinating footnote in FromSoftware’s catalog. But critics agree on one point: this isn’t simply another Elden Ring expansion—it’s an entirely distinct creation with its own merits and limitations.
As always, don’t forget to check out our other Nightreign News as well.
Sources
This meta-review synthesizes coverage from the following outlets:
Major Gaming Publications:
- PC Gamer (Score: 80/100)
- Game Informer (Score: 80/100)
- IGN (Score: 70/100)
- GamesRadar+ (Score: 3.5/5 stars)
- GameSpot
- NPR
- Kotaku (Review in Progress)
- RPGFan
- AV Club
- Fextralife (100+ hour review)
- The Gamer
- VideoGamer
Aggregate Scores:
- Metacritic (PlayStation 5: 78, PC: 81)
- Individual outlet scores including BaziCenter (85) and Vandal (82)
All information presented is derived from published reviews and official coverage available as of May 29, 2025.
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