‘Elden Ring Nightreign' Reviews Are In, And They Are Okay

Forbes

4 days ago

Elden Ring Nightreign
FromSoft
FromSoft decided they should release the third piece of Elden Ring content in three years as it shoots for more accolades for its blockbuster hit. But Elden Ring Nightreign is not more DLC, but a standalone project focused on the concept of a co-op survival game of farming enemies, getting loot and killing big bosses in a repeating cycle.
Now, reviews are coming in for Elden Ring Nightreign with the embargo lifted. They are…pretty good, though far from the epic high scores we saw from the original game and its DLC. As it stands, here's how all three scored on Metacritic:
That's a perfectly acceptable score, but again, with FromSoft and Elden Ring, you're holding them to a higher standard. It may not surprise fans that doing a pure multiplayer game and straying away from the core of the series is not quite as attractive as sticking with what we know works.
Elden Ring Nightreign
Metacritic
I did have a code myself, but did not have enough time to play to write a review. In my very limited time with the game, I understood the loop but my initial impression was that even if I loved the game and its expansion, this was probably not going to be for me. That's the case for some reviewers, but we'll see how fans feel when they get their hands on it in two days.
The game is likely going to be overly challenging for those wanting to play solo, even if that's how the base game is played. It was at least somewhat balanced for that, but it's still harder than how it was meant to be played, with three players, either friends online or matchmade with randoms. FromSoft has admitted that it was an oversight not to make a duos mode, which is not possible to play in the current state of the game.
What are critics saying? It's a range:
This is largely going to be player-dependent, whether co-op multiplayer or crushingly hard solo content in a roguelike world appeals to you when it's so different from how the base game functioned. These scores do not indicate a GOTY contender this time, but fans may enjoy it all the same. Or not, we'll find out at launch soon enough here.