A multiplayer game lives and dies by how well supported it is. Thus far, FromSoft has done its best to keep Elden Ring: Nightreign exciting with regular updates and stronger Everdark versions of its bosses, but when you've got a community as dedicated as Elden Ring fans, it's easy to burn out on the content. Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows is the first major DLC for the game, and for the most part, it hits all the marks to give the game more life.

The first — and arguably biggest — addition to the DLC is two new playable characters, the Undertaker and the Scholar. The Undertaker is an insane battle nun who begins with a giant hammer and is focused on her Ultimate ability, Loathsome Hex, which is a high-damage strike. It's nice on its own, but what makes it absurdly good is that you get a free cast of your Ultimate every time an ally uses their Ultimate, so it's up a lot more than you'd think. In addition, Undertaker sort of has a second ultimate. Her skill, Trance, gives her a damage boost, changes her dodge to a step-dodge similar to the Dutchess, replenishes her stamina, and lets her sprint for free. If you want, you can also spend your ultimate gauge to add an automatic dodge to the Trance effect.

Of the two new characters, Undertaker initially seems like an incredibly solid character and seems to stand out more. A crazed, bloodthirsty battle nun who spams her Ultimate is certainly a distinct concept. That said, she is somewhat of a glass cannon. If you properly use her Trance and Ultimate gauges, you can be a high-damage, high-tanking, unstoppable beast. Mistime it, however, and you'll be smashed across the battlefield.

In comparison, the Scholar looks kind of dull at first. When you have a rampaging, dodge-stepping superbeast as the other character, it can be difficult to get excited about an old dude. He's the more fun and exciting of the two characters, though. His ability, Analysis, lets you study body enemies and allies. A quick use of it debuffs enemies and buffs your allies, but letting the bar fill up all the way grants a massive damage boost to the next hit the enemy takes or a temporary parry shield to your allies. His passive Bagcraft gives him more item storage, and any consumable item he uses can level up to gain new effects. His Ultimate puts a status effect on every enemy and ally, causing all enemies to take damage when one is damaged and all allies to be healed when one is healed. His only weakness is that he doesn't do a lot of damage, but that can be compensated with his Arcane scaling, which makes it easy for him to inflict status effects on enemies.

Scholar is a delight to play but has a high learning curve and almost demands teamwork. Coordinating your buffs, debuffs and Ultimates can go a tremendous way toward felling the toughest of enemies. Using your Ultimate in conjunction with an ally's Ultimate can often be enough to clear an entire room of enemies. Timing your damage-boosting debuff with an ally's heaviest-hitting attacks can chunk enemy health. On the other hand, if you use it poorly, you're probably less useful than the other class in the game. Even the ability to boost and level up items goes a long way because many items gain powerful and potent effects.

I think Undertaker and Scholar are a fantastic addition to the game and arguably worth the cost of the expansion on their own if you're looking for new ways to play Nightreign. The only downside I can think of is that there isn't much in the way of new equipment to go along with them. They make the game feel a lot more fresh, but if you don't mesh with either play style, there isn't much to refresh the older, existing heroes.

Fortunately, there are other additions to the game. One is the new "Shifting Earth" event. Calling it an event kind of undersells it. Shifting Earth massively reconfigures the map into a much more complex and vertical experience, centered around a giant crystal in the middle. Your goal is to find and break smaller crystals around the map to destroy the main one, and that gives you an incredibly valuable buff that lets you take on health-draining castles that contain powerful loot.

The core problem with Shifting Earth is that there isn't enough encouragement to use it over the traditional map. The new vertical experience is a lot tougher than the main map on its own, and death punishes you so harshly that your run might as well be over if you die. All of the new features are cool, but they don't offer enough of a reason to take on the Shifting Earth event, aside from wanting variety or an additional challenge. It's great for those who like to challenge themselves, but in my experience, a lot of people avoid it, especially when taking on the new bosses.

Yes, there are new bosses. There are two "Nightlords" and several earlier night bosses. The earlier night bosses are mostly comprised of familiar faces from across the Souls franchise, but don't mistake that for being easy. Mohg, The Lord of Blood, returns with all of his DLC-gatekeeping skills in addition to new tricks, such as creating a number of pillars you have to DPS down to avoid being hit by an always-lethal AoE attack. The infamous Knight Artorias from Dark Souls returns, and he's only slightly easier with three strong heroes. Even the dreaded Demon in Pain and Demon from Below return, flying off on the first night only to return stronger on the second.

The real stars of the show are the new Nightlords. The Balancers are a group of Valkyries who must be fought together, and they're powered up by their potent leader. The Dreglord is a horrific howling beast-like creature who spews Scarlet Rot and can summon some of the creepiest things in the game. Together, they represent the hardest bosses the game has to offer — at least beyond its ever-shifting, powered-up Everdark superbosses.

They're both incredibly good fights, and Dreglord is up there with some of Fromsoft's best. They make careful use of additional enemies, status effects, and near-constant barrages of attacks, so you really need to work for it. You'll be forced to split up from your allies, confront enemies on your own, and struggle to revive a downed friend. Perhaps most importantly, they're very fair fights. If you die, it will feel like you deserved to die due to screwing up, not because of cheap hits or unfair gimmicks.

Overall, Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows DLC that depends on what you take from it. If you're interested in new characters, new bosses, and a sort-of-new map, it's absolutely worth the cost. However, if you are hoping for something to refresh the original map or characters, there's not a lot of that. For the most part, I think that any longtime fan of Nightreign should get the DLC. The bosses are great, the new characters are fun, and just having them around adds some much-needed life to the game.