The Souls games have always had a multiplayer component. Even back in Demon's Souls, there was a combination of cooperation and competitive elements, allowing players to bring in friends to help fight bosses or invade other players and make their lives harder. They were always single-player titles at heart, though. Elden Ring: Nightreign approaches the traditionally single-player franchise and flips the script, putting multiplayer front and center and giving the single-player portion a supporting role. It's a pretty big gamble that may not be embraced by fans of the franchise. Nightreign is still an incredibly fun game, though.

Nightreign can best be described as Fortnite meets Elden Ring. A group of three characters is dropped into a distorted version of The Lands Between called Limveld. Once you drop in, you're free to explore the land, seeking out bosses, equipment and items. You gradually power up in what can best be described as Elden Ring's basic gameplay loop on turbo-overdrive. As time progresses, night begins to fall, and a deadly ring of blue flame gradually begins to contract. If you're caught outside of that ring, you die, so you're forced into a boss arena where you fight a particularly powerful foe. You do this for two days in a row before you face a powerful Nightlord boss on the final day. Win or lose, that is where the run ends.

As is the case in standard Souls titles, you begin by selecting a character. Each character begins with a different starting set of equipment and skills. Unlike standard Souls titles, these skills abilities are far more diverse and character-defining. Each character has a distinct passive, active and ultimate abilities, which are all tied to their specific kit. They also have a specific predefined stat growth pattern that determines which weapons they are best at using. You aren't given a freeform choice on how you build your character, but you pick a character who has the play style that you want.

The simplest character is probably the Ironeye, a bow-wielding character who's designed for fighting from a distance. His passive skill allows more items to drop from enemies for him and his allies. His active skill, Marking, is a ton of fun. By activating it, he'll do a simple dash forward and, if he hits an enemy, marks them so they take more damage for a while. Marking also serves as a surprisingly potent invincibility dash, so you can zoom through an oncoming enemy and avoid their damage while debuffing them at the same time. His Ultimate skill is a huge, powerful, and fast-firing arrow that does a ton of damage.

This means the Ironeye's play style is a fun mix of playing keep-away, peppering the enemy with arrows, avoiding damage, and generally feeling like a nimble archer in a way that none of the previous Souls titles have really captured. It also means he's great in a support role; his high mobility and ranged combat let him revive downed allies more quickly than anyone else.

In comparison, their opposite is probably the Recluse, the game's most dedicated magic-using class. The Recluse is a standard mage at first blush, but has a skill where inflicting elemental damage on an enemy "marks" them with an elemental residue. The Recluse can then drain that residue to replenish FP and gain a charge. Gain three charges, and she can cast an immensely powerful spell. The spell's exact properties depend on the combination of elements used, and they can range from simple magic attacks to on-demand invincibility. Mastering the Recluse becomes a game of juggling various elemental spells based on your needs, and it is an insane amount of fun.

Each character has their own distinct play style. The Raider is a tank that focuses on offense and can deal lots of damage with powerful attacks. The Guardian is similarly tanky but focuses on defense and team protection, and he can absorb lots of damage. The Wylder, who was my least favorite, falls into the niche of, "I want to play a standard Souls character," and he has an awesome grappling hook and a potent pile bunker.

I really liked the more limited but more diverse character options in Nightreign. Yes, there are fewer character customization options, but it meant that each one played significantly differently in a way that you wouldn't get in a mainline Souls-like. Nightreign's character options were an appealing way to quickly try an extremely different build.

It helps that characters in Nightreign also play pretty differently from the standard Elden Ring characters. By default, you're a lot stronger, more agile and faster. Each character begins with some hard-hitting equipment and abilities. There's no Torrent, but your character is capable of super-sprinting around the map as quickly as Torrent could run — in addition to bouncing up walls via a very cool wall jump. You're far more mobile by default, and this allows you to approach combat in different ways. In particular, you have way more options for overhead strikes and kiting foes, which is a lot of fun.

Movement in Nightreign is such a raw improvement over movement in Elden Ring that I can't help but hope that PC modders find a way to backport it. I love my weird ghost goat steed in Elden Ring, but simply being able to run forward at super speed feels so much better than constantly hopping on and off the course. The ability to scale walls makes the simple act of moving around feel much more engaging. It's not that I dislike Elden Ring's more grounded approach, but movement feels better in Nightreign.

Powering up in the game is done in an amped-up version of the standard Souls loop. Killing enemies earns runes which you can spend at a Site of Grace to level up. Unlike in Ring, leveling up is done automatically, with characters having pre-refined growth patterns. Also unlike Ring, it isn't permanent. Not only do you lose all your gained levels once a run is done, but you'll also lose a level when you die. You can recover it — and the runes used to level up — by returning to the spot you died. Die again, and it's a permanent loss. Likewise, you find new weapons and gear scattered throughout the map in semi-randomized locations. There are also merchants where you can purchase items, and the merchants tend to have gear and equipment tailored to the enemies you'll face later in the day.

Most importantly, you get bonuses for defeating bosses. These are special loot drops that include either rare gear or specialized passive bonus abilities that last for the rest of the run. You're generally given an option between three different choices. Some are really fun, such as adding bleed to all attacks if you're below a certain portion of health. Some are strong but simple, like increasing stamina regen. Some are wild, like causing a storm of laser blasts around you if you walk instead of run. These random bonuses determine your game-to-game build. While your character plays in roughly the same way, there's a huge difference between an Ironeyes who is built as a glass cannon debuff machine and an Ironeyes who snipes enemies from halfway across the map.

All of this leads up to the big boss fights at the end of the days. The first two days have bosses who are largely remakes and rehashes of bosses from prior Souls games (Elden Ring and cameos from older FromSoft titles). These bosses aren't a one-for-one copy and tend to have new moves, but they're designed to feel familiar. The bosses on the third day are all powerful and deadly new foes that tend to require you to learn their gimmicks. Go in with proper gear and items, and you can do well. Go in underequipped or without thinking about the enemy, and be prepared to have a bad time.

Nightreign has some of the coolest bosses in Souls history. The fact that they can be built and designed around having multiple people on the field invites the development team to try some interesting mechanics. I'm reluctant to spoil any particular gameplay mechanics, but they are very cool. One of my favorites is Libra who, in addition to being a cool fight, tempts you with a devil's bargain at the outset. You can receive a boon, but in exchange, the fight is more difficult. Almost every boss is a delight to fight, and the boss battles contain some of the most absurd spectacles from FromSoft. The final boss is an over-the-top delight that is sure to rank among people's favorites.

Nightreign requires players to approach boss fights and combat differently. In a classic Soulslike experience, you'll reach a boss and be able to fight it again pretty much instantly. Sure, the old games might make you do a runback, but that wasn't a lengthy process. Nightreign encourages you to get it right the first time, or you'll have to redo the entire run. This is balanced by the fact that you can die and be revived multiple times during a single boss fight as long as you're playing co-op, so you're not instantly doomed by a single mistake.

This is both a plus and negative. It adds some interesting tension to a boss fight, since a loss is a lot heavier than it would be otherwise. It also means that if you're struggling with a boss, it takes a lot more effort to reach the point where you can genuinely practice. This is obviously an intentional design choice, as being able to grind your way through the bosses would make Nightreign a much different game, but it means that if you get frustrated with a fight, it can be a genuine roadblock.

There is also a meta progression to the game. While each run is unique, there are permanent bonuses and plot events that occur between runs. Each character has a distinct set of missions they have to undertake, and that adds new events or gimmicks to the world, including optional fights. Completing them unlocks more of the character's story and lore about the world. Likewise, there are special relics you get that persist between runs, and they can yield powerful boons, ranging from being able to replenish HP on hit to starting with specific items. There are even unlockable cosmetics that allow you to change how your character looks.

I mostly like the meta progression. It's a nice way to add flavor to the game and give players something to work toward, even if a run fails. You can frequently progress a character's plot even if you don't defeat the final boss. Earning relics is a nice way to optimize how you play. The plot tends to be more in-your-face compared to the more subtle lore of the Souls games. This isn't something I mind, but I can see it being a negative for those who prefer to figure things out via context instead of explanation.

Nightreign's biggest issue is that it doesn't really capture what I enjoy most from the main game. I'm not ready to call this a flaw because it isn't something the game is failing at. It's a game that's very much designed for the people who love to speedrun and optimize their game playthroughs. There's a heavy focus on finishing things efficiently, as quickly as possible, with as few flaws as possible, and learning how to let your builds shine. It does a good job at that.

Liking Elden Ring isn't a clear indicator of whether you'll enjoy Nightreign. The branding might work against the title, as fans of the original game are thrown into something with a very different pace, even if it shares some gameplay mechanics. To me, the appeal of these games is the gradual pace of exploration. There's a constant need to press forward, kill things without taking the time to appreciate your surroundings, and the lore is doled out in a way that isn't naturally integrated into the setting.

While Nightreign offers a single-player mode, I can't really recommend it. The gameplay is best when you have three characters working together. It isn't technically multiplayer-only, but it loses something without it.

Taken entirely on its own merits, Nightreign is a lot of fun. I like the basic flow of the game and the changes to the mechanics. I adore the character design. There's a whole lot of extremely fun game choices, and the boss battles are some of the best FromSoft has ever done. Even if the developer's next non-Switch game is single-player, I hope they incorporate some of the ideas from Nightreign to add some spice to the Souls formula. There's a lot more room to experiment and evolve the basic gameplay.

Nightreign looks pretty much like you'd expect. A huge chunk of the game is recycled Elden Ring assets, and it looks and runs about as well as that game. This is not a complaint, but it's worth noting so you know what you're getting. The asset reuse occasionally makes the game feel a tad cheap, but it's not enough to detract from the experience. The soundtrack and voice acting are the same standard FromSoft fare, with excellent music bolstered by charming (if occasionally bizarre) voice work.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is sure to be a divisive entry in FromSoft's catalog. It isn't the Elden Ring sequel that people might want, and it isn't necessarily a game that will appeal to those who love Souls titles. It's a weird, experimental concept grafted into the skin of a different game. It's an engaging and enjoyable game to play, assuming you meet it halfway. The core mechanics are strong, the boss fights are fun, and it's an enjoyable game. If you've ever wanted to see what a more multiplayer-focused take on the genre is like, Nightreign shines, but those looking for a single-player experience will want to look elsewhere.

Score: 8.5/10