Honestly: The vast majority of the Elden-Ring fans thought at the announcement of the offshoot Nightreign at first: "Horny, Elden Ring!" And immediately afterwards: "But what is that?! I don't want that! " A co-op offshoot with Roguelike gameplay-that sounds like something that added other games like Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla as a free DLC to keep the players a bit after release. But as a soul fan, I actually don't feel like it-and I don't want to pay money for it.
Now I have played Elden Ring: Nightreign played in detail for six hours and can report in astonishment: No, that makes you really wrong! And should be particularly interesting for players who have so far only come into contact with Elden Ring and Souls games, but like to play online co-op games like Destiny, Remnant, Deep Rock Galactic, Warframe or especially Monster Hunter.
Ein Open-World-Kop-Pve-Battle-Royale. Huh?!
But what is Elden Ring: Nightsträgn actually exactly?Well, the easiest way is to get an idea when you simply line up the individual genre components of the game: it is an open-world-coop-pve-battle-royale roguelike. Uff, what a wording! Sounds cryptic at first, but let's consider every single point to ourselves, then the basic game principle should be quite clear.
Open World: The game is played in an open game world that corresponds to one of the areas of the "main game", with everything that goes with it: normal opponents, hills and gorges, castles and churches, soldiers' warehouse with treasure chests, as well as numerous mini bosses that are largely known, such as the hippo, the lion person, the knight high or the black dragon in the lake.
Buy: You explore this world with two teammates. You can also go alone-then two AI players will be put to your side. However, this is recommended for exercise. In the long term, it makes little sense. Pure two-player games are not supported at all because the game principle is not designed for this.
PvE: Together, you are now making typical Elden-Ring things: fight against the undead to farm runes and treasure chests to facilitate their prey and thus improve the character in order to master ever more challenges. Sometimes it makes sense to spoil and do different projects in different places: While one player gets an additional health flacon from the church in the valley, someone else cleans the soldier's warehouse to capture new weapons, while the third in the bundle facilitates a mine around their forging stones. After that you meet again to slaughter the tree boss together to punch your soul points for the finals, because ...
Battle Royale: As in Battle-Royale games à la Fortnite and PUBG, the game world becomes smaller and smaller in the course. In contrast to these genre representatives, you struggle in Elden Ring: as I said, Nightreign not against other players, but the adversities of the game world. At the end, about half an hour, it shrunk to the size of an arena where the boss faces you. The aim of the whole company before it is to improve your own character as quickly and wide as possible in order to be prepared for the showdown.
Once you have defeated the boss, it goes into the second round and the game started all over again. Again it means: explore, fight, level, improve. Until the game world was again not swallowed by the surrounding and the second boss is due. If this has also fallen, you can expect a particularly spectacular struggle for the final.
Roguelike: Then go back to the round table to unlock subtle, permanent character improvements after Roguelike manner and to plunge into new adventures against new, stronger bosses. If you fail beforehand, you are at least richer in experience, and that alone is worth a lot. In our games, each run was noticeably better than the previous one, because you know the game world more and more, knows where useful loot has learned to understand opponents and bosses and continuously optimized its own route from one next.
You died? Half as wild
So it was basically. Now you know what is going on. Everything else is actually only details. Each adventure begins in the round table, which acts as a hub. Here you make an appointment with your teammates, practice the combat system on the training area and choose your class, of which there will be eight in the finished game: melee, tank, nimble feast.
Many game mechanics from Elden Ring have been greatly simplified so that you do not get bogged down in the small small of the subtleties during the online games. In the case of levels at the bearing fabric, you do not give any points to individual categories such as health, strength, intelligence etc. Instead, the game automatically chooses values that make sense for your character and at the same time strengthen health beams, endurance and attack strength. So you don't spill unnecessary time with the fine tuning to your build.
If you go on it, no "You Died" lettering marks the end of your adventure. Instead, a short time window admits the opportunity to revive you. If this, you respond to a beacon nearby, but thereby lose your runes, which you can regain souls at the scene at the scene. Only if none of the players are upright in a boss fight, this means the final end of your run.
My first encounters with the first boss-a kind of huge thousand feet-were therefore shaped by the usual feeling of soul: "How should we ever do it?" Because it takes a few attempts to find your way around, to get to know the game world and its challenges and to develop a procedure together. Especially at the beginning, this sometimes looks in stress, after all, the time is the largest, the constant enemy, while the game world boundary, like nothing, approaches the infinite history unlessly and therefore no longer makes external regions accessible.
Should I explore this building under the embankment in the hope of a treasure chest with a mighty weapon in it? Or do I quickly do the caravan of undead beforehand to punch myself for the project? But where is the next beacon to redeem the points obtained in level-ups?!
But gradually you get to know the game world, know where there is something to be captured, a sensible path is characterized by one task to the next: The monster flower behind the embankment is quite easy to lay and gives valuable points to be prepared for the lion man in the nearby forest. Then we quickly get the additional bottle out of the church and would then have to be strong enough for the kite in the swamp. It brings mighty rewards that promise the decisive advantage. And when there is still time, we conjure up the dancing assassins from his stone prison ...
Most places, opponents and (intermediate) bosses already know Elden-Ring players from the "predecessor". Even some prominence from the Dark Souls games gives a guest appearance (the nameless king on his giant birdFor example, it was already to be seen in the trailer, but not yet included in our press demo). The crumbling skeleton dogs are just as back as the bats, crabs, crawling hands and even the funny snowmen with their flute from the capital.
The bosses viewed so far greet you to see old friends like the "Michelinmännchen" gods, the blind giant snoopy, the winged knight, the "Gollum on Speed" from the Earth Tree DLC, and also Margit, the cruel time, as it was then, you will be sponsored the very best a few times at that time.
However, the final bosses of each run are completely new, and they are back and forth through and through spectacle à la from software in top form. At least one that awaited us to gnight at the end of our allusion demo: a huge ragger fox with three heads-and therefore in his approach, especially tailored to a three-player team. But not only that: in between, he temporarily tears himself into pieces and stands towards you in the form of three individual foxes, which means that three players no longer stick to a boss, but faces each of his own personal adversary. Hammer!
Bibi & Tina would play Elden Ring. Not
So that not every run follows the same pattern, some components are distributed randomly in each round. Where a round was still a castle ruin before, the next may have a camp full of soldiers in the next. In particular, however, the captured loot is different every time, which makes success or defeat a little bit of a matter of luck, because many of the weapons found are useless for their own character class - but if they are suitable, then really.
By the way, your horse storm wind made of Elden Ring cannot be ridden in Nighttreign to make faster progress. Instead, you are only on foot all the time. However, since the game world is significantly more compact, this is sufficient. Also because there is no falling loss and you can therefore simply jump directly from the mountain into the valley, where you would otherwise have to take a long detour. On glittering trees you can also climb huge eagles that, like Frodo and Sam, fly across the map after annihilation of the ring to get to places that would otherwise no longer allow the remaining time.
Incidentally, at Nightreign, Souls inventor Hidetaka Miyasaki himself is not a souls. He had nothing to do with the development of this offshoot and instead left Junya Ishizaki completely free, who was responsible for the combat system in Elden Ring in a managerial function.
Elden Ring: Night -Treikn will be released on May 30th. From February 14th to 17th a closed beta will also take place on PS5 and Xbox Series X | s, in which interested parties can sniff into play. The finished game will also appear on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Publisher Bandai Namco does not yet call an official sales price. What is certain, however, is that Elden Ring: Nightsträgn should not be sold at full price.
Update: We have just reached the news thatElden Ring: Nightstrasse for 39.99 euroswill be available. The Deluxe Edition with soundtrack, digital artbook and a DLC with new characters and bosses should cost 54.99 euros.
Conclusion
Elden Ring: Nightreign is the game that you probably don't know yet
Are you already looking forward to Elden Ring: Nightreign? Then keep it up. But you still think: "Hmm, no, that doesn't speak to me", then think about it again. I can understand you and thought the same way, but in my opinion changed.
At least at first glance, Elden Ring seems to be in a lost position. In any case, an online co-op offshoot is not what soul fans gave way to spontaneous storms of enthusiasm. And vice versa, players of comparable multiplayer titles such as Monster Hunter and Warframe do not necessarily have Elden Ring as a obvious object of desire on the screen. But it is precisely this unusual intersection that makes Elden ring: Nightsträgn so unique. And really want! In any case, I can guarantee that after six hours.
Everyone should only ensure one thing in advance: that you know two friends to go to the side for a joint adventure. Because alone or with Random players from the Internet, Elden Ring has little sense. As a committed group, however, the joy (and of course suffering) knows no longer. To explore the game world together, to slaughter bosses and to gradually pilish up for the spectacular finale, while the time pressure of the closing Battle Royale boundaries of the game world sits on the neck, gradually optimizing and doing equipment until the initial chaos becomes a glorious triumph, motivated for many fun hours.
How many ultimately become of it is one of the questions that the finished game still has to answer at the release. Always new and heavier bosses (which were not yet included in our demo) should constantly maintain the drive to face new challenges. It will be crucial for long-term motivation whether and when the feeling of "seeing everything" at some point. Or not.
