If FromSoftware announced they were making an Elden Ring battle royale, most of us would’ve laughed and moved on. And yet, Elden Ring Nightreign exists—not quite a battle royale, not quite a traditional Soulslike, but rather a roguelike co-op survival game set in the Elden Ring universe. It’s an ambitious experiment that dares to break away from the studio’s established formula and is an intriguing ride.

Elden Ring, But Make It a Roguelike

Forget the sprawling open world of the Lands Between, intricate builds, or the endless fashion possibilities. Here, you pick from four pre-made warriors, each with unique abilities, and get dropped into a hostile world where survival is the only goal. And as if the grotesque monstrosities weren’t enough, an all-consuming darkness constantly encroaches, forcing you to stay on the move. Think of it like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but instead of a shrinking circle, you’ve got pure, unrelenting doom creeping in from all sides.

Your job? Run. Slay bosses. Get stronger. Repeat. The loop is compelling—every victory rewards you with new weapons or upgrades, gradually turning your character into a powerhouse. It’s not the deep RPG experience fans might have expected, but it does have its own satisfying rhythm.

Speed Over Strategy

Perhaps the most jarring shift is the pacing. Where traditional Soulsborne combat is a slow, methodical dance of dodges and well-timed strikes, Nightreign is a frantic, hyper-mobile brawl. Your character moves fast, attacks faster, and barely has time to catch their breath before the next encounter. It’s a refreshing change of pace—until you realise that the sense of weight and tension that makes Souls combat so rewarding is somewhat lost in the chaos.

The enemy designs are largely familiar, with some looking like they’ve been directly lifted from Elden Ring. The environments, too, feel like remixed versions of places we’ve seen before. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for a standalone game, it does leave a nagging sense that this could’ve been a DLC rather than a full-priced title.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work (In Theory)

Since Nightreign is built around co-op play, you’d expect some strong multiplayer mechanics. Unfortunately, this is where things get frustrating. There’s no proper ping system to communicate with teammates, no way to strategise efficiently, and if someone disconnects mid-game, boss difficulty doesn’t scale down accordingly. If you’ve ever had the joy of relying on random players in an online game, you already know how that usually goes.

Reviving a teammate is a cool concept—you have to attack the darkness consuming them—but it only works if your squad is paying attention. And let’s be honest, many online players can barely be trusted to tie their own shoelaces, let alone save a teammate in the middle of a fight.

A Promising, If Unpolished, Experiment

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold departure from what fans expected, and to its credit, it commits to its vision. The fast-paced combat, roguelike structure, and cooperative play make for a fun, if sometimes frustrating, experience. But there’s no denying that it feels rough around the edges. The lack of key multiplayer features, the recycled assets, and the sheer reliance on teamwork make it a tougher sell as a full-priced game.

Still, there’s potential here. If FromSoftware fine-tunes the experience—adds proper matchmaking tools, balances difficulty, and maybe even includes a single-player option—Nightreign could carve out a unique niche. As it stands, though, it’s an interesting but uneven experiment that will appeal more to roguelike fans than hardcore Elden Ring devotees.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s not a disaster either. If nothing else, it proves that FromSoftware isn’t afraid to take risks—even if not all of them pay off.

Elden Ring: Nightreign will be out for PC and consoles this 30th May.