When Elden Ring Nightreign launched, it felt like FromSoftware was stepping out of its comfort zone in the weirdest possible way. A three-player, battle royale-style co-op spin-off built from Elden Ring’s bones? That is a wild pitch, and the reviews reflect just how polarizing it turned out to be.

The core loop is simple on paper. Players drop into a shrinking map with two allies, hunt down bosses, grab loot, and grow strong enough to face a Nightlord on the third day. It is a roguelike take on the Souls formula, squeezing the usual slow burn into a tight, two-day survival sprint. That sounds exciting, and at times it genuinely is. But the reception? A mixed bag, to put it kindly.

Metacritic currently shows a 78, while OpenCritic sits at 79. That is a Strong score, but for a studio that routinely prints Game of the Year contenders, it feels like a stumble. Honestly, it is a little wild that a 78 counts as a disappointment for FromSoftware.

Here is how the major outlets landed:

Publication	Score	Key Takeaway
TheGamer	4.5/5	Perfected the Soulslike multiplayer loop
VGC	3/5	Runs get tedious, optimized builds drain the fun
GamesRadar+	3.5/5	Brutal, exhilarating, but longevity is unclear
Game Informer	8/10	Great combat and difficulty, rough matchmaking

James Lucas at TheGamer practically glows about the strategic possibilities. In that review, the boss fights feel like a microcosm of the classic loop, and squeezing that into a single run is described as unbelievably satisfying. The big caveat, though, is the lack of cross-play. For a multiplayer-focused title in 2025, that omission left more than a few players scratching their heads. It is the kind of thing that stings more when the whole game is built around grouping up.

On the other side of the table, Jordan Middler at VGC was far less impressed. The score there was a 3/5, with the review pointing out that repeated runs can become tedious. When the game starts demanding perfectly optimized play just to stay viable, the fun leaks out quickly. That is a familiar pain point for roguelike fans. Players know the feeling—one bad roll, one poorly timed heal, and the whole run crumbles, taking the enjoyment with it.

Will Sawyer at GamesRadar+ landed somewhere in the middle with a 3.5/5. The phrase used there is that Nightreign is Elden Ring at arguably its most brutal, but at least you can suffer with friends. That duality comes through clearly. A run can swing from exhilarating to frustrating in the span of a single fight, which makes it hard to predict whether a session will end in cheers or quiet resentment. The question of longevity also hangs over the whole affair like an unanswered summons.

Wesley LeBlanc at Game Informer gave the game an 8/10, praising the combat and difficulty while calling out the matchmaking and procedural generation as weak points. That is a fair read. The combat is, unsurprisingly, excellent. FromSoftware does not suddenly forget how to make a sword feel heavy or a dodge feel desperate. But when the pieces around that combat—the teammates, the map, the random events—do not line up, the whole package starts to wobble.

Therein lies the rub.

Nightreign, for all its polish, behaves like a demanding party host who expects every guest to pull their weight. If everyone knows the plan, the run sings. If one player wanders off or a build falls behind, the experience turns into a chaotic scramble. That is not necessarily a flaw in a vacuum, but it does mean the game lives and dies by who is sitting next to you—or matchmade into your lobby.

As 2026 unfolds, Nightreign has not rewritten the multiplayer rulebook. It remains a curious experiment, a side dish that some players adore and others merely tolerate. For those who click with its rhythm, the three-day loop offers a rush that few co-op games can match. For everyone else, the specter of Elden Ring itself looms large, and that comparison is very hard to escape. The reviews were never going to be unanimous, but they do tell one clear story: FromSoftware took a real risk, and the result is something fascinating, flawed, and very easy to respect from a distance.