Summary
Yesterday,Elden Ring Nightreign’s review embargo was lifted. Although most players don’t have access to Nightreign yet, there is already robust discussion based on reviewers' impressions of the game.
Nightreign is an experimental title, and itsmixed critical receptionreflects that. The game currently holds an average critic score of 80 onOpenCritic, a decent score but far from the lofty heights ofElden Ring(95) andElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree(94).
A common criticism from reviewers is that the game feels unbalanced. Some reviewers have expressed the opinion that runs require a high level of optimisation to guarantee success, which eliminates some of the fun. There’s also a universal acknowledgement that the game is brutally difficult for solo players, as the bosses have been designed around three players.
Balance in Limveld
FromSoftware potentially agrees with these sentiments, as the studio has already released a patch for Nightreign, Patch 1.01. In typical FromSoftware fashion, the studio hasn’t included any specifics, but we know they’ve addressed balance in some unknown way.
The following adjustments have been made according to thepatch notes.
We don’t know for sure if some aspects of Nightreign have been made easier, but it seems unlikely they’ve made the game even more difficult.
Difficulty in the Souls genre has always been a controversial subject within gaming. A vocal part of the community believes that every potential balancing problem is a “skill issue” and that FromSoftware can do no wrong in this regard. This is a valid opinion, but in Nightreign’s case, even Souls-focused content creators have expressed concerns about balance.
Our own James Lucas was a big fan of Nightreign, writing “diving into game after game, experiencing the Soulslike loop in a microcosm, was unbelievably satisfying, and those moments of victory have never felt better” in their4.5/5 review.
Elden Ring Nightreign releases May 30 for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
