FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games all included multiplayer in some form, but with Elden Ring spin-off Nightreign it’s turned the soulslike genre into a true co-operative online experience. Players team up in groups of three to take on fearsome Nightlord bosses, able to seamlessly share in its exhilarating thrills together.
Yet this seems to go against fans of the genre. Sure, being able to summon help in the original Elden Ring led to community superstars like Let Me Solo Her, and there are mods to make seamless co-operative play possible. But for the most part, these games are predominantly solo experiences, offering grimdark worlds to explore with the occasional threat of player invasion. And with the reveal Switch 2 game The Duskbloods will similarly be an online multiplayer game, FromSoftware even had to reassure fans it’s still making solo games too.
However, it’s still possible to play Elden Ring Nightreign on your own. The question is: should you?
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Like many, I’ve always played Souls games completely alone and I’ve mostly ignored the series’ multiplayer mechanics, so I was intrigued to see how Nightreign would hold up. As I wrote in my Elden Ring Nightreign review, though, the game has surprisingly convinced me a co-operative Souls game can be just as challenging and thrilling. Yet reviewing a multiplayer game is an interesting experience, as there’s a limited pool of fellow media to join up with. That meant in the early stages I did dabble in the game’s single player mode – there’s an option to launch an expedition on your own instead of a team of three, though at present there’s no option for two players.
By comparison to playing with others online, playing Nightreign solo is an extremely lonely, frustrating, and repetitive experience. I would not recommend it – at least, not at first.
It’s clear, Nightreign has been designed primarily as a multiplayer experience, with players relying on each other for support. Character skills can sync up together for increased damage, and players can revive one another if downed in battle. What’s more, bosses have huge health pools, sweeping AoE attacks, and rush across the battlefield to target multiple players. At times, they can feel more like an MMORPG boss intended for multiple players. Often the best method for facing a Nightlord as a team is baiting it in one direction for others to hit from another angle.