By Zuzanna Spiewak

Elden Ring was a global phenomenon since its first teaser, quickly becoming known as one of the hardest games of all time. Announced in 2019 during E3, a massive gaming convention, it later proceeded to win GOTY’S ‘Most Anticipated Game’ award in both 2020 and 2021 before officially releasing on February 25th, 2022.

It sold 20 million copies in its first year, and despite its three-year anniversary coming up, Elden Ring is as popular as ever. The ‘Shadow of the Erdtree’ expansion in June 2024 brought in old and new players alike, as well as being the first ever DLC to be nominated for Game of the Year.

However, the tide is changing as Bandai Namco and FromSoftware are releasing their most unconventional Souls game yet; Elden Ring Nightreign.

Set in an alternative version of Elden Ring’s starting area, Limgrave, it’s a three-person co-op where players have to fight and loot up during two day-and-night cycles before facing one of the eight possible final bosses, known as Nightlords.

Despite the game dropping at the end of May, it is possible to play in the beta and test out the game before everyone else. This was possible by receiving a beta-test code, available only for PlayStation players.

Due to the number of players being limited, the lucky few who got a code are already starting to sell and start bids on websites like Ebay. However, people must be quick to snatch them up as the servers go live on February 14th and will only last for three days.

Elden Ring winning the Original Property Award (Stuart Wilson/Bafta via Gettyimages)

Its official release date is confirmed to be on May 30th of this year, and pre-orders will be available in April. Fans of the genre will have a variety of pre-order options to choose from, with the basic pre-order including just the game being priced at £34.99, and the collector's edition being priced at £169.99 - which includes but isn’t limited to – the game, the future DLC, the artbook and 25cm figure of one of the playable characters, Wylder.

Despite the beta-servers not being live yet, comparisons to different games are already being made. With the loot being randomised and following a common-rare-epic rarity system, the game is starting to resemble a strange and medieval Battle Royale.

The biggest comparison being made is to Fortnite. Over the 15-minute timer of each day, the map gets smaller and smaller, enclosed by a deadly storm ring that damages players if they leave it. The players also descend onto the map on a giant hawk, similar to the Fortnite Battle Bus.

This formula is remarkably different from the other games in the Soulsborn franchise and will be much more fast-paced. Levelling up and preparing for a boss in the previous games could take hours or days, with the map being at your fingertips for any upgrade you could imagine. You could mould your character's build to be the boss's worst nightmare.

In Night Reign, however, the players need to strategise with the cards they’ve been dealt. The eight characters you can choose from (reduced to four in the beta-test) have all been pre-built, everything else is random.

Whether you decide to play it safe and loot up by killing overworld enemies and finding heals in Marika’s churches or risking it by raiding caves and dungeons for better equipment, the three players must work together or else all will crumble.

If a player dies, they can be revived by their teammates by having their body hit over and over, a more brutal approach compared to Fortnite’s crouch-and-resurrection style.

But getting too confident, or splitting up, could mean it’s back to the Roundtable with nothing to your name but the thrill of wanting to try again.

What links this game to FromSoftware’s previous titles, however, are the returning bosses, with many more yet to come. People were quick to notice the Centipede Demon (Dark Souls 1), the Duke’s Dear Freja (Dark Souls 2) and Nameless King (Dark Souls 3) in the teasers and trailer for Night Reign, as well as the leaks that are slowly starting to spread.

Previous enemies and bosses from Night Reign’s predecessor, Elden Ring, are also expected to appear. Players might be given the chance to face the Draconic Tree Sentinel or Margit the Fell Omen once more as one of the many randomised bosses.

A few hours remain until the servers finally go live and players can decide for themselves what they think of this new title. Whether you’re a solo-player or a lover of co-op, Night Reign will have something for everyone.

Elden Ring's third reign