"Elden Ring Nightreign" is an awkward inversion of one of the greatest games ever
The solitary exploration of Elden Ring becomes flattened in this fast and uncompromising multiplayer spin-off.
Nightreign, which is now the third game bearing the Elden Ring name in a span of just 3 years, is by far the most left-field of this already legendary franchise. Last year’s Shadow of the Erdtree was an expansion on the base game that looked, sounded, and played like Elden Ring, something this new iteration can’t entirely claim.
Pitched initially as simply a “multiplayer” game, Nightreign grew to resemble more of a battle-royale style game (there’s literally a “ring” that closes in around you, for example), albeit with a PvE focus. It’s not hard to compare the game to Fortnite or any other game in which you cooperatively team up with other players, but given that Elden Ring is not a game about speed or rushing to your next objective, it would appear as if this is an oil and water situation.
Turns out, it both is and it isn’t. Nightreign is a game that can be fun in doses and frustratingly disjointed in others. It feels like a misguided attempt to fuse two design styles, and yet commendable that it even holds together at all. There are moments that reminded me of the comforts of playing Elden Ring, but delivered in a compromised way, like being served a five-course meal in a drive-thru.
“The pleasures of [Elden Ring] are generally around it’s exploration, discovery, and world-building, all of which are sacrificed for Nightreign’s blistering pace…"
In Nightreign, you play as one of up to 6 (eventually 8) character classes and drop into a small portion of Limveld with merely one starter weapon and just the armor on your back. A circle will begin closing in on you and your other 2 players as you’ll very quickly sprint around the map, defeating mini-bosses and hoards as you go in an effort to level up before tackling the “night boss”.
This is the process of the game that feels the most discordant from the typical Elden Ring experience, the pleasures of which are generally around it’s exploration, discovery, and world-building, all of which are sacrificed for Nightreign’s blistering pace, where the simple pleasure of reading item descriptions is a luxury that you don’t have.
And it’s here where the game’s design approach feels unmoored from the 2022 game of the year, where a ticking clock applies urgency and angst to the natural inclination to wander. At times, it feels like Nightreign is more likely to appeal to someone who isn’t a fan of Elden Ring rather than someone who is. It’s a swing that may broaden its appeal or just simply disappoint players until the next open world comes along.
The new tactical roguelike Sol Cesto is like flipping through a medieval manuscript
The newest tactical game from French duo Géraud Zucchini and Chariospirale is a very stylish puzzle roguelike in which manipulating luck is your primary mode of progression. You’ll dungeon-crawl your way through “rooms” with 4x4 grids of tiles, selecting a row at a time and hoping you land on the right squares to avoid taking damage or even receive bonuses like gold or health.
How much should you depend on luck and how much of the board can you manipulate is one of the game’s strengths, and one of the keys to making this a promising roguelike (it’s still only in early access with more content yet to come), but the real star is the art style, drawn by Chariospirale.
With each tile, creature and hero looking like a cut-out from a French-medieval artifact (the developers have said that ancient illuminated manuscripts were a major source of inspiration), Sol Cesto has the benefit of being incredibly easy on the eyes, even when it’s gameplay might feel slight at times. After about 6-7 hours with it this weekend, there’s not a whole lot more to do until the full 1.0 release at a later date.
Skin Deep is a slapstick immersive sim in which failing is part of the fun
Blendo Games, the one-man studio of Brendon Chung, the mind behind recent games such as Quadrilateral Cowboy and Thirty Flights of Loving, has made perhaps his biggest and funniest game yet.
Skin Deep is an immersive sim (think IO’s Hitman series or Deus Ex) with a significant amount of experimentation and freedom in it’s first few levels alone. Each of them involves boarding a spacecraft, sneaking around, and freeing cats from their pirate overlords in any way possible. The game’s art has been described by Chung as “timeless”, which is another way of saying that it’s intentionally crude – merely a vehicle for some of the wackiest systems interactions around.
Don’t have a weapon but need to take out a guard? Bananas or bars of soap will do the trick. So will throwing a lighter at a hand sanitizer dispenser on a nearby wall. But the real charm to Skin Deep is when things don’t go according to plan, when the game surprises you with the chain reaction caused by your dishonorable methods, forcing you to think on your feet.
The mark of a great game is one that promotes engaging with all of its systems to survive, and Skin Deep, contrary to its name, proves to be anything but.
There’s an archive of editable text screens from hundreds of retro video games
Over on deathgenerator.com, programmer Foone Turing hosts a pretty sizeable archive of retro video game dialogue screens from Aero Fighters to Yoshi’s Island. It’s also an impressive feat of preservation in an industry that’s traditionally really bad at it.
The Clickaround
The Nintendo Switch 2 launches Thursday (June 5th) and there’s a slew of embargo-breaking unboxing footage out there if you care to look. Target had locked cages of units just sitting on the retail floor this past week, while fans are already complaining about the ugly game box art. (Video Game Chronicle, Kotaku, Polygon).
While the Switch prepares for launch, Aftermath’s Carli Velocci ponders the dwindling impact of consoles on the video game market, with the rise of services and PC gaming. (Aftermath).
MindsEye is a new game from ex-Rockstar director Leslie Benzies that’s somehow out in just two weeks. Lex Luddy writes about the contentious split from Rockstar (including legal action) and what we can expect from such a high-profile game that we still know very little about. (Rewinder).
The excellent roguelike deckbuilder Monster Train 2 (released last week) has, among other accolades, an incredible soundtrack by Jordan Chin, including this track that plays over the start menu:
Next week, the Nintendo Switch 2 is out. We’ll cover the good and the bad of a very tumultuous launch period for the highly anticipated follow-up to one of the most successful consoles of all time.