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I am not what you’d call a “loot goblin.” That is, when I’m playing an RPG, whether that’s a tabletop or video game, I am not motivated by a desire to collect as many items as I can by whatever means necessary. I’m just not a “smash and grab” type, most of the time. 

But whether I like it or not, Elden Ring Nightreign demands a lot of smashing and grabbing. The three player co-op game moves at a brisk pace across the span of three days. Players must take advantage of every second of daylight at their disposal. Because once night comes, that’s when the clock runs out for players. As much as I love running around in The Witcher 3, Baldur’s Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom, you name it, just to take in the beauty of the world around me, there’s no time for that in Nightreign. 

With Nightreign being an Elden Ring game after all, players will need all the help that they can get, in the form of consumables and weapon upgrades left behind by defeated enemies. In the demo, I watched the players scramble to collect all they could from the fallen enemies like children racing to grab candy from a piñata. I’ll admit that the fast pace of it all made me chuckle, because the world of Nightreign is beautiful to look at. But we’re encouraged not to dwell on that too much because there’s bigger and badder foes to be fought. 

If you’re a fan of a good ol’ dungeon crawl, Nightreign is your game. The whole game feels like a dungeon crawl on steroids, which is what I suppose you’re here for if you’re playing an Elden Ring game. The game’s combat is sharp and precise, with each swing of the characters’ weapons delivering a satisfying sense of destruction to a variety of different enemies. At one point in the demo, I saw the players go after a skeleton who was carrying a treasure chest, and I let out a laugh.

If you’ve ever wanted to hunt creatures who look like they could be extras in Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, then grab a copy when it releases for PlayStation, Windows, and Xbox on May 30, 2025. 

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