Elden Ring Nightreign is immediately FromSoft's worst-reviewed game on Steam: 'This is not the Elden Ring you are looking for'

An Elden Ring Nightreign character clad in full armor, rearing back what looks to be a small crossbow before firing. — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

Is this a safe space? Can I make a confession? I still haven't finished Elden Ring. In fact, I've yet to make much further than Margit. For all the hours I sunk into The Lands Between, it never quite got its hooks into me. I'll go back and give it another shot some day, but there's a part of me that wonders if I might just be kind of done with Souls-style games for a while. Sekiro 2, though? I'd eat that up in a nanosecond.

But I don't think most people are with me in that regard. I wonder if most people would much rather FromSoft stuck to making what it does best. That'd certainly explain the current Steam reviews for Elden Ring Nightreign, which came out yesterday and quickly became FromSoft's worst-reviewed game on Steam. Now, don't get too alarmed, we're not talking the doldrums of an Overwhelmingly Negative score here or anything; Nightreign is currently Mixed, with 66% of its user reviews coming in positive.

The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready. — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Not terrible by any stretch, but lower than any other game in the FromSoft catalogue. Only one thing under its name—Dark Souls 3's Ashes of Ariandel DLC—scores lower: 59% positive. As full games go, Nightreign is bottom of the table.

It's not surprising. I've not touched Nightreign myself, but it's been controversial here on the PCG team. Some of us are dead keen, others are iffy, and even those in the former camp took a little while to come around. Our reviewer, Tyler Colp, was positive in his Elden Ring Nightreign review, but admitted its experimental, multiplayer-focused gameplay made it a stranger, messier thing than its predecessors.

It's no shock to see that same division play out on Steam. "This is not the Elden Ring game you are looking for," reads one. "Immediately got crushed by Fell Omen in under a minute. 10/10 Elden Ring experience," says another. I'll be curious to see if opinion turns more positive as people get some time to adjust to the game, or if From stalwarts just won't take to its co-op trappings like they have to the studio's previous work. Perhaps it's fated to be bottom of the leaderboards forever. Well, unless and until Duskbloods gets a PC release.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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