"Elden Ring Nightreign: Echoes of a Lost God of War"

This past weekend marked the debut of network tests for Elden Ring Nightreign, the eagerly awaited standalone multiplayer game derived from FromSoftware’s acclaimed title. Unlike the expansive world of last year’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Nightreign diverges significantly, opting for a compact survival format. In this new game, three-player teams must navigate shrinking maps, battling waves of enemies and increasingly formidable bosses. This approach clearly echoes the success of Fortnite, a battle royale that has captivated over 200 million players this month alone.

However, Nightreign draws even more striking parallels with a less celebrated and often criticized title: 2013’s God of War: Ascension. This comparison, surprisingly, is a testament to Nightreign’s potential.

Released between God of War 3 and the Norse saga reboot in 2018, Ascension served as a prequel, tracing Kratos’s journey before the iconic Greek trilogy. It’s often remembered as the franchise's outlier, overshadowed by the epic conclusion of the original trilogy and the anticipation for the series' reinvention. Yet, Ascension was more than just a prelude to greatness; it introduced players to breathtaking set-pieces like the Prison of the Damned, a dungeon etched into the flesh of a colossal, immobilized giant. More crucially, it ventured into uncharted territory for the series by introducing multiplayer.

Trial of the Gods in Ascension is a cooperative PvE mode that mirrors Elden Ring Nightreign in many ways. As players progress through Ascension’s story, they encounter an NPC who prematurely celebrates rescue only to be crushed by a boss. In multiplayer mode, this same NPC becomes the player character, teleported to Olympus and pledging allegiance to one of four gods—Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, or Aries—each granting unique weapons, armor, and magic for engaging in five different multiplayer modes, including the cooperative PvE mode, Trial of the Gods, which closely resembles Nightreign.

Gameplay previews from renowned “Soulsborne” YouTubers like VaatiVidya and Iron Pineapple, along with IGN's coverage, have highlighted Nightreign’s similarities to live service games like Fortnite. Nightreign integrates randomized loot, resource management, and environmental hazards that challenge players as maps shrink. A nod to Fortnite, players parachute into the map, guided by spirit birds to their chosen landing spots.

While Ascension lacks the battle royale flair of Nightreign, deeper inspection reveals significant similarities. Both Nightreign and Ascension’s Trial of the Gods mode are cooperative experiences where teams confront escalating challenges, including familiar bosses from their respective series. Both feature time constraints and confined or shrinking maps. Moreover, both games were developed by studios renowned for single-player masterpieces, and neither had direct oversight from their series' original creators; Elden Ring’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki is currently on an undisclosed project, and the original God of War trilogy’s directors had departed Sony Santa Monica by the time Ascension was developed.

The response to Nightreign’s network test mirrors the reception of Ascension’s Trial of the Gods, with players describing it as a thrilling race against time. Unlike the leisurely pace of Elden Ring, Nightreign compels players to rely on instinct, accelerating gameplay and limiting resources. As VaatiVidya noted, these constraints enhance "speed and efficiency." In the absence of Torrent, players harness their inner spirit to run faster and leap higher.

Ascension’s multiplayer also tweaked its single-player framework for a more intense experience, employing similar strategies to Nightreign: increased run speed, extended jumps, automated parkour, and a grapple attack, akin to Nightreign’s Wylder character. These mechanics are vital in Trial of the Gods, where players face relentless enemy waves, necessitating swift, decisive action.

What game had the best now-forgotten multiplayer mode? ------------------------------------------------------

God of War: AscensionAssassin's Creed BrotherhoodMass Effect 3Batman: Arkham OriginsBioShock 2Other (let us know in the comments)

AnswerSee ResultsThe connection between Nightreign and Ascension is intriguing, especially given the latter’s relative obscurity and the stark contrast between the Soulslike genre and God of War. While God of War empowers players as god-killing warriors, the Soulslike genre casts them as struggling, nameless undead. Yet, as players have mastered FromSoftware’s challenges and the games have introduced more powerful tools, the difficulty has somewhat waned. Nightreign, by stripping away these powerful builds, aims to rekindle that challenge, offering a nod to the intense, time-pressured experience of Ascension’s multiplayer.