The critically acclaimed video game “Elden Ring” made shockwaves throughout the gaming community Friday, December 13. At the annual Game Awards, a new Downloadable Content (DLC) introduced new content made by the developers FromSoftware, was announced.
On Friday, the trailer released seemingly out of the blue and introduced new features and mechanics to the base game, the second DLC for the critically lauded role playing game (RPG).
“Shadow of the Erdtree,” the previous DLC, was lauded for its creative bosses and themes of adventure and mystery players could explore. Even though it was advertised as bonus content, many considered it to be the game of the year. However, it was met with mixed reviews. From critics, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but players felt the difficulty spikes were too much to handle for the average player. For busy students like many at Lambert, the time and energy it takes to conquer the challenging bosses and environments can sometimes feel wasted.
“I honestly think it was really good, but I wish it was just a little bit longer and also introduced more gameplay mechanics,” sophomore Pranav Prasath explained. “There were a couple new weapons, but they were not really useful.”
While Prasath held firm to the belief that the DLC was well made, he felt it was too similar to the base game, which could cause fatigue for potential players. While the base game was a masterpiece, he expected the DLC to introduce more content, especially with its hefty $40 price tag.
However, he believes “Nightreign” will fix the few issues he had with the base game and “Shadow of the Erdtree.”
“I think the co-op in the base game was lackluster,” Prasath said. “They’ll be adding a lot of new weapon styles, different locking mechanics and making the game a lot more PvP focused.”
In the base game, the co-op of “Elden Ring” was only available in certain boss fights, but
“Nightreign” is set to include it to the entire game, creating new encounters and boss fights for the competitive players. In addition, the Player vs Player (PvP) framework will create a new competitive side to the single-player RPG. Prospective players including Prasath are hoping to dig in more hours into “Elden Ring” with the addition of these new mechanics.
However, Prasath believes that after this DLC, the game will be close to running its course.
“I think maybe after this expansion, it should be over,” Prasath said. “The story has already gotten really confusing, even though it’s a great story.”
The story of “Elden Ring” has been built on since its release in 2022, and while the story and gameplay is compelling, Prasath believes it would be better for FromSoftware to focus on creating another game.
Part of the reason FromSoftware is so highly regarded is the consistency of the studio’s output; from “Demon’s Souls” to “Elden Ring”, the studio has created classic after classic in creative bosses and world design. The “Shadow of the Erdtree” DLC created earlier this year was a massive success for the studio, despite users’ mixed reviews, and it seems the new “Elden Ring Nightreign” will be the same. The new features displayed in “Nightreign” promise hundreds of hours of fun for Dark Souls enthusiasts.
