Elden Ring Nightreign The Forsaken Hollows Review

Elden Ring Nightreign Forsaken Hollows Review

Just like the new map, which is its main part, Elden Ring NighttrainThe Forsaken Hollows is full of ups and downs. Some stellar additions sit unsettlingly alongside some pretty obvious shortcomings. It's a curious and somewhat divisive expansion of an already curious and divisive game.

Unlike many DLCs, Abandoned Hollows not interested in expanding Nightreign's player base. Essentially, this is a reward for those loyal players who have stuck with Nightreign despite the constant lack of new content. Additionally, it may encourage legacy players to return. But anyone who was initially put off by Nightreign's very specific plan won't find anything in the DLC to change their minds.

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If there's one thing Nightreign players have wanted more than anything over the past six months, it's new classes. Well, new classes, new weapons and new bosses. There are two new Nightwalkers in Forsaken Hollows. Essentially, the Scholar is a support class that uses items, buffs groups, and weakens groups of enemies with its ultimate called Communion. The Undertaker is a fairly simple but powerful melee-oriented fighter. She has a relatively useful ultimate called Loathesome Hex, which is a potentially devastating high-speed attack. This combines with her passive ability called Confluence, which gives her additional ability to use Hex in certain circumstances. The Undertaker is probably the highlight of the DLC.

In a solo class or in groups of more than one class, the Undertaker is much more viable than the Scholar. Time will tell, but it's unlikely that either class will usurp long-time players' favorites in the long run.

The new content includes two great new Night Lord bosses: Weapons Bequeathed by Harmony and Lord Dregla (also known as Traitor Stragess). They are definitely another highlight of the DLC, which also introduces four new bosses from Day 1 and Day 2. The standout characters in my opinion are the buffed knight Artorias and the even tougher Mog. As good and welcome as these additions are, it's hard not to wonder why players had to wait over six months for them.

Prepare to die

Forgotten Hollows is a large new area to explore. Forgotten Hollows is aesthetically very different from Limveld, being based on an ethereal color palette of cool tones and exaggerated verticality. This is a welcome relief for players who can run the Limveld map in their sleep, as well as an opportunity to learn and take on new challenges. Hollow Towers are a great place to farm top tier weapons on day two.

There are some disappointments in Forgotten Hollows, however. Firstly, the size makes reaching bosses at the end of the day a real challenge if you're stuck on the fringes. It's also very easy to fall off the map and die. With time and experience, the initially very confusing Forgotten Hollows will become more familiar. In single player mode, it is almost impossible to kill some of the scattered bosses in time.

Missing

After the massive success of Elden Ring and its excellent Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Nightreign seemed like an odd move. Most studios wouldn't intentionally create a product that could potentially alienate a large portion of the newly expanded player base. And yet Nightreign did just that. At the time of launch, it was – and remains – only truly viable with a duo (finally!) or trio of collaborating and equally skilled friends. The solo experience in a new zone is brutal, and playing with a group of random strangers is almost always a frustrating experience. The DLC is already limited by the requirement to defeat at least the first Nightreign boss. Of course, this makes perfect sense for today's players. But this puts potential new players off the hook for the DLC content.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with a niche game. But Nightreign players who paid the price of admission and continue to support it probably deserve a little more than what The Forsaken Hollows can provide. New weapons – especially from Shadow of the Erdtree – and new spells – all MIA. The two new classes feel like a minimum, both in quality and quantity.

Elden Ring Nightreign has a solid core of fans, and The Forsaken Hollows is a welcome reward (though it will cost them $15) for their continued participation. This could bring some players back, at least for a while. The new map and Night Lords are quality challenges from FromSoft, and the new daytime bosses are a relief for tired players, but the new classes are nothing special. The Forsaken Hollows brings some freshness to the familiar Nightreign, but it's hard not to think that this content could have been free for the past six months.

***PS5 code provided by publisher for review***