Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t what I was expecting. I knew from the game’s announcement last year that it would be a co-op Elden Ring spinoff, that it would task players with surviving for three nights and facing off against a variety of new and old FromSoftware bosses.

Nightreign strips out the combat and visual aesthetics of Elden Ring and lays them over gameplay that combines multiplayer battle royale action with roguelike live, die, repeat mechanics. Matches will take place over three days.

Ahead of the Elden Ring Nightreign network test, Bandai Namco flew us out to Germany to get hands-on with the game and see what sets it apart from other Soulslikes. The reveal trailer during The Game Awards gave us a brief glimpse at its Fortnite-like structure,