ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows Review – Not Bad, But We Expected More

The Forsaken Hollows was met with a lukewarm reception upon its release: players were expecting more, especially compared to the high-profile and substantial expansions for other FromSoftware games. We’ll take a closer look at what we were excited about in the first major DLC for ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN.

• Developer: FromSoftware
• Publisher: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X|S
• Release date: December 4, 2025

The expansion centers on two new playable heroes—the Scholar and the Undertaker. These are fully-fledged characters with their own unique mechanics, skills, and combat style. To unlock them, you must fight a weakened version of one of the new bosses .

The Scholar is a debuff-based class, and I see it as the most effective support for a team. The Scholar reduces enemy attack and defense, improves party performance, and their passive allows for gradual buffs to their gear. The problem is that the Scholar’s damage output is poor, and their defense is poor. The class can be interesting to play, but it requires careful play and precise situational awareness.

The second character, Gravedigger, is assertive, aggressive, and a very promising hero. Her low defense is compensated for by her high damage output. Gravedigger can use her powerful ultimate for free after an ally uses a similar ability. When a group consists of several Gravediggers, they can chain devastating attacks, significantly impacting the tempo of the battle.

And while the classes turned out to be engaging, the developers clearly skimped on new gear. There’s some, but it’s mostly the same basic models, just repainted. No new Ashes of War, no new spells, or truly unique items. Many were hoping to see weapons from Shadow of the Erdtree in The Forsaken Hollows, but no, they didn’t. It feels like the progression system has remained largely intact, though you’d expect a much bigger scale from a major DLC.

However, the expansion isn’t limited to just new classes. The core ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN experience has been expanded with two new bosses – The Balancers and Dreglord. The former is a squad of angelic guardians who attack in sync, requiring players to carefully monitor their movements. The latter is the final enemy, The Forsaken Hollows, a composite corpse that emerges from multiple bodies.

Additional field bosses include familiar creatures from other studio games, such as Knight Artorias from the Dark Souls expansion, the Demon Prince from Dark Souls 3, or the irritating Divine Beast Dancing Lion from Elden Ring .

The most noticeable part of the update is the new map. The dungeon feels like a compressed, suffocating, and extremely dangerous zone: narrow passages, crystalline columns, aggressive enemies, and the constant risk of falling into one of the numerous cliffs. A central crystal, which can be destroyed for additional power, provides structure for the route, but most of the time you have to navigate the outer ring of the zone.

The map isn’t the largest, but it’s filled with intense skirmishes and serious challenges. Conditions like a firestorm that burns away health and slows movement, or a curse that reduces maximum HP by half, make surviving the dungeon much more challenging.

The Great Hollow event also appeared, radically transforming the Limweald map. A huge depression appears in the world affected by the modifier, revealing a new territory. However, the overall content of the zone remains modest by the series’ standards.

ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows certainly doesn’t feel like a walkthrough. It expands the game’s tactical depth, introducing new encounters and a map with intense gameplay. However, the DLC also exposes the project’s weaknesses, primarily its reliance on interesting weapons and build diversity. The content is more limited than expected, but for enthusiasts who explore every corner of the game, the DLC is still worth picking up. However, it might be worth waiting for a discount.