Because of the efforts of 1 superb modder, there’s a complete new purpose to play Darkish Souls once more. The Seamless co-op mod, launched in April, lives as much as its identify identical to it did for Elden Ring. Now not do it’s a must to undergo FromSoftware’s weird multiplayer performance—you possibly can lastly take an uninterrupted street journey by Lordran with your pals like god supposed, and I misplaced a complete weekend doing simply that.
Darkish Souls deserved this all alongside. It’s a multiplayer recreation at coronary heart: Enjoying solo you’ll run into the ghosts of different gamers sitting by bonfires or consuming it to some close by monster. There are factions devoted to serving to others out. Cooperation and group are embedded in its DNA, and it’s a disgrace that FromSoftware’s implementation of co-op is so rattling fussy.
Not Yui’s Seamless co-op mod, nonetheless. It’s really about as seamless as you may get for a mod: There are a set of recordsdata to drop into your Darkish Souls: Remastered folder and a password to set, after which all it’s a must to do is use an merchandise to summon a buddy and begin enjoying.
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I performed by the whole thing of Elden Ring with Seamless co-op, and the Darkish Souls model feels an identical. It may be exhausting to let you know’re enjoying with a mod in any respect. In an alternate universe this may’ve been the co-op mode that shipped with the sport. Yui says she tried to “protect the sport’s problem” by scaling up the problem of each enemy to make up for the truth that there’s multiple of you.
It’s been some time since I’ve performed vanilla Darkish Souls, however the skeleton folks in Undead Burg have been nonetheless slicing me aside prefer it was 2011. Fortunately, dying whereas another person remains to be alive doesn’t trigger enemies to respawn. You’ll be able to simply run again to the place you have been, minus a small chunk of your well being bar.
The mod remains to be thought of to be in an alpha state, which implies there are some bugs, like a dragon who refuses to cease torching a bridge you’ll want to cross. A buddy and I toppled the dual gargoyles and the goat jerk with the 2 canine with out working into something game-breaking, although. The truth is, the fussiest a part of the expertise wasn’t even the mod’s fault. Darkish Souls is an especially dense recreation in comparison with Elden Ring and is stuffed with skinny stairways and catwalks completely lower than code for greater than a single particular person.
We might play the sport like speedrunners focusing on particular gadgets and areas out of the standard order individuals do them in.
This proved to be a legal responsibility every time enemies would ambush us in tight areas. It was like being caught in site visitors with a mob of skeletons and canine at our backs.
The remainder of the sport was primarily a revenge tour on all of the enemies who made our first playthroughs a nightmare after we have been nonetheless Darkish Souls newbies. These spear guys who cover behind their little shields? Attempt to block two of us, idiots. The gargoyle boss who requires assistance on the rooftop? Lifeless earlier than his buddy even confirmed up. Havel the Rock? We received’t speak about that.
However for probably the most half, Lordran wasn’t prepared for 2 individuals who have seen the longer term, know all its methods.
I used to be apprehensive that it could be exhausting to return to a FromSoft recreation with no devoted bounce button and a giant open world to discover, however replaying Darkish Souls in co-op jogged my memory of how shut it’s to what got here later. With out the worry of getting annihilated by some random enemy and resetting all of your progress as a solo participant, the world feels infinite. We might play the sport like speedrunners focusing on particular gadgets and areas out of the standard order individuals do them in. A detour into the forest for the anti-poison protect is way much less daunting when you possibly can tag group your approach by its traps.
And with out the sport kicking one among you out after each boss battle, you begin to settle into roles. Certainly one of us would take the lead whereas the opposite would keep again and search for openings that might regularly save the opposite from getting crushed.
It made me take into consideration Darkish Souls as if it have been an open world recreation. Other than not with the ability to freely teleport round, it was like enjoying a rudimentary Elden Ring. Peering over the stone partitions of the Undead Burg and seeing the remainder of the sport beneath provides you an identical rush that it does the primary time you ascend Stormveil Fortress. FromSoft has all the time been making open worlds that lure you to their farthest reaches, it simply bought extra formidable over time.
Invasions are a part of the package deal too. Having them enabled is so much like enjoying on a tougher issue the place you pray you don’t get jumped by another group in your solution to a boss, identical to the outdated days when Darkish Souls PvP was nonetheless new. Sadly, you’re restricted to people who find themselves additionally utilizing the mod, which implies you possibly can go a complete session with out getting interrupted. Hopefully because the mod catches on, extra individuals will present up. There’s nothing like seeing the invasion message in your display screen when you’re in your final Estus flask and 5 steps away from a bonfire.
The Seamless co-op mod retains Darkish Souls’ spirit alive with no ton of sacrifices.
Enjoying because the invader has its personal points at this stage within the mod’s improvement. I warped into one other particular person’s world and it seemingly prompted them to spawn approach beneath my location, leaving each of us in a sort of purgatory till I disconnected. I’m apparently not alone on this scenario, and it’s doable it really works effective additional into the sport. Given the amount of updates and work that went into the Elden Ring mod and the variety of individuals posting their very own PvP issues within the NexusMods feedback, I don’t count on it’ll be lengthy earlier than invasions are restored to full working order.
The Seamless co-op mod retains Darkish Souls’ spirit alive with no ton of sacrifices. It’s why I’d totally suggest it for anybody new to the sequence or not. It’s additionally why it continues to be tragic that FromSoft hasn’t figured this out by itself, regardless of not being against the thought. I do know so many individuals who would in all probability fall in love with its video games if there was a solution to maintain a buddy’s hand as they play with out the frustration of the arcane summoning methods.
Darkish Souls is probably not constructed to accommodate a complete group of gamers working round collectively (the mod helps as much as six gamers collectively directly), however nothing a couple of group of Chosen Undead goes towards the themes of the sport. You’re informed over and over by NPCs that you simply’ll go hole should you quit on combating for one thing. The fodder-like zombie enemies who sit with their head of their palms are a reminder of what that appears like. Enjoying Darkish Souls alone can put on away your resolve, however having a buddy to step in for you underlines what it’s all the time been about.
There’s actually a thrill to doing all of it by your self, particularly when the choice was such a ache. Braving the horrors with the Seamless co-op mod, nonetheless, satisfied me that sharing the journey with a buddy simply as important to the expertise, if no more so all these years later.
