Because of the efforts of 1 wonderful 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 similar to it did for Elden Ring. Not do you need to undergo FromSoftware’s weird multiplayer performance—you may lastly take an uninterrupted highway journey by way of 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 sport at coronary heart: Taking part in 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 neighborhood 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, nevertheless. It’s actually about as seamless as you will 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 you need to do is use an merchandise to summon a good friend and begin taking part in.
I performed by way of everything of Elden Ring with Seamless co-op, and the Darkish Souls model feels equivalent. It may be onerous to inform you’re taking part in with a mod in any respect. In an alternate universe this might’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 issue of each enemy to make up for the truth that there’s a couple of of you.
It’s been some time since I’ve performed vanilla Darkish Souls, however the skeleton folks in Undead Burg had 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 possibly can simply run again to the place you had been, minus a small chunk of your well being bar.
The mod remains to be thought-about to be in an alpha state, which implies there are some bugs, like a dragon who refuses to cease torching a bridge you should cross. A good friend and I toppled the dual gargoyles and the goat jerk with the 2 canine with out operating into something game-breaking, although. In truth, the fussiest a part of the expertise wasn’t even the mod’s fault. Darkish Souls is a particularly dense sport in comparison with Elden Ring and is stuffed with skinny stairways and catwalks completely less than code for greater than a single individual.
We may 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 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 had been nonetheless Darkish Souls newbies. These spear guys who conceal 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 gained’t speak about that.
However for essentially the most half, Lordran wasn’t prepared for 2 individuals who have seen the long run, know all its methods.
I used to be fearful that it could be onerous to return to a FromSoft sport with no devoted leap button and an enormous 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 may 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 defend is way much less daunting when you may tag group your means by way of its traps.
And with out the sport kicking one in every of you out after each boss struggle, you begin to settle into roles. One among us would take the lead whereas the opposite would keep again and search for openings that may continuously save the opposite from getting crushed.
It made me take into consideration Darkish Souls as if it had been an open world sport. Aside from not with the ability to freely teleport round, it was like taking part in a rudimentary Elden Ring. Peering over the stone partitions of the Undead Burg and seeing the remainder of the sport beneath provides you a similar rush that it does the primary time you ascend Stormveil Citadel. FromSoft has all the time been making open worlds that lure you to their farthest reaches, it simply acquired extra formidable over time.
Invasions are a part of the bundle too. Having them enabled is rather a lot like taking part in on a more durable issue the place you pray you don’t get jumped by another group in your strategy to a boss, similar to the previous days when Darkish Souls PvP was nonetheless new. Sadly, you’re restricted to people who find themselves additionally utilizing the mod, which implies you may 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.
Taking part in because the invader has its personal points at this stage within the mod’s improvement. I warped into one other individual’s world and it seemingly brought about them to spawn means beneath my location, leaving each of us in a form of purgatory till I disconnected. I’m apparently not alone on this scenario, and it’s doable it really works wonderful additional into the sport. Given the quantity 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 anticipate 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 absolutely advocate 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 strategy to maintain a good friend’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 operating round collectively (the mod helps as much as six gamers collectively without delay), however nothing a few group of Chosen Undead goes in opposition to the themes of the sport. You’re informed again and again by NPCs that you simply’ll go hole in case you hand over 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. Taking part in Darkish Souls alone can put on away your resolve, however having a good friend 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, nevertheless, satisfied me that sharing the journey with a good friend simply as important to the expertise, if no more so all these years later.