Everything is dead. This is one of the inescapable truths of the universe: all that is animate must succumb to death. That’s true for our fragile, fleeting human beings, and it’s true for the best video games ever made. Everything dies, no matter how important it once was.
11 years is a long time in this industry. This is a huge divide, an era.feels like a long time ago dark soul Release – When FromSoft’s first mainstream success, the meteoric success began to cast a shadow over the rest of the gaming industry forever. On a quiet afternoon in September 2011, FromSoft changed the course of gaming history forever and built on its own proprietary genre: Souls-like games.
Years after the game’s debut, there’s no shortage of veritable tomes—detailed accounts of how it came to be, art collections during development, reports from the production front, all like interviews with Scorsese received by fans and fans alike. The adoration of screen students. But games are mysterious things. Unlike movies, they are rarely enjoyed entirely out of the context of their release – so much of the actual experience is baked into playing the game “live”; or enemies) to fuel your experience.
With Dark Souls, this is especially important. Complicating the world-famous sadistic atmosphere and grueling nature is “optional” multiplayer, a mode that allows other players to “hack” your game and ambush you to steal your hard-earned souls. Or let you dive into another world and become a vessel for FromSoft’s wishes and punish other weaker players. But how realistic is it to expect a healthy playerbase to still roam the streets of Lordran 11 years after a game’s release? When you’re on the cusp of a major boss fight, how likely are you to experience the adrenaline rush of being invaded?
Sadly, Lordran lost the draw it once had. People no longer make frequent pilgrimages to the lands of ancient lords. Since we were first introduced to Lordran, the tourist boards of Yharnam, the Land of the Underland, and Ashina have upped their game. But there’s still a local festival–an annual event that sees the lobby swell and the dimly lit streets once again beset by footsteps.
Enter r/DarkSouls’ ‘return to lordland’, fans return to the game every year, allowing weather-beaten veterans and fresh-faced undead prisoners to experience the same unease and unrelenting dread that they experienced during the game’s release window. It starts on the weekend and runs until January 20th. The campaign’s goal is to recreate a completely organic Dark Souls experience; for example, you’re not encouraged to use passwords or specific lobbies to play with the community.
“We actually recommend against using pairing passwords, except to summon friends,” said SammieAgnes of the DarkSouls subreddit. “Attempts to set event passwords in the past have not worked and will end up dividing the playerbase as it is difficult to get everyone on the same page. If summoning a friend, try using the password only when summoning them, then once they connect Remove the password. Also, make sure your matching area is not restricted!”
After finishing Bloodborne for the first time last week, I took my first tentative steps into Dark Souls over the weekend–and the experience was incredible. The Xbox servers are really crowded; whether you’re summoned for co-op or outright killed by someone who is clearly closer to divinity than you are, I can only imagine that’s what it was like to play this game in the heady days of 2011 Feel.
Now the game has more player resources. If you want help parsing the game’s intentionally opaque and obscure story, there are tons of explanations and TL;DR online. There are countless Dark Souls guides available to help you fend off some of the game’s more brutal enemies and overcome tougher challenges. There’s a fan-run multiplayer tournament where you earn points by completing requests for help from other players. There is a fashion contest. There’s a community-backed collective of merchants, and deals, mules, and giveaways are commonplace—an oasis in a sea of fear.
So if your heart is empty and your thumb is itching after resting Malenia, the Goddess of Rot, for the third time in 12 months, it may be time to go back to where you started – retrace your steps and rediscover Lordran, the more powerful Elden Ring. Scrappy, dirtier, rawer version. It is also an important part of the genre’s storied history. Now is the perfect time to go back.
