From Software's most recent masterpiece, Dark Souls, is a solid improvement on everything that made Demon's Souls great... except when it comes to online potential.

The Lost Potential

When Dark Souls was first announced, I was one of the happiest people around, especially after realizing that this game was going to be an all around more ambitious project than Demon's Souls, including a greater focus on online play. In Demon's Souls, players were limited to either invading other players as red phantoms or assisting players as white phantoms. With Dark Souls, From Software added nine covenants to the game, which essentially act as PvP and PvE factions. Joining the Blade of the Darkmoon covenant, for example, rewards you for invading 'guilty' players who have sinned by breaking covenants or killing other players. Joining the Warriors of Sunlight makes it easier to be summoned as a white phantom to assist other players, and your spirit takes on a golden hue.

The covenants had me excited. Aside from Final Fantasy XI's niche success on the Playstation 2 in Japan, online gaming on consoles has been mostly limited to first person shooters. While I fondly remember all those hours spent dueling on 4-1 at level 120 in Demon's Souls, the game wasn't going to attract a large online crowd; there just wasn't enough reason to keep playing. Covenants in Dark Souls, however, had the potential to attract and sustain a lasting online community, so I'll reiterate once more: I was excited. Unfortunately, this excitement was short-lived, as I realized that Bandai Namco (the publisher of Dark Souls) and From Software had decided to host Dark Souls through a peer-to-peer lobby network instead of on a dedicated server like Demon's Souls (which was published by Atlus). 

This was a bad move.

On many levels, I understand what they were going for. Hosting on a peer-to-peer network means that Dark Souls is cheaper to support over a longer period of time, and it can host more players without the heavy demand that dedicated servers can place upon a publisher. As well, From Software has noted that it wants players to rely on the goodwill of strangers, and they did not want to create a game where players can easily co-op through the entire experience (partial isolation is a key part of the Dark Souls theme). Unfortunately, they succeeded too well in isolating their players, because if you get assigned to a bad lobby (players are randomly assigned as soon as they start the game), Dark Souls can sometimes feel emptier than its predecessor ever did. 

In my first play through, I got to have some fun summoning strangers to fight the twin Gargoyles at the Bell Tower, but for all of my boss fights thereafter, it was considered an extremely rare luxury that I would ever be able to find one of those white player summon signs. After finally defeating Ornstein & Smough by myself (I wanted Ornstein's armor, so I had to kill him last, which makes the fight quite tough), I decided to stick around so that struggling players could summon me to make their fights easier. Even then, with my soul level at 45 (about average) at one of the most difficult fights in the game, I was waiting for up to 45 minutes between summons. Later, I decided to join the Blades of Darkmoon to see if I could invade some guilty players but, out of dozens of tries in different areas (at level 60), I believe I succeeded only three times, and for two of those times, I spawned facing three players just waiting to send me home. Needless to say, I still haven't managed to attain a higher rank in the Blades of Darkmoon.

In the end, however, I can't stay mad for too long about Dark Souls' hosting decisions, because in terms of everything else, From Software has delivered tenfold. Dark Souls is an incredibly beautiful game, and seeing the countless messages left on balcony ledges that read "Gorgeous View" always brings a smile to my face. To me, Dark Souls' online problems are less a reason for anger, and more a sad case of lost potential. This game had, and still has, the opportunity to foster a thriving online community, but with the currently fragmented lobby system, I'm worried that they've settled for having a decent one. Either way, you can still expect to see me logging hours in the coming months, testing out character builds and hoping that, one day, my Blue Eye Orb won't always return with an "invasion failed" message.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Senior Staff Writer