Current Events > Are the Dark Souls games still playable without an active online community?

(+) Yeah! (+)

*No spoilers, please*

Legit question, as Im just ignorant on the games mechanics.

From my understanding, a part of the game involves invading other players games to either help them or attack them. Id imagine that the player base is greatly diminished, just because thats what happens with most games as they age. Does that have an important impact on the way how the games are played?

Its preferable that theres less people online tbh.

I like it more in offline mode. The only thing you kind of miss out on is covenant stuff, but it's not a huge deal unless you are trying to get everything.

If you don't care about getting platinum then yeah, since some trophies/achievements are tied to multiplayer things

Two of DS3's DLC bosses (Demon Princes and Midir) are a bitch and a half solo (unless you cheese Midir with Pestilent Mist) but otherwise you can easily get by solo for DS 1-3.

the games are very much still playable. the online aspects dont add a lot beyond pvp, and many people prefer playing with them turned off anyway

it does not, it's a solid game solo. Depending on who invades your game anyway, it can be better solo, tbh. The way the invasions work is that you need to be in a special state from consuming an item that lasts until you die to be invaded, so if you want you can play the game solo anyway (except in 3, when you get that state after beating a boss too, which leads to people camping outside of boss rooms)

Dark Souls is better without PvP, so yes.

MacadamianNut3 posted...

If you don't care about getting platinum then yeah, since some trophies/achievements are tied to multiplayer things

All 3 games are 100%able without online. 1 and 3 let you farm the covenant items off enemy drops. 2 lets you buy the covenant spells in ng+2.

I honestly prefer playing it offline either way. Online can be fun here and there, but to me the true experience is offline. No invasions/invading, no summoning/getting summoned. No soap stone signs either.

I am playing through dark souls 1 for my first time myself (thanks to the recent black friday sales on psn), and I am having a fun time offline. Wanted to be fleshy since going around looking like a raisin all the time wasn't doing it for me....just popped a humanity, enabled offline mode and game away.

They're better.

As many have suggested, the game is honestly better without the online stuff anyway and 100% completeable without ever doing any online interaction.

But dont go sleeping on the community. I was playing DS1 just a weeks ago (Elden Ring got me itching to play some Souls), and I got invadeda surprising amount of times. DS2 was kinda a dead zone, I think I only got invaded once or twice, but then I got to three and went offline as I was being invaded so much in that game.

They still have a fairly active invader scene going on, or at least, 1 and 3 do. 2 was a bit slow on that front.

I've always played offline. Better exploration imo.

The Souls games are first and foremost single player experiences. The online has always been secondary and fairly wonky at that.