Multiplayer:
Essentially, this game is online 100% of the time, unless you choose to play offline, which would just be incredibly boring. Interaction with other players is limited to phantoms, aka ghost-like figures of other actual people characters roaming around the same areas you are, just not in your world. They can leave messages that can either guide you, or lead you astray, on top of that, people can help you by entering your world and allowing for four player co-op. There is no voice chat, so people have to rely on spur of the moment teamwork and actions.
At the same time as co-op (blue phantoms), there is competitive (Black Phantoms). The black phantoms in Darks Souls is different from Demon's Souls, in that any player can turn your world randomly, "Black," by placing a certain stone somewhere in your world. Your world now has more monsters, that are more difficult. To end this hellish difficulty you must find that stone, and activate it. Once activated, you enter the antagonists world "invading," it. Now, once you have invaded their world, you still have to deal with all the monsters they deal with, and they know you are there, so prepare for a surprise attack. You must hunt down that person, and kill them. Otherwise, you're doomed to your world being "black," forever.
On top of this stone, players can invade your world at any time and choose to eff you up! And since there is no nexus, you are never safe, as far as I know.
No Nexus:
Demon's Souls had a safe haven, that could not be invaded ever. It was a central hub, that would transport you to different maps or levels if you will. However, in Dark Souls it is an open world environment with no transporting, unless to invade someone else's world. This means you are never safe. Instead of having a Nexus to level up at and be safe, you have bonfires to level up at and not be safe. As well as leveling, you can strengthen bonfires which costs humanity, and strengthening it will help you as well as other players who use that bonfire, it will increase your supply of spells and flasks you can get from the bonfires.
The Dark Souls world is open-world. Which means it's free roaming. It is compact however. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim where you are likely to have miles on end of open beautiful scenery without much enemy confrontation along the way to your destination; in Dark Souls you will be constantly running into enemies as you travel, and you can actually go to anywhere in the map that you can see. You see a castle off in the distance? You can get to it, some how. The scope of Dark Souls is huge, Producer Kei Horono calls it a "..seamlessly connected world. If you can see an area in the distance then you can go there. This world is about three to four times as big as the world in Demon's Souls. There's also double the amount of accessories and weapons in this game." This game will likely run players, hundreds of hours of game time. If not hundreds and hundreds.
Gameplay:
This time around, there will be no grass collecting off of enemies. Instead, there are flasks which will recharge your health, but you only have a set amount to use between each recharge at a bonfire. Additionally, there will be no magic bar, it is going the ways of Dungeons and Dragons, with a set amount of spells you can use per recharge at bonfire. I welcome the change to both, it makes it much more exciting, and awesome that you don't have to collect a different kind of herb for your magic bar. It should make pvp a little more interesting too, as people won't be able to sound off a ton of spells, and then recharge their magic, repeat. They will have to be a little more careful. Another thing, is that in Demon's Souls you couldn't jump, which you Do get used to. However, in Dark Souls that fact that you can jump is just so awesome!!!!
Classes:
Class selection will be similar to Demon's Souls, in that you are basically choosing starting stats and gear when you choose your character. But as you progress through the game, and level up, you will be able to equip your character as you please, and get various abilities, essentially making it to where you can be whatever you want. In Dark Souls though, it does seem like character selection will have a bigger impact than in Demon's Souls. There are 10 starting classes that I know of, and some you can unlock, here are the starting classes that I pulled off siliconera.com:
-Warrior: Weapons expert with high dexterity and strength.
-Knight: High HP, and solid armor make this class difficult to topple. (Ha, yeah right...)
Wanderer: High Dexterity and wields a scimitar. (Just like Demon's Souls)
Thief: Deals high critical hit damage, and has a master key (Not sure what it does, I'm pretty sure it makes you able to unlock all low level doors without finding a key for it. Pretty sweet....)
Bandit: High strength, and wields a battleaxe.
Hunter: Wields a bow, and is capable at close range, but is vulnerable to magic.
Sorcerer: Casts a spell similar to Soul Arrow (Royalty class anyone?) And is from The Dragon School (effing sweet bragging rights).
Pyromancer: Casts fire spells, and wields a hand axe.
Cleric: Casts healing miracles, and wields a mace.
Deprived: Starts game with no clothes, a plank shield, and club (kind of like the barbarian?).
I can tell you, that my personal first choice is between either the Knight, the Wanderer, the Bandit, or the Pyromancer, what's yours???
Additional tidbits of info:
According to From Software, Games Journalists that have early copies of the game for reviewing are having a more difficult time with the game then the general user will. They amped the servers up to include more black phantoms then normal to stop them in their tracks, which is just flat out hilarious. Furthermore, early players discussion forums indicate someone who is 40 hours into the the game, but only a quarter through beating it. Whoooo-ie!!!! Sounds pretty awesome if I don't say so myself!!!!!
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