Demon’s Souls (online)

Call ahead to The Nexus, we’re making a reservation for two

INFO

FORMAT PS5

PRICE £69.99

ETA Out now

PUB PlayStation Studios

DEV Bluepoint Games, FromSoftware

OFFLINE

REVIEW 9/10 (gold)

PLAYERS 1-6

CROSSPLAY N/A

CROSS-GEN N/A

All the games in the Souls series would still be excellent if they were purely single-player, with no online functionality, but they wouldn’t feel the same – hence the community’s devastation when the official servers for the PS3 version of Demon’s Souls were turned off in 2018. Online is really the soul of the game and its sequels.

Even if you have never once connected directly to someone else’s game, online play could still have an impact on your experience. While you play you’ll often note ghostly, foggy forms of other warriors in the world of Boletaria – these are actual people playing the game. Messages can be left as signs on the ground, notes from others doing everything from warning about difficult areas to providing tips on how to beat a boss (such as recommending fire attacks). A player’s death can be a warning in and of itself, too, as you can view bloodstains to see an echo of how a player perished.

BLACK AND BLUE

Summoning phantoms is how you connect directly with other players’ worlds, and connecting works well in my playthroughs, with little network failure. Summoning phantoms is also an area where Bluepoint has notably upgraded things, allowing up to six players in your game at once as a mixture of coloured spirits.

Blue phantoms are friendly helpers, and summoning them from their sign allows them to help you through a level. Private servers are an option, enabling