Do you engage in online play in soulslikes (PvP, co-op, invasions) or do you prefer solo, single player gameplay?

I only invaded once. I won, but it did not give me any satisfaction.

I've been invaded, with the usual mixed outcomes, but it's rarely a delightful experience.

Having a vital presence at large in my gloomy dead world dispels the atmosphere that the creators worked so hard to cultivate. It's like watching a horror movie, but with commercials for Chuck E Cheese.

I never enjoyed the PvP components in DS1 or DS2 much. DS1 was just backstab succ and DS2 PvP was based on soul memory which made a bad situation worse.

I really enjoyed the PvP that DS3 had to offer however. The spacing and timing for PvP was quite fine tuned and could be fun and even competitive in a silly soulslike way.

But I loathed the duelists and the fightclubs. I always enjoyed acting like an NPC and being a part of the level. And most of all I enjoyed learning the levels front and back without PvE attacking me.

With Elden Ring... I dunno. Overworld invasions were terrible. Anywhere you could ride Torrent was aimless for invasions and PvP, but it was a fun ride for a while in places like the Capital or Stormveil. Just seriously goofy with all the lasers and explosions.

I think scripted invasions are interesting, but random ones are annoying, especially on a first playthrough.

In DS2, the Looking Glass Knight would summon players, if any were available. I thought that was a pretty cool feature.

But to be fun, I think they need to be predictable or opt-in. If you join a PVP covenant, or if it's a scripted encounter, it makes sense, like replacing an NPC invader with a player. If you're just trying to play solo, it sucks to be invaded on your way to a boss, trying to save health for a tough battle.

Loved it, but got tired of people cheating their ass off. Since then I only play modded on private VLAN with friends. I do miss a few random encounters with surprisingly nice and fun players, but those were pretty rare anyway.

Even back in the Demons' Souls days, invaders had evolved into highly specialized, finely tuned predators. And, sadly, am but a wounded gazelle. When I occasionally play online, the encounters are over pretty quick.

I love invading so much. it took years to finally open my mind to it but finally after reading some interviews with the absolute chaos goblin of a director I finally got it. the goal of invasions is to create novelty.

I made a character who could just use a variety of tools to do very silly shit in the widest variety of locations and I have been so happy ever since.

Do it, OP. it's amazing. shenanigans are amazing.

Did some invasions in Elden ring but it was often 3v1. Very hard but fun. Played as a blue as well.

Yes. I love it and think it's overlooked and under-developed.

As a noob it was great to have the option to get help in DS3 for tough bosses and see the whole game. Same for a few ER bosses that I've not been able to beat solo. ER also has a lot of catacombs/dungeons etc that don't require co-op, but are a lot more fun to dungeon crawl with a few randos.

DS2 and DS3 PVP are a lot of fun. DS2 Undead Purgatory arena and DS3 Irithyll are usually bumping with activity. DS1 Oolacile is ok, but I usually lose there lol.

Invasions are the best, though. Especially getting invaded. It adds a new variable to the games we've played 100 times. Some of the funniest situations come from the unpredictability of other players. I see how it can be a nuisance for people, but embracing it made me enjoy these games even more.

I've never played online before, but I wanted to help others out in fights I know well, or want to replay; I guess now with nightreign I'll get my fill for that co op experience. Maybe I'll try for other games as well, but besides Elden Ring I don't know how active the co op scene will be.

I used to spend hours in the undead burg thunderdome in ds1. There were a lot of people dueling and I thought the simple meta was great. I never really got into pvp in later titles though. Always loved being invaded so I left that on through all of the games

I put my summon symbol down but never summon myself. And after replaying ER recently i ended up with over 100 new rune arcs, with at least 50 of those being from melania and a good deal of those were done solo for people.

I do play online to be invaded but i don't really recall the last time i was invaded. Which is fine since i care more about helping people get past bosses than PvP

Only time i have ever enjoyed invasions was in the nightmare realms of bloodborne. Summoning never worked for me in elden ring at launch, so I'd never have help on bosses but I'd still get invaded way too often. So i always play offline now.