Press Switch To Solo

Recently in a session of Elden Ring (a game I have no idea how to get to the 'end' of, at this point), my internet went down. It's a thing that happens semi-frequently, because the telecommunications industry in this country has a stranglehold over any kind of government regulation that might-and should-break them up in order to provide more competition and, presumably, better services to me. 

Obligatory 'Fuck Comcast' here. 

Now that that is out of the way, let me get to the point.

Elden Ring changes pretty dramatically if you aren't online. All of the ghosts of other players travelling through the Lands Between are gone, both the successful and unsuccessful, and their messages-often just noise but there are a lot of helpful players out there, offering advice- no longer on the ground. Or walls. Or wherever someone crazy enough to jump to was able to get.

And it makes the game eerie in a way that it wasn't before. I understand that people don't want to play with others, and Elden Ring allows for that experience but it also takes on a more foreboding tone when you aren't online, either. The lights in that dungeon in the image are little items for me to pick up and when they go, they're gone-the whole space is just darkness and monsters. 

I won't lie to you: that becomes unnerving in a way that the game might intend. 

The effect isn't as noticeable when you're in the open world areas of the game, mostly because there's any number of things to pay attention to. Plus, frequently it's light out. But as soon as you come to an area where you need to pay attention, or it's night, it becomes interesting how much more alone I felt under those circumstances. 

What's particularly unusual about all of this is that none of From Software's games, and Elden Ring in particular, could exist without the internet. 

Not just because of the ghosts of other players, or the messages that people leave behind, or even because of the lore industry that has popped up around the Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro Elden Ring titles. 

Because the game leans into telling you something and then not letting you easily access that information anywhere else that you play. I can't tell you how many times I've had to utilize the internet to figure out what to do next, but I can tell you how long I would've kept playing if I hadn't had that access to that information: about four hours. 

I'm currently pushing 200.