A massive Dark Souls 3 mod just released its first demo, thereby adding more lore, a changed combat system, and even new enemies to the base game. As eager players jumped on the chance to try the Dark Souls: Archthrones mod, many of them have found the gameplay to be a little more challenging than they were hoping for – even for a Souls game.
Eight years after its release, Dark Souls 3 remains one of the most iconic soulslike games on the PC. No surprises there, but the game has suffered the effects of aging, which prompted a team of talented concept artists, writers, programmers, composers, and voice actors to start working on the Dark Souls: Archthrones project. They released the first demo on Friday, March 15.
Despite many Dark Souls fans praising the ambitious modding effort, there have been numerous reports of unbalanced gameplay since the demo released, resulting in frustration. Players on the Dark Souls and Archthrones subreddits complain of performance issues, too few souls dropping from mobs, slow stamina regeneration, and incredibly lengthy boss fights.
That said, one helpful Redditor suggests starting at the Village, which should make Dark Souls: Archthrones a bit more manageable.
If you’re willing to explore this impressive yet slightly unbalanced Dark Souls 3 project yourself, here’s what to expect:
- Nonlinear progression: choose your own path.
- More weapons.
- More armor sets.
- No less than 17 new bosses.
- New combat mechanics, including guard counters, deflection, and perfect blocking.
- New NPCs and side quests. The NPCs are voiced.
- Five new and re-imagined worlds.
Does that sound like the Dark Souls experience for you? If so, you can download Dark: Souls: Archthrones for free on their Nexus Mods page. Of course, you do need the base game.
And if not, there are always more action-adventure games out there, and no shortage of RPG games to play while waiting for the modders to patch up the Archthrones project.
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