I hate when games force MP in my SP experience. It shows that their "ideas" trump the players personal preference.
Yes and no. While it can be annoying for some games where multiplayer is some half baked aspect that's tacked on after the fact, the multiplayer system in Dark Souls is a key concept.
Dealing with other players, either by seeing grey ghosts, touching bloodstains, reading messages, summoning aid or fighting invaders... it's all part of the core game.
But that's my point. It's a shame that what the developers consider (and many others) part of the core game overrides those other opinions or even unable to compromise by just simply adding an offline mode.
It's not difficult to play offline. Block the game with your firewall of choice. Done. But honestly?
I thought I would hate the online portion back when Demon's Souls first came out. I usually prefer to play alone, save for when I have friends about in co-op games. But the Souls series? Indirect co-op/PvP? Being able to be a troll, and put trolls in their place? Yes. You will enjoy it.
Unless you're cheating, natch. If you're gonna go up against other people and give them no chance of even possibly winning against you, or run into other players' games and one-shot everything, ruining the sense of accomplishment the series is so well loved for, you're a ing ed clown. Sorry, thinking/talking about people who enjoy doing that kind of stuff gets me worked up a smidge. Trolling on the other hand (nobody says the invasions you pull off have to be fair) tends to result in hilarity in this series.
Yeah, if you can't summon, and don't see the grey phantoms or messages all over the place, you're "offline".
I know that having Steam in offline mode works just fine. So you don't need to play with your firewall settings.
I tried that but I still had the ghosts running around, which led me to block it with the firewall.
I hope they manage to put out a trainer for this game.