// KOTAKU — GAMING
I’m An Elden Ring Sicko, But 10 Hours With The Duskbloods Has Me Worried FromSoftware’s Next Game Isn’t For Me
After putting well over a hundred hours into Elden Ring Nightreign, I have been stoked out of my mind for The Duskbloods. Even though I had never engaged in FromSoftware PvP before, the PvE aspects of The Duskbloods really appealed to me, and all the previews suggested that the game itself would include enough of a balance of both that I could get by being somewhat mediocre at murdering other players…at least until the final clash. I braced myself: I was probably going to lose a lot, and that was fine. I was going to have fun!
Well, the network test is over now, and I had…some fun, I guess. I also had a pretty bad time, because I lost. A lot. Like, egregiously. And losing was deeply unfun. And I’m struggling to work out in my head if things will be better in the actual game, or if I’m just doomed to suck at The Duskbloods and should give up and go back to Nightreign.
Now, not all my frustration is loss-related. I actually came out of the weekend with the firm conviction that a Network Test is a terrible environment in which to preview a game. For one, I couldn’t play with my friends. I usually play Nightreign in trios with my partner and a good friend. We know that The Duskbloods is only going to be set up for singles and duos, but we were hoping we’d at least be able to all queue into the same game together and compete with each other. I genuinely have no idea if I’ll be able to do that in the final game or not, though, because that feature was unavailable in the Network Test. We did occasionally manage to get into the same games together by queuing at the exact same time and forming alliances when we could. Those moments where we could team up and work together to collect virtue, defend against other players, and take on bosses were some of the best during all my sessions. But it sucked to not be able to consistently share my experience with my friends, and I hope the main game includes that option.
Additionally, the Network Test only had one map available, and a selection of six characters. It took me a while to click with a character, but by the end I ended up liking Trang Lanh quite a bit when I could pair her with a Kin (an NPC ally) that could tank or distract for me a bit. The test also had what I suspect was a deliberately limited pool of bosses and enemies and events. I don’t know that the main game will have more of the latter (it will have three maps and ten characters to start), but if all those options aren’t expanded, it’s going to get real boring, real fast. After a few hours of play, every match felt painfully similar, which I think made losing repeatedly feel even worse than it would have otherwise.
Comment byu/Jam_beter_then_jelly from discussion inTheDuskbloods
Now look. I’m not a sore loser. I suck at all sorts of games and still have fun with them. And I’m extremely willing to admit that PvP is not my bag. But I guess I just thought I’d stand a little more of a chance than I did. The trailers and previews really made it seem like players who wanted to focus more on PvE could use boss fights and exploration to buff themselves up enough to hold their own when it was time to fight. And I think that might be true, but the problem is I kept getting murdered by other players while trying to do these other activities. Folks just swooped in on me and took me out, again and again, then stole my kill or flame or whatever for themselves. On one hand, preventing me from getting virtue and getting some of your own is a viable strategy, I guess. On the other hand, there’s no real reward for killing other players outside of Ritual Sites and certain Sigils (basically specific goals you might have within a match), so getting demolished repeatedly just felt…bad. One guy even killed me, then immediately teleported to the same place I spawned back at, and killed me again before I could get my head on straight. Why!
Also, you have to get really close to people to form Alliances with them, but if you get close your Kin l