We’ve just watched a lengthy, detailed demo of an area in Dark Souls called the Duke’s Archives, full of huge halls, winding staircases, bizarre enemies, and humongous bosses… and at the end we learn that this entire section probably won’t be encountered by players until the second or third playthrough. That’s right: Dark Souls is so enormous that it has vast sections designed to only be discovered by the most dedicated delvers, and yet these sections are as detailed and full of challenge as a core level of any other gameMany of the devs have been playing the game for hundreds of hours and still haven’t seen everything in the game. And we thought Demon’s Souls swallowed up our free time….
A single camp fire is your spawn point and your opportunity to get free healing as well as your connection to other players. If you choose to save your game at a fire you know you’re safe, but if you push past a fire and risk trying to reach a further one, your rewards will be greater. If you use a fire’s free healing ability, all nearby enemies respawn, so you have to think about what’s worth more to you.