If you've been craving jolly cooperation in the original Dark Souls, now is the time to play

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The chosen undead rise again

One of the best parts of a Dark Souls game is the social element. Reading messages scrawled by possibly helpful, possibly malicious players, taking on bosses with a co-op buddy, and of course, invading and repelling invaders. Sadly, like every other multiplayer game though, seasons change, people move on, and the population that makes those interactions possible dwindles. It can be impossible to capture that original magic.

But not this weekend. This weekend, fans of the original Dark Souls are flocking back to the game to relive their first experience and provide those who missed those heady days a chance to get in on the action.

Spearheaded by the Dark Souls subreddit, today marks the unofficial, but popularly supported “global restart day.” Fans of the original have been called upon to play the game again like it was their very first time. Pick any class, invade or gank as you desire, and have fun co-oping. The only rules are to keep it clean. Invading with an overpowered or “cheap” build is fine, but glitching or exploiting will be seen as an indictable offensive.

While today marks the start of the player driven event, there is no definite end time. Players are encouraged to spend as much time in Lordran as they like before moving on again. Plenty of players have already expressed their intention to play through at least the weekend or into the week, so hopefully new players will have enough time to get through the game the way it was meant to be experienced.

I love this idea. As a big fan of a lot of multiplayer titles, it’s always a bittersweet thing to remember the good old days when a game was hot and know that you’ll never experience it like that again. Having a chance to relive the glory days of early Dark Souls is an opportunity I’ll be taking advantage of.