• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

How was your online experience with Bloodborne ?

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Firstly I apologise as I know there's been a lot of Bloodborne threads recently but I wanted to specifically ask about folks online experience with Bloodborne and how they found it - coop and PVP.

After finishing the game with around 50 hours on the clock for a first run through (amazing game overall) I must say that this is one of the worst 'online' From Software experiences I've had. I absolutely love the coop/PVP in the Souls series, and spent many an hour playing it but it feels like with each successive game they've made the online experience has gotten worse from game to game. The bell mechanic is so random and I really do prefer the summons signs on the ground. Sometimes I would wait ages for people to come into my game or to be summoned into someones game, hell even using the sinister bell to invade someones game would result in a long wait at times.

Now I'm perfectly willing to admit that maybe there's a problem on my end but I haven't had any online problems with other recent games and was just wondering now that folks have spent a good bit of time with the game, what's been your experience with Bloodborne so far online wise ?
 
I'm like 30 hours into the game and still haven't been invaded, is that normal? I constantly see that "bell ringing" thing pop up but nothing ever happens.

I haven't tried coop either.
 
Online was really bad, tried playing with a friend once and so much time was spent just even trying to connect to each other, and once connected the FPS took such a huge hit that it was pretty unplayable. This is something the game is really hurting in and I hope they fix soon, even though the basis of it probably can't be fixed (no invasions unless you ring the bell :(.) Definitely the worst of the souls games when it comes to online experiences, which sucks since the rest of the game is so good.

I'm like 30 hours into the game and still haven't been invaded, is that normal? I constantly see that "bell ringing" thing pop up but nothing ever happens.

You can only be invaded normally in 2 areas of the game, you now have to ring that bell if you want to pvp.
 
Wasn't that great and yeah I can agree it was very random. I was told a couple steps to join friends faster, stand in the same spot, out up a password etc.
 
I have been helping other people this week and I get summoned usually in less than a minute. Usually as fast as Souls games. Only tried summoning once and I had to wait for few minutes for someone to join so not really as bad as people make it out to be. Haven't tried invading but considering how it works in the game not surprised by the lack of it.
 
I never someone people, since I always want to solo the bosses. However, I do allow myself to be summoned, as I enjoy helping others out. I made a new character and parked her at Level 20 and helped kill Father G dozens of times last night. I'd get summoned within 10 seconds of ringing my bell last night, probably the best co-op connections so far.

I did manage to help some GAFfers as well a week or 2 ago, using the GAF password. Didn't have much trouble joining their game.

But I hear a lot of people are having trouble connecting with others, with/without passwords, and the whole "suspend mode messes up co-op" thing sucks. Luckily, I haven't experienced these problems, but then again, to date I've spent 80% of my time with the game solo.
 
I agree with bloodborne having the worst multiplayer component across all modern FROM titles. I stopped trying to pvp and coop for now waiting for the first patch. Combined with the hilarious loading times its a pain in the a** looking for pvp activity...
 
Online tried it twice due to massive fps drops whenever I managed to summon anyone.

Shame as the rest of the game is godlike. Not too much of an issue for me as I normally play souls games without summoning on my first playthrough - hope they fix it in time for my bloodtinge build run.
 
These are my issues with the online implementation:
- Vials / QS bullets don't replenish from storage after a co-op or PVP session
- Invasions limited unless a bellkeeper is present
- Health penalty to invaders
- Not being able to see a ghost of who you are going to summon
- Half the hunters I played with used the same weapon as me because there's not enough variety
- It doesn't work very well. I'm waiting around forever like the GFWL version of DS.

In Dark Souls 1 I would make characters just to PVP and co-op specific areas of the game. Dark Souls 2 made that harder with soul memory and limited red eyed orbs, but Bloodborne makes this pretty unfeasible because I can't consistently get invasions anywhere but the Nightmare areas. Even then, I have to wait a while sometimes. Co-op takes way too long. I switch to Dark Souls 2 on Steam and I'm summoned in an instant.

It's so much fun when it works, as it always is with these games. I spent a lot of time helping people with the first two bosses. But there was a lot of needless waiting.
 
Got invaded once, tought i was gonna die but i ended up destroying my enemy....
Co op could be better if the frame rate wouldn't sunk so much....
Amazing game anyway.
Wish i had more time to play in this past week..
 
The messaging system and the phantom ghost work great, more so than the other games. Can't tell you how many times I've been saved in a boss fight thanks to a kind hunter liking one of my messages.

Being summoned worked for me most of the time but for some reason trying to get someone to summon never did. That needs to be fixed. However, when I do play with others the framerate and lag is very minimal.

Never tried invading but I have been invaded a few times.
 
I agree with bloodborne having the worst multiplayer component across all modern FROM titles. I stopped trying to pvp and coop for now waiting for the first patch. Combined with the hilarious loading times its a pain in the a** looking for pvp activity...

No one is going to really do all that much PvP/Fight Clubs in BB since the game nerfs invaders, hard. If it would even work half of the time.
 
I've only done about 10 hours, but I really dislike the online functionality so far, and it's so frustrating because it worked so well in Demon's Souls and was on of my favourite parts of the game. I've tried summoning someone for help about four times now and it's never worked, and I've rung the small bell in front of a couple of earlier bosses and not been summoned either. I had a similar experience with Dark Souls as well, although I managed to co-op with randoms a number of times and even got invaded two or three times as I remember.
 
Lets say that online multiplayer is not one of BB strong points imo. Lets see what FS does with future patches / DLC.
 
I think I dropped into someone's game once and helped them fight Vicar Amelia. Other than that. It didn't seem to work for me. Which was a huge shame as when it did it was really fun. Such a great game that it didn't really bother me but would have certainly added something
 
Having played the game without using the bell, and just now reaching the first area with a bell maiden,
Nightmare Frontier
, I was invaded twice in 15m. Seems good so far.
 
I don't think you can even be invaded if you don't try to co-op, so if you give up on co-oping you won't get invaded either.

No, you can be invaded. I was chilling at a lantern, to take a piss. Came back and was wondering why I can't warp. The only time I got invaded btw.
 
I don't think you can even be invaded if you don't try to co-op, so if you give up on co-oping you won't get invaded either.

In certain areas
Nightmare of Mensis and Nightmare Frontier
, PVP is turned on regardless of whether you try to co-op or not, if you're in Online mode.
 
I don't think you can even be invaded if you don't try to co-op, so if you give up on co-oping you won't get invaded either.

I just left it on just incase it started to work for whatever reason. It happened when I went through the area we were both at pretty much.
 
No, you can be invaded. I was chilling at a lantern, to take a piss. Came back and was wondering why I can't warp. The only time I got invaded btw.

Fascinating, every time I did a successful invasion it was 2v1, lol. I assumed it was a pre-requisite given its occurrences and what I've seen on reddit.
 
i only tried coop with a friend, but that went surprisingly well with that "trick" (setting a long password, both standing roughly in same place in their worlds, inviting player rings beckoning bell, invitee waits 5secs and rings resonant bell) someone posted shortly after it came out.
 
Fascinating, every time I did a successful invasion it was 2v1, lol. I assumed it was a pre-requisite given its occurrences and what I've seen on reddit.

After reading super-famicoms post, it explains it why. haha. I didn't try to ring the bell very often, because most of the time I solo'd the boss anyway. Idk after 50mins of waiting for coop every time I gave up on even trying. So I guess that explains why I got invaded only one time.
 
Summoned a few times for help with certain bosses (without passwords) and was usually pretty reliable.

Used the resonant bell many times (again w/o passwords) in front of several boss rooms (
Gascoigne, BSB, Amelia, Paarl, Logarius, Ebrietas
) for echo grinding and was usually able to get into other people's games under 5 minutes on average.

Got invaded a few times only in areas where the Bell Maidens showed up.
 
Having a blast helping people in co-op. I've never have to wait more than a minute to be summoned. The password system can use a bit of work, as it takes my friend and I a bit more time to be connect to one another, but my personal experience has been pretty awesome thus far.

That said, it's quite clear that many other people are having issues with co-op and PvP, so I hope From Software works out the kinks soon.
 
My brother and I did co-op for about 70% of the game with zero connection issues, and we got invaded a couple times. It's not as robust as other entries in the Souls series, but then again it isn't a Souls game. If you're disappointed in the online here, just wait for Dark Souls 3 as it obviously wasn't a focus here.
 
Helped out a couple people with bossfights and got invaded a few times in the invasion zones. Flawless experience for me. Never had to wait for more than a couple minutes either. Then again, I didn't try to activly match up with someone or try to pvp.
 
Pretty great when it works but my game slows to a crawl in some areas, most notably Old Yarnhan which I get drops in single player as well anyway but with other player here it crawls.
 
Can't say I'm disappointed by the lack of invasions. I hated that shit in Dark Souls.
Only been invaded twice in Bloodborne and naturally died both times because for some reason every time I am invaded I'm swarmed by enemies already....
 
Never been able to summon anyone or be summoned. First few days is explained by me using suspend/resume but after that I'm not sure what's wrong.
 
Dissapointing. I did have a couple of successful summons, but they're maybe a 20 % of total tries. Never been invaded, and have invaded four times, which is maybe 10 % of the times I would've liked to invade.
 
Very bad...so bad that I can easily call it broken.

I spent over 4 hours trying to connect with a friend. Didn't work. Tried another friend...worked twice after trying for 5 hours.

I'm so sick of excuses...From Software needs to fix their shit. I've beat the game twice on my own, lemme play with my friends.
 
Only got invaded once during my pve playthrough, I was very sad because I love kicking their asses outta my game.

The bell maiden system is one of the stupidest things I've seen implimented, even on paper you could look at it and go "Hey that won't work".

Done a bit of PvP at end game, but with the amount of time I have to wait for someone + the invader health penalty it just isn't worth it.
 
I never someone people, since I always want to solo the bosses. However, I do allow myself to be summoned, as I enjoy helping others out. I made a new character and parked her at Level 20 and helped kill Father G dozens of times last night. I'd get summoned within 10 seconds of ringing my bell last night, probably the best co-op connections so far.

I did manage to help some GAFfers as well a week or 2 ago, using the GAF password. Didn't have much trouble joining their game.

But I hear a lot of people are having trouble connecting with others, with/without passwords, and the whole "suspend mode messes up co-op" thing sucks. Luckily, I haven't experienced these problems, but then again, to date I've spent 80% of my time with the game solo.
This still hasn't been patched yet? I suspended my game earlier this week and played co op today just fine.
 
Top Bottom