Yeah, I'm still digesting the fact that it's just Dark Souls 4 (now with open world). There's some assured quality, but its not really what I was hoping for either, especially since I had only just learned co-op would even be a thing. But they have to ruin it with invasions. Fortunately they seem to have some things in place to mitigate some invasion issues. And I hope to god they've finally tackled their age-old netcode issues where you get hit from 20 feet away. And there are certainly users who know how to abuse that inconsistency, and there's other users who are bored enough to have systems in place to basically DDoS you so that you get nothing but lag, and they get nothing but backstabs. And of course the people who stay low level and run to the end of the game to grab late game stuff, and then get paired to you in an invasion because you're the same level, even though they're using stuff that way out-classes what you're capable of defending against

It sounds like you'd really enjoy Bloodborne's online style. It requires an item to use, which is rough to start out, but easily gained throughout most of the game. And you get to choose if you get invaded, and invasions only happen in certain areas. Otherwise you're free to co-op as much as you want. And if it comes to PC there'd be a resurgence in the amount of people making themselves available. And one of the things I loved about the online Bloodborne community is the amount of people either being extremely civil, or role playing, or both. You'd frequently get a bow at the beginning and even the end of a fight, instead of the insulting "point down" emote. And very frequently you get people playing extremely fair, where if they're clearing spanking you they will back off, especially if you're pressured into a corner. More sportsmanlike. I've only had one person try to cheese me into a pit out of the dozens I fought, and unlike Dark Souls, I never felt like invaders had an advantage in combat. Maybe the scaling was better. It actually made me enjoy PVP, which I normally avoid like the plague