It's been two days since Nightingale launched, with plenty of PC gamers diving into the fantasy-survival world (or should we say, worlds) of Inflexion Games' debut title. However, Nightingale's online-only focus may have become a problem for its reputation, with Inflexion Games prioritising development of an offline mode.
Nightingale's rating on Steam has dropped to mixed already, with many reviews citing the server issues and online-only requirement. We've been playing the game too, and before even picking the Nightingale character story, we've been hit with the Nightingale getting shards error, halting our progress before we even dived in numerous times.
It seems like the response from players, as well as the consistent server issues has lit a fire under Inflexion Games. In a recent community post, Inflexion Games said that it is "prioritizing and developing an offline mode that we plan to release as soon as feasible".
Despite stating that the decision to focus on co-operative play and a series of interconnected Realms that are available at a moment's notice was the more "technically challenging" plan, the team states that "looking back on that decision, we misjudged what some of you were looking for in your experience".
In our interview with Inflexion Games ahead of launch, we asked about whether an offline mode was in the plans. Aaryn Flynn, CEO of Inflexion Games said that "I would love to do [an offline mode]", however, he added that "we wanted portals and Realms that you could travel nearly endlessly, and there's some limitations if that hosting is done locally".
That being said, the CEO seemed optimistic for an offline mode at the time. Flynn said that "if players want a single-player offline mode, then we're happy to take a crack at solving [the technical limitations] for them". It seems like Inflexion Games is keen to give players what they want, even if it ruins the company's vision of the game.
This isn't the first major game to receive mixed or negative reviews due to an online-only restriction. The Suicide Squad game's inclusion of Denuvo just ahead of launch, alongside the always-online experience has caused many people to avoid the game, despite an offline mode coming later this year. It seems like many players are getting fed up with being forced to play online, and with the Nightingale server problems, it's no shock.
There's currently no release date for the update that brings an offline mode for Nightingale, but the development team is certainly keen to bring it sooner rather than later. Inflexion Games also noted that development on Quality of Life improvements, fixes, and new content is still ongoing.