The upcoming "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" mod may retroactively fix the most disappointing areas of "Dark Souls 3." The "Profaned Capital" mod will make perfect sense to "Dark Souls" players, but even those unfamiliar with the "Dark Souls" series have to admit that a horror game set in a dark fantasy post-apocalypse is pretty awesome.

First, let's catch up with everyone else: Continuing the tradition established in the first Dark Souls game, Lost Isalis, one area in the second half of Dark Souls 3 is far from complete. Exploring the underworld of Isaris, wading through aqueducts, dungeons, and sewer giants, one finds a desecrated capital. Once apparently prosperous, it now lies in ruins, largely abandoned except for a few gargoyle automatons guarding its crumbling walls.

Top: See VaatiViyda for more lore on Profaned Capital.

However, what appears to be a large new area is only a passageway and a boss room, where you will fight the giant Iholm. He is disappointed because extinguishing the Profaned Capital's desecrated flames caused a reaction that basically kills everyone in the city except him and a few lucky survivors. Nuclear Attack. Despair, Death, and Decay: ...... Thematically, it already straddles "Dark Souls" and "Amnesia" comfortably.

What little is left is still like a good horror story: civilization is corrupted and then eradicated by the power of a desecrated flame (whatever that is). The silver, faceless masks of the prison guards and chambermaids suggest that this was once a glorious society overrun by occult forces.

The Profaned Capital story mod imagines what would happen if the same ruins were explored in Amnesia's first-person horror game framework. However, you explore Profaned Capital long after (or even before, depending on your perspective) the events of Dark Souls 3. What if the ruins from the old Dark Souls game were excavated today in this particular fire cycle?

The synopsis goes like this:

Edward Hedelberg, once a successful archaeologist, is hired by a Prussian oligarch to search for an ancient city in the Nordrigen mountains of Norway. The lost capital is believed to have fallen underground during the Titan War in Scandinavia thousands of years ago. Legend has it that the ruins of the capital hide vast treasures. Edward accepts the offer of 10,000 thalers and heads for Norway. Mysterious and dangerous adventures await Edward as he navigates a lost dungeon filled with abyssal creatures.

Yes, it is like "Amnesia" after all.

I've played through the initial demo available on the mod page, and while it's hard to judge how it will ultimately play, I already like some of the ideas in there. The scene begins with you exploring an eerie mountainside in the middle of a snowstorm. You enter the belly of an ancient mountain, and I love horror with cold, ancient mountains. And deep within, lighting up the crude stone walls is a bonfire, illuminating the terribly depressed adventurers. (It makes sense, even if it doesn't, to run into the old-fashioned folks of Dark Souls, since time and space don't behave normally around bonfires.)

Some cute Dark Souls staples have also been integrated. You can pick up status-enhancing rings, Lost Souls are scattered as glowing orbs, and can be used as currency at merchants. I had a good laugh when I tried to open a door and got the message, "It will not open from this side."

The atmosphere is already there, but I am curious about the story. Currently, existing NPC dialogue is used as the character's voice, and I would like to see it replaced, or at least addressed in the original. There is some interesting room for play in the fusion of the modern world and Dark Souls, but this is a very early demo. It's more like a compact test bed of early ideas than a complete whole.

Creator Rednie has commented that development is almost complete, so expect to see it in October. I know the entire Amnesia game will be playable soon, but a horror-game interpretation of Dark Souls 3's most mysterious location is more appealing. That Eldenring drought is going to make me go deeper and deeper.