Unlike Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware’s spiritual successor Dark Souls features an open-world environment, where players are free to go as they choose. While showing off a new environment at Gamescom this week, publisher Namco Bandai revealed the world in Dark Souls is “three to four times” bigger than that in Demon’s Souls.

“You can’t go everywhere from the beginning,” said Dark Souls publishing producer Kei Horono, speaking to NowGamer. “You’ll know if you’re going the wrong way because you will die.

“Increased difficulty doesn’t just come from harder enemies, but from tactical elements and the environments themselves.”

The entire environment is a “seamlessly connected world,” according to Horono. “If you can see an area in the distance then you can go there. This world is about three to four times as big as the world in Demon’s Souls. There’s also double the amount of accessories and weapons in this game.”

In Demon’s Souls, players were able to leave pre-programmed messages for one another on the ground, warning each other of forthcoming enemies and traps. In Dark Souls, the messages are still pre-programmed, but the vocabulary has evolved.

“We don’t want people writing paragraphs,” said Horono. “We’ve balanced it so we’re keeping communication to a minimum, yet still deliver the chance for players to enhance each other’s gameplay experience.”

Horono also confirmed the team is planning post-release downloadable content.

Dark Souls will release for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 14, 2011.