Bloodborne

This is pretty much the dark side, or at the very least well on your way down that path.

I feel that I should be very honest with you all right from the very beginning, this game was not my cup of tea, maybe it was too dark or it could have been that the story feels very much fragmented. It's like when you start watching a series a few seasons in, the how and why things are happening is a huge mystery and I still don't really know what was going on. The only reason I ended up playing this was because a good friend recommended it, and the only reason I'm reviewing it is because there are many people out there that loved this. I'm going to try my best to not be too biased, but I can't promise anything so please don't be upset if I don't agree with you on how awesome Bloodborne was, for me personally it didn't tick all the boxes on being an great game.

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The story begins as seen through the eyes of a Hunter, who sees that they are being operated on by an old man.

The man explains that he is performing a blood transfusion, and tells the Hunter that this is the place when searching for the Paleblood. The old man gives the hunter a warning, that they will go on a strange journey which will be very much feel like a bad dream, the Hunter then passes out after seeing several beastly creatures approach. You then get to go into the character creation section and create your very own Hunter. When the game continues, your hunter awakes on the same operating table in a small clinic, but the old man and monster are no longer there, this is where your dark adventure begins.

The city you start in is called Yharnam, a dark and eerie place filled with dangerous monsters and mysteries. When you start the game, the player enters a spectral realm called the Hunter's Dream, which acts as both a safe haven and a workshop for upgrading and repairing your weapons. There you meet two creepy entities, an old man in a wheel chair, who gives you advice and a life like doll who helps you level up. This was the extent of the story introduction.

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Let's first get into the good aspects of this game before I get into the bad.

This is what a game would look like if directors, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro teamed up and decided to make a game. Bloodborne is a very dark and ominous world which looks like it is set in an 1800's sort of era, the buildings and cathedrals have that very Gothic look about them. The developers took an unconventional approach to stock standard role playing games we are used to, they basically just throw you out into the wild to fed for yourself. There is no tutorial for anything, you have to figure out everything yourself which is actually a really refreshing experience. This is one of those games that was designed for gamers by gamers, there are no difficulty settings, everything is just difficult. This is a gaming endurance test that will take you from despair to utter joy and then right back again, not for the faint of heart or those of you with anger issues. The feeling of killing a boss probably has never felt this good, especially when you have died almost a thousand times attempting it. The nightmarish creators in Bloodborne come in forms, from pedestrian insane village folk to cosmic horrors, but don't dare underestimate any of them.

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"Oh, a hunter, are ya? And an outsider? What a mess you've been caught up in. And tonight, of all nights. Here, to welcome the new hunter. Prepare yourself for the worst. There are no humans left. They're all flesh-hungry beasts, now... Still lingering about? What's wrong? A hunter, unnerved by a few beasts? Heh heh... No matter. Without fear in our hearts, we're little different from the beasts themselves. What are you still doing here? Enough trembling in your boots. A hunter must hunt..." - Hunter of Hunters

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I don't think there has in the history of gaming been a game where I died this much.

The sense of accomplishment you feel when beating a boss you have spent a few days on is an indescribable feeling, but for the majority of the game you feel frustrated because one wrong move and you're dead. Now this is not like the newer games where you can just continue along from where you died or even anywhere close by. Here you only get to continue from the last lantern you lit, which is your save point, and there aren't many of those around. The other part which really makes things hard is that enemies re-spawn every time you die regardless if you have saved or not, so when you die in a boss fight you have to make your way back fighting each enemy you had before.

The biggest problem I had with this game was the story feels non existent, you have no idea who the Hunter is, why he is hunting, basically you know nothing. This makes whatever story there is really hard to follow, it's comes off like the ramblings of a madman, and this could have been the intention by the developers but it personally just didn't work for me. I only played the game about half way through when I threw in the towel, the challenge was appealing but without a game story to accompany it, the game just looses it's appeal.

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Bloodborne is an action role playing game developed by FromSoftware, these guys have been making games for a very long time since 1994, which is pretty long in gaming years.

They brought us the Dark Souls series, Armored Core series and a score of titles I've never even heard of, but they are pretty big in Japan. The game is published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for PlayStation 4, and was released in March 2015. You will definitely be able to pick this up somewhere for a great deal.