Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest review. Today I'm excited to be talking about Bloodborne. This game is made by Fromsoftware, the creators of Dark Souls, and Demon Souls. It was published by Sony, making it an exclusive game for the PS4. Fromsoftware released it in March of 2015, and this was the deciding game for me, to get a PS4 instead of an Xbox One. At the time this was released, I had not played any Dark Souls games, so I was not really sure if this would be for me. I knew about the notorious difficulty of Fromsoftware games, and wasn't sure if I would be any good at them. But something about Bloodborne just hooked me in as soon as I saw it. The dark and spooky landscape, the grotesque, menacing enemies, and the overall Lovecraftian feel to everything. All the characteristics of Bloodborne looked right up my alley, and I figured, I will just have to adapt to the extreme difficulty. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my love for the Soulsborne genre.
Most video games offer little in the way of a true challenge. Sure you can put some on hard mode, but that's more artificial, making you die quicker, or making enemies faster, tougher. That kind of difficulty is much different to Bloodborne, and not something I really care for. Most games are more about the story, or the journey you go on with your character, leveling up, putting together the pieces of the puzzle. Some are more focused on a fun mechanic, like a racing game, or Minecraft. Not much in the way of story or difficulty, but very fun to play none the less. Bloodborne is somehow unique though, more like a boxing match, or a game of chess. The rules and boundaries are laid out for you, and it's up to you to make the right moves and progress. You will die a lot, but whenever you do you should learn something about your enemy and come back at them with a different approach. If you die it's because you made a wrong decision, not because the game was cheap or unfair. This makes Bloodborne stand apart from most games, and gives you a unique feeling when you overcome a tough boss.
If you've ever played a Dark Souls game, then you probably know the basic mechanics. You go along killing enemies and acquiring exp, referred to as blood echoes in Bloodborne. Every once in a while you will come across a lantern, lighting them gives you a much needed checkpoint, and also lets you warp back to the Hunters Dream. The Hunters Dream is the only safe place in the game. There you can spend your blood echoes and level up, or use them to buy items to help you in your quest, but you have to make it to one of these lanterns. If you have blood echoes to spend, but die before reaching one, you lose them and go back to the nearest checkpoint. You can however go back to the place where you died and recover them, as long as you don't die again on the way. And every time you return back to the Hunters Dream, all the enemies in the area respawn, making it a trade off. You have to decide if it's worth it or not.
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At the beginning of Bloodborne you start off in the Hunters Dream. There is a man there who gives you some cryptic lines of dialog, then you are transported to the cursed town of Yharnam. All of the town's citizens have been transformed into beasts, ready to kill you on sight, with the exception of a few NPC's here and there that you can talk to. Slowly over the course of the game, if you read all the item descriptions, you will begin to piece together why the people have transformed. But Bloodborne is very cryptic with it's story, and if you don't read everything, you might not know exactly what's going on. Basically, people started ingesting this blood because it gave them power and healing abilities. But as a result of overuse of the blood, they all became transformed into beasts. People of great importance, or those who took mass quantities of blood, got transformed into the bigger boss creatures. There's a lot more to it, and it's actually very interesting, but I wont go into detail about the story here too much.
When I first started playing Bloodborne I wasn't very good. But eventually I started to get the hang of it, and when I did it was a great feeling. Time and time again I would come across a boss that would just wipe me out with no problem. But every time I came back to face it, I would learn what to do and what not to do, until I finally beat it. Some parts of the game are so difficult that when I actually did it, I would literally jump out of my chair and start yelling, YES, TAKE THAT! I don't think any type of game has given me quite the same feeling as Bloodborne. That is what's so great about these games. Top notch level design, plenty of reasons to go exploring every corner of the map. Incredible enemy design, pretty much every enemy is frightening or spooky looking. A hugely customizable character, you can focus on strength or agility. Brute force or more of a magic caster. A high quality adventure RPG, with moments of overcoming insurmountable odds peppered here and there, that give you one hell of an experience.
The biggest thing I like about Bloodborne over the Dark Souls games, is that Bloodborne is more focused on being on the offensive. Dark Souls is all about blocking, managing your stamina, and striking at the right moments. I'm a huge fan of Dark Souls now too, so I have no problem with that type of gameplay. But in Bloodborne, you don't even get a shield, you get a gun in your shield hand. It even rewards you for being aggressive by giving you back some health, if you damage your opponent back quick enough. This makes the game more fast and furious, rather than slow and methodic, which gives Bloodborne a slight edge over Dark Souls for me. I've beaten this game a few times now, and have gone through all of it's awesome DLC, and I have to say, this is my favorite game of this generation. I really hope they make a sequel. If you haven't tried this out yet, I highly suggest it, if you like a fair challenge.
I give Bloodborne a score of:
95