Bloodborne Review

You did your best but you failed miserably. The lesson is; never try

To celebrate the release of the Bloodborne DLC today I'm posting a review I wrote for the base game when it came out, here you go. Bloodborne is a important game; it's the first console exclusive this generation that's worth owning the console for. Sure it's not for everyone, in fact a lot of people that buy it will likely resent the game but it's worthy of the praise it's gotten, despite some flaws.


Re-borne from the dead, Like that feller..... E.T

Fromsoftware's level design is unrivalled in the Industry (trying to out do them would be as hard as their games themselves), they play on expectations, challenge your patience and show beauty in dilapidation. There's no hand holding but despite its reputation it's not difficult for the sake of it. People who assume the only reason gamers play the Souls games is because they are rock hard miss the point entirely, the joy comes from overcoming the odds, learning from mistakes and feeling like you've actually achieved something rather than be told what to do. Unlike Dark Souls 2 all the areas are interconnected, you'll find shortcuts back to previous locations and make your way though areas just to find yourself back at a place you first encountered 20 hours ago. It's like one huge spiders web. The setting inspiration this time is Victorian England, which results in towering gothic spires and stunning architecture that leaves you constantly craning your neck looking up at the sky; often resulting in your death. There's a lot of content on offer here, plenty of it being entirely optional too. In fact a lot of the optional areas and bosses could be argued to be the most interesting in the game. One issue I did have is that environments are no where near as varied as Dark Souls 2 for example. There's way too many gothic castles and churches and almost all of the game takes place in the dark, at night so don't expect any sunlit, colourful areas, any dancing fairies or pretty butterflies as enemies, though I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that.

Don't tell me I'm still on that fecking island.

The way the game escalates and its progression works well too. In one area while fighting you hear what you can assume is a huge monster banging on the gate in front of you. The obvious assumption is that it'll burst through the door, you'll die and I suppose that's that. It doesn't and when you reach the other side you get the drop on him making for a extremely easy encounter. A mechanic called 'insight' which can be gained in many ways changes enemies, making them evolve with new attacks and looks. It means the inevitable return to previous locations are never repetitive or boring and there is always something new to discover around every corner. Currency is no longer Souls although you're likely to still refer to them as such, this time they are blood echoes. They work pretty much the same way as souls did; allowing you to level up or obtain new items and health vials. In death they are lost but allowing you one shot of retaining them by returning to where you died and collecting them. New to Bloodborne; echoes can be consumed by the enemy who killed you, meaning the only way to get them back is by taking revenge on what felled you in the first place.

Cannons? But I thought we be fighting with swords!

The Souls series combat has been known to be slow paced, encouraging a good defence with shields and parry's. This time though combat is much more aggressive and holding back often gets you killed. You can even regain health back after taking damage by quickly getting some hits on the enemy. Counters are now handled by guns. Count on Fromsoftware to make guns feel underpowered and used more as a defensive weapon instead of blowing heads away. If you plan to run in guns blazing, hoping to headshot the creatures of the night away, then you've got one hell of a surprise coming your way. Stamina is still extremely important but no longer drains away as fast as in dark souls, allowing constant dodging of enemy attacks before using what stamina you have left to run in and get some hits. One thing to note is that weapons and armour are in short supply in Yharnam, the selection of weapons isn't as big as you would first expect, likely using the same one for most of the game. It takes a while to get used to it but eventually you get as attached to your weapon like Baldrick is to turnips. Weapons effectively work as two different entities, pressing L1 at any time (even during an attack combo) transforms the weapon into something else, with a completely new range of strategies and attacks. There's a lot to learn and gain a grasp on, leaving newcomers to Fromsoftware games initially struggling with the daunting array of mechanics that the game doesn't spend time to explain well. Things like backstabbing is something Dark Souls fans will already be familiar with but others could spend the entirety of the game not knowing certain features exist.

Im too tense right now to pretend to like you
So how hard is it, well I've covered that quite well in the review diary but don't worry it's still hard. What I will say though is the difficulty curve is all over the place; you'll fight one boss which takes you forever then the next boss you take down first try. In fact some of the latter bosses are not that challenging at all. The game still works best with one on one combat. When you find yourself swarmed by groups the game gets a bit clunky, which is why the most intense fights are with the singular bosses, it feels like some duel or showdown as you both slowly rotate around each other waiting for the first person to make their move. Now one thing people always say in defence of the souls games is that it's never unfair or cheap, that is complete codswallop. It's true for the most part but Bloodborne does use some cheap tactics that result in some trial and error sections. Some bosses too, seem to break the games own rules at time, allowing them to have infinite ammo and the like. Well if the games gonna fight dirty then so I am because there are plenty of exploits you can use In boss fights to win. In one instance the game broke on me, allowing me to kill a boss as it stood there completely unaware of my presence. During a lot of boss fights my hands were visibly shaking and I was on the edge of my seat, combat doesn't get more involved than this. This unfortunately is not the only technical issue with the game. The load times are inexcusable and to add insult to injury the load screens are the most slapped together thing in the game, offering nothing other than the Bloodborne logo over a black background. Fromsoftware have promised to fix it but for many people including me, we had to endure through the game how it is now. The fact it can be fixed means that there is no reason it was like this at launch in the first place. With a game like this, where you'll be reloading the game and dieing a lot, this should of been a priority issue to address before launch. Unfortunately like the Dark Souls series this is also plagued with some frame rate issues, that's on top of the fact the game only runs at 30fps.

I Laugh in the face of fear, tweak the nose of terror
The souls games have always been scary, every corner you turn you dread what will face you. Bloodborne could easily be considered a horror game and a better one than most modern 'scary' games. You'll find yourself in a dark and completely hostile area, chains hang from walls, blood acts as a wallpaper, you hear something indistinct in the distance, some horrible creature perhaps. You approach a downward spiral staircase which seems never ending in the dark abyss before you, with your flickering torch allowing you to only see inches in front of you. You approach the bottom, a narrow archway and corridor lay before you, was that footsteps you heard! Creeping slowly down suddenly a shadow slivers by the open archway in front of you accompanied by a horrible retched groan..... "Eff that I'm out of here, I need a drink". That's just one example of the type of situation you might get into while playing Bloodborne. The sound designs soul... Sorry I mean sole purpose in the game is to add atmosphere and dread to the world and it succeeds triumphantly. The music during boss battles is appropriately epic and panic inducing although there are a couple of repeated tracks. What's more scary is the enemy designs, they are hauntingly beautiful and each new encounter brings a sense of discovery, which often gets yourself killed.

What's the point of this story? I like stories!

For a lot of people the story in Fromsoftware games are nonexistent, they would be dead wrong. Sure the little glimpses of lore and character we get throughout don't shred too much light on the games events by themselves but together you can start to piece together a darker story which lies beneath. The fact the story is never shoved in your face, with only a few cutscenes over the course of the game makes it entirely optional for the people that care about it. If you don't, you might be missing out but giving that choice is unique in modern games. It even offers multiple endings which encourages replaying the game again in new game plus. Do I understand what was going on most of the time, no and personally it's storytelling method isn't really one I'm a fan of but still it succeeds in the effect it's trying to create and I can completely respect that. Despite that, I do feel it lacks a bit of the charm and personality that the Dark Souls series did have, but it's very hard to put my finger on why that is. There is no 'praise the sun' here, probably because there is no sun.

The Hunt begins again
Bloodborne is the challenge, the tight combat, extreme satisfaction and extreme hate. It's what games often forget, or fear to be, it never talks down to you and always respects your time. It's scary, it's beautiful and sometimes it's often even flawed but it's a testament to how strong each facet of the game is that those problems don't matter. Bloodborne is as close to perfection as games come and I loved hating every minute of it.