Bloodborne

It’s been years since I played the first game in the series, Demon’s Souls, and my voracious desire to slash someone to death can finally be appeased with Bloodborne. Straying from the medieval theme of the main series, you awaken in the nightmarish town of Yharnam, a decrepit 19th century city overrun by disease and insanity. These games are famous for their difficulty, and that’s exactly what keeps you coming back and coming back and coming back to this game from hell…

You start with a mysterious crazy man who begins a blood transfusion on you. Blood is the main theme of the game; Yharnam is famous for their blood studies and medicines, the rampant blood disease turns people into beasts, your healing items are blood vials, and throughout the game you are literally going to be drenched in blood. Story-wise, that’s basically all you’re faced with. Characters have no background and merely appear to serve one part of the game, but the setting and its power to absorb you are magnificent. Inspired by Eastern European Victorian cities, you’re immersed in a world of grandeur and horror. Walking through the ravaged streets of gothic architecture, passing piles of corpses and debris, discovering abandoned libraries and candlelit cathedrals, you will no doubt be in awe at the level of detail they put into in designing the environments.

You’ll have little time to admire these things though, when you have to fend off the freakish creatures and awful beasts. Enemy design is phenomenal, and returning to the topic of difficulty, they are varied and fine-tuned to destroy you. The reason this game is so popular is because it relies on such a high level of skill. You could be level 50 but a complete klutz and die to a small group of pitchfork wielding humans. Or you could technically complete the game without leveling-up, weapons, or healing (though no one should even try to attempt that). Combat is fast and exciting, and landing hits with your threaded cane while deftly dodging counterattacks makes you feel pretty cool.

You’re going to die throughout the entire game. In fact, like the rest of the games in the series, the very first thing you do after learning to control your character is die. The strategy of this game is to plan ahead of your deaths, because you drop all your Blood Echoes (currency) every time you die, and to make sure you learn from your mistakes so you die less. You could advance deep into the dungeon and die an unpredictable and careless death, losing all the Blood Echoes you spent the last hour collecting and probably starting worse off because your equipment is now damaged. All you’ve gained is knowledge like “ok, that monster was a lot stronger than it looked,” and a little practice on fighting certain enemies. You’ll die to the same enemy 20 times before you figure out the best way to kill them, and then die another 20 times to the guy just around the corner. Grinding does help, but leveling is capped at certain points and it won’t help you skillfully get better at combat.

Online multiplayer is available, but still somewhat clunky. Finding others to join can take some patience, and if their internet connection is laggy then expect some frustrating combat. In a game where quick reactions and the ability to read the enemy’s movements are vital, online play is just not physically fit for this series. Entering another person’s world and having to search for them can be tedious too. However, the specters and messages are often interesting and helpful. Overall, online play is just a nice option for those who want it, but it’s clear that there aren’t enough people using it to make it feel healthy. It’s a great jolt of excitement to fight or help other players, but as of right now the structure of the matchups still doesn’t feel smooth enough.

If you’ve played any of the other games in the series, you’ll be very familiar with Bloodborne. The game structure is essentially the same, but gameplay is calibrated to incorporate some new elements. Compared to Demon’s Souls, combat is faster and monsters are generally more difficult, but your character is also faster and dodging is a lot easier. There’s no longer an encumbrance system but there is a much smaller weapon/weapon-use variety, and it also seems like there are far less interesting treasures to obtain. There are two types of weapons: a trick weapon that can transform between really cool combinations (a cane and a whip, a sword and a hammer, etc) and fighting styles, and a ranged weapon to stun enemies. Instead of all-powerful magic, you have an incredibly weak gun. These are just tweaks though, so Bloodborne still feels largely like its predecessors. Bloodborne is a top-notch production and a very satisfying adventure. Seriously no other game series will give you the same feeling of accomplishment, and after you beat the game you’ll come out looking like those monsters you spent hundreds of hours killing.