Bloodborne
Platform: PS4
Developer: FromSoftware
Author: R.D.
Famous Japanese publisher Bandai Namco has a long-standing history of partnering with top-quality game developers like FromSoftware, creators of cult classics Dark Souls and Demons’ Souls and lesser known works like King’s Field and Armored Core. This time around they have struck gold, yet again, with their latest PS4-exclusive. That said, their new game Bloodborne is every bit as dark and difficult as its predecessors Dark Souls and Demon Souls.
It’s nitty, it’s gritty, it’s Bloodborne
The story takes place in Victorian London-themed Yarnham, which features lovely cobblestoned streets, to horse-drawn carriages, and even nightly beast hunts. Yarnham is being plagued by a disease that is, pretty much like the title suggests, blood born. Those infected by the disease slowly lose their mind as they mutate into the beasts that have plagued our storybooks and myths for centuries, so expect to see werewolves and other less furry things that have claws. In desperation, the denizens of the town turn to the healing church, which uses blood as medicine for a remedy.
Oh gawd it’s hideous!! Kill it with fire.
The player is a traveler that has come to Yarnham on the night of a hunt. With the blood-transmitted disease plaguing the town, the player is mistaken, by pretty much everyone, as a beast that they must hunt, despite many of them being half (or fully) transformed.
Please realize that you’re the beast to be hunted already!
However, there are a few characters that recognize that the player is not a beast, these characters are far and few in between. These individuals will either try to enlist your help with something dangerous or try to murder you regardless, but hey, at least they know you’re not a beast right? I definitely believe the story in Bloodborne is sure to keep you interested and on your toes, I say this because the bulk of the story is learned through dialogue with the NPCs, item descriptions and the environment itself. You must be paying attention to fully grasp not only the plot, but the subtle nuisances being employed throughout the game. I personally enjoy this method of storytelling as it allows for the entire community to offer their own interpretation in regards to the events within Yarnham.
The gameplay is beyond smooth, like a hot knife through semi-melted butter. If you’re a Dark Souls veteran like myself, then you’ll get used to playing Bloodborne pretty quickly. If you’re not a veteran, well prepare yourself for a hard but great game. The game has a unique combat system. First up is dodging. You do a quick dash when locked onto an enemy and a roll when you are not. Following this there’s a regain system, where you have a few seconds after taking damage to hit enemies to regain the lost life. There is also a designated heal button. Pressing the heal button will use a blood vial as long as you have one with you. Don’t worry about running out; blood vials are quite common as every enemy has a chance to drop them.
I vill darink yore blud
Finally, there are the visceral attacks, which are essentially your deadliest moves. There are two ways to perform a visceral attack, and that is by landing a fully charge strong attack on an enemy’s back and following up with a light attack. The second way is to shoot an enemy right before they perform an attack and following up with a light attack. Let it be said that Bloodborne promotes more of an aggressive playstyle, since there are no shields worth using (There is one. It’s a plank of wood. It sucks) there is a lot of pressure on the player to keep themselves alive. It really gives the feeling that you’re fighting to survive, that if you make the wrong move you will be punished for it and it won’t be easy to recover from it because you can’t just raise a shield a run backwards to heal. Aside from combat, there are other interesting things that make playing the game enjoyable. One such aspect being the trick weapons and guns the game offers. You get not only the type of weapons that allow you to shoot the baddies in the face, which is lovely in itself, but the real wow factor is the uniqueness of every single trick weapon. The ‘wow factor’ lies in each trick weapon which has two forms, generally a one-handed form and a two-handed form, each form having a completely different move set. There aren’t many weapons in the game but their uniqueness more than makes up for it.
I’d like to axe you something…
Being a PS4-exclusive title, we can expect the aesthetics to be top notch. The atmosphere is dark and gritty, with a Van Helsing feel to it. It features dimly lit cobblestone streets, open pyres, to werewolves roaming around. The game is well textured (and admittedly pretty buggy at times) and the scenery is just beautiful. The game is actually frame locked at 30 frames per second and, personally, I don’t mind it. While it doesn’t look as fluid as it would at 60 frames, I genuinely believe that running it at 30 frames was a good call by FromSoftware because it reduces the strain on the system which makes it much less laggy. The music in Bloodborne is alright, not really much to say about it, because I tend to focus so much on aggressively removing the viscera (internal organs) of my enemies to really notice the music going on. Don’t get me wrong, when I do listen to the music, it sounds nice but it’s not attention grabbing and adrenaline inducing, it’s kind of just there playing in the background.
As far as replay ability goes, there are three possible endings to the game as well as many questlines to do; there are so many weapons to found. The game has potential for subsequent play throughs’ (either with the same character or new characters) because of the three possible endings to the game and sometimes you don’t finish the questlines you wanted, because you accidentally (or purposely, there’s no penalty for it) killed the NPCs. In Bloodborne there’s no reset option on the off chance that you get bored of your current build and want to try something different, instead you have to make a new character to make a new build. In terms of Player vs Player, FromSoftware has given the Dark Souls games a lot of replay ability through PVP. However, in Bloodborne, while there is PVP, and the combat mechanics to make the fights interesting, there aren’t many locations that are well suited to those who thirst for the blood of their hunter kin. The previous Souls games were famous for having “arenas” and “fight clubs” for PVP and sadly Bloodborne just doesn’t really have them.
Find her and kill her to prevent invasions.
For multiplayer, be it PVP or co-op, there is a special system for it. Firstly, like all (non-free-to-play) PS4 titles require the player to be using PlayStation Plus, either as a user that has a subscription or on a system that has a user with a subscription and the system is registered as that user’s main system. Next, the player must have the beckoning bell (to summon someone for co-op), the small resonant bell (to be summoned for co-op) and the small sinister bell (for PVP invasions). Additionally, the beckoning bell costs one insight to summon someone, and summoning someone for co-op also summons the bell maiden NPC who summons invaders, so watch out for those gank spankers.
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