While lacking the typical "Souls" moniker found in its predecessors, make no mistake: Bloodborne still retains the particular oppressive atmosphere and difficulty found in previous titles. Seemingly small system changes and a particular Gothic-Victorian styling do much to make this outing stand apart from its brethren while still retaining the particulars, such as gripping combat and a mysterious story. Fans of the series should be very pleased with what they find here, proving to be a successful shake-up of previous swords and sorcery styled entries. Once again however, this is a tough sell to those who aren't already well acquainted with the series.
What story there is provided by Bloodborne will to some seem incredibly anemic, and to others absolutely drenched in detail. The initial set-up has your created character coming to the city of Yharnam, a place heralded for a practice of bloodministration, seen as a true panacea to the outside world. While it's true that the blood boasts healing properties, a plague has also been making the rounds in the city, turning individuals into something more bestial. Hunters of particular skill take it upon themselves to rid the city's wolf-like monsters that roam the streets, yet the truth behind all of these incidents seems to indicate something more sinister afoot than just a simple sickness.
Yes, talking to NPC's multiple times can yield interesting results. No, the game does nothing to inform you of this.
...And up front, that's going to be most of what you get. Otherworldly elements, savage werewolf creatures, and a strange house in a dream-like nether all beg many questions for players, and few answers will be served up to you. In order to figure out the truth of what lurks in Yharnam, Bloodborne returns to Souls conventions of telling most of the story through item descriptions. Details such as where clothes and weapons come from, or the truth behind items such as "Madman's Knowledge" all stand out as puzzle pieces to be put together for a better picture of the world. While this sounds vague, even lazy from some points of view, there's something refreshing about a story that you have to piece together yourself, and makes it all the more rewarding when you find that item that's the smoking gun to just what the hell is really going on around here.
That is one swell moon.
Tone-wise, Bloodborne strikes closer to horror than any Souls game before it, fully embracing its gothic roots. What starts out with a sort of Van-Helsing inspired dread, eventually gives way to something more strange and maddening. Dark corridors, abandoned buildings and strange woods really help to sell a sense of place that is Yharnam. While it lacks some variety, (the twisty roads of the city especially can run together) the way the world interlocks together makes traveling always interesting. You'll find less checkpoints this time around, but more shortcuts that wind around, making trips to bosses less painful.
What's in my hand? A cane? Look again! The cane is now a chain whip!
Combat is the centerpiece of change, and it's all done through changes that sound subtle on paper, but have huge ramifications when the controller is in your hands. To start with, shields are essentially gone. Instead, a larger emphasis is placed on dodging and aggressive action. To help supplant this, a strike-back system is in place that allows you to regain health for attacking soon after you've been hit yourself. Act quickly enough, and you can heal all the damage you've taken. Attach this with an improved sidestep and dodge system, and you'll find combat as frenetic and fast-paced as you would high-level Dark Souls combat, if not faster.
Beating a boss? Feels good. Getting him on the first try? Don't get used to it.
Boss fights end up being the cornerstone in which these new strategies present themselves. For Souls vets, backsteping and rolling away feels like the natural instinct for putting your distance between many of the vicious and lupine foes that bar your way. More often than not though, this can lead to additional hits from a foe. This is where moves such as a diagonal forward-step will be your new bread and butter for getting in a boss's blind spot, and the striking back for lost health saves on resources. Boss design is still top-notch, and there are a few that will borderline drive you mad until you figure out that one silver-bullet strategy that you've been overlooking that will lead you to success. There's still isn't quite any other feeling in gaming than toppling that insurmountable obstacle that is Bloodborne boss after countless bouts of trial and error.
Another interesting change is an emphasis on what the game calls "Trick-Weapons." All of your main combat tools will now have the ability to shift between two different forms at the press of a button. This means your weapons will typically have much larger move-sets, possibly switching between entirely different combat styles. There's something satisfying about swinging a longsword hastily, only to switch it in mid-combo to a giant sledgehammer. The trade-off here is that your arsenal as a whole has been reduced to accommodate all these nifty tools. Still, it seems like there are less dud-weapons with this change: I can see using just about any axe or machete I picked up and using it to complete the game.
You've got a bit of red on you.
There's no denying however that the game absolutely funnels you into these up-close and personal playstyles. Magic has been drastically reduced, and serves more as a complement to certain strategies. Guns are used more as tools to stagger enemies and open them up for devastating visceral attacks. It's hard to lament the loss of these systems however when slashing away at opponents feels as good as it does.
Statistics and leveling up are somewhat simplified this time around, but still probably a tad too esoteric for newcomers to the series. You have less things to worry about leveling this time, such as equipment weight and poise, but things such as insight aren't explained nearly well enough with the in-game tooltips. Armor is mostly swapped around for cosmetic appearance, with only slight changes to defense and resists, making it less necessary than before. Fashion-Souls has never been more in effect than now!
Yay! Numbers! I still need a rosetta stone to decipher all of this though.
That's not to say that there aren't options for customizing your playstyle. As you progress through the story, you'll be unlocking tools that will allow you options such as moving static buffs in and out of weapons, called blood gems, and attaching runes to your person for different kinds of passive effects. These can go as far as dictating what kind of movesets you want to use, changing natural scaling on a weapon, even enabling passive health regeneration. It's only a bit of a shame that it takes a few hours in for most players to unlock these options.
For an older gentleman, he still has a lot of fight left in him.
Online interactions have largely returned for the most part, along with new options as well. Covenants have been much reduced and hidden away for much of the game (I didn't encounter any for my first playthrough), but still act as sorts of guilds to dictate PVP styles. Messages left on the ground can help or trick fellow players, and bloodstains warn of upcoming danger. Finally, jolly co-op is here, and even has the option of putting a password on your summon if your looking to get help from certain individuals. The game still does a poor job of explaining this, and much of it's systems, so getting more specifics can help alleviate frustration. Online integration for Chalice dungeons also take a few cues from roguelikes and offer up more challenges for the late game.
You know your game is confusing when half the community can't agree on what the conditions are to allow you to level up. (It's insight by the way, you need 1 point of insight.)
It feels somewhat odd to have to mention the game's shortcomings all on the technical side, but there are some issues that are hard to overlook. While the game's environments can be absolutely stunning, there's no denying that the 30 fps does feel like a drag, especially if your coming from Dark Souls II on PC. Camera issues common to the series also manage to rear their ugly head here once again. There's nothing quite so frustrating as having your viewpoint break, and then watching your HP deplete because you momentarily lost view of the battlefield.
Shortcuts: The greatest reward for exploring.
The most glaring issue however would have to be the 20 to 45 second load times, present when you warp in and out of areas, or the latter almost as sadistic punishment every time you die. And your going to die a lot in this game (in any souls game really). These near-minute buffers every time you fall can absolutely kill the pacing, especially if you're banging your head against a particularly nasty boss. If a future patch can somehow deal with these agonizing black logo screens, you could probably see a higher score at the bottom. But for now, long load times are an necessary evil you have to deal with.
It's a big world out there. Good Luck. You're going to need it.
Bloodborne manages to take the a very well-treaded formula and inject a surprising mount of new life through small changes, with great results. World and monster design is top notch and genuinely creepy and scary. There's a lot of game on offer here for those willing to learn the details and explore the world. The only thing that holds back another triumphant outing by FROMSOFTWARE are technical limitations. If you can get around these however, your in for an absolute master-class when it comes to action rpgs.
Post patch update: FROMSOFTWARE managed to conduct some space magic and cut down on some of the load times associated with the game. Adding in the item descriptions to the load screens is also a nice touch to distract from the waiting time. While they still aren't as short as you'd like when you keep trying to figure out that deadly boss pattern, it's much more manageable.
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For players that are looking to get into the Souls series, any entry can be a bit of a harrowing jumping off point, and getting some help to ease you into the playstyle is always worth investigating. I can remember being initially very turned off by Demon Souls when I first gave it a shot. After watching a few videos on how Marcus (a.k.a. Epic Name Bro) tackled Dark Souls for the first time, I was much more confidant and was really able to get into the series. He's gone on to the point that he's actually one of the individuals working on the official guide coming out soon, and he's currently doing a playthrough of the game. If you think you want to jump in with Bloodborne, I'd advise giving the first few videos a watch:
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