It’s no surprise that the current generation of consoles have been underwhelming since launch. They have boasted an insane amount of HD re-releases, uninspired first parties, and broken games. Just when I thought the PS4 was doomed after the colossal disappointment of The Order 1886(among other failures), I feared it would go back to collecting dust until who knows when. So here arrives Bloodborne; a brutal 3rd person action-rpg by From Software, the developers behind the popular Souls series. Bloodborne is Sony’s first opportunity to make the PS4 live up to its “Greatness Awaits” slogan, and it does so in nearly every way.
It might be a bit harsh to start off with a negative statement, but let’s get this out of the way: Bloodborne is more like a reskinned Souls sequel than a new IP. As cruel as that sounds, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an excellent game, and frankly the best first party PS4 game to date. Any way you look at it, From Software was damned no matter what they did. If they kept the same gameplay, item names, descriptions and icons, then there would be nothing different about Bloodborne, but if they changed all those things, which they did, then we are forced to ask ourselves “WHAT ITEM DOES WHAT”, All….Over…. Again. Each item looks different, has a different name, and yet accomplishes the same thing as they did in Souls. It’s not really a big deal, but definitely worth mentioning for anyone curious about a potential learning curve.
If you’ve ever played a Souls game before, you’ll feel right at home. You time your dodges, swing when you can, heal every so often and then repeat. Get yourself caught in an enemy’s combo string, and its game over. You need to constantly be on your toes for potential ambushes and attacks from large groups. Enemies just love sticking together in Bloodborne, so more often than not, you’ll have to lure them out one by one, just to maintain the upper hand.
Bloodbornes speed seems to be faster than Souls too, with quicker enemy responses and overall animation. This doesn’t really work against you though, because there’s been many tweaks to stamina, falling damage and dodging that will work in your favor. Right off the bat, you will be able to heal faster, run longer, and roll more frequently before ever applying the first level to your character. If that makes it sound easier, than your dead wrong, cause it’s still really hard. In Dark Souls, you would take shelter at bonfires, which are now ‘Lanterns’. Bonfires would respawn the enemies and refill your estes flasks, which was the main healing item in Souls. You couldn’t abuse Bonfires in Dark Souls 2 though. After killing enemies in any given area 2 or 3 times over, they wouldn’t come back unless you’d opt to use an item called a “Bonfire Ascetic”, which brings enemies back and increases their level. In Bloodborne, you can kill enemies as many times as you want. This is most likely to balance the fact that Blood Viles, Bloodborns main healing item, doesn’t come back when you reach a Lantern. You actually pick them up from random enemy drops. If you run out, shame on you, cause you’re going to have to run around killing things to get them back. Luckily they are a fairly common drop, and you can often collect multiple at a time.
The combat is a bit different in Bloodborne, along with some different controls. L1 now switches your weapon mode from one-handed to two-handed, Circle runs, and L2 stuns enemies and Fires Silver Bullets if a gun is equipped. Pressing triangle now uses Blood Vials, and Square uses items like Molotov’s and pebbles. (Have fun wasting blood vials while you attempt to two-hand a weapon btw;p) Stunning an enemy, which is done by holding L2 at the right time, can buy you some time to get free hits in before they regain control. And speaking of “regain”, its Bloodborne’s new system that allows you to get some of your health back by dealing damage immediately after being attacked. When you receive damage, a little white bar will jolt to the left depending on how much damage you took, which leaves the health to the right as your regain-able life. If you deal damage to an enemy fast enough (I think it’s like a 4 second window), you can actually get some, if not all of your health back. If you hesitate for too long, then the health is gone for good unless you use a healing item. It may seem risky to attack right after being hit, but you are often rewarded for being offensive, and strategic play will leave you victorious in most instances. It will be tough to try anything other than the usual: roll away, heal, roll in and attack dance that seemed to work for most of the Souls games, but once you learn to adapt to Bloodbornes gameplay, you will be hooked, even 50 hours into it.
(It’s also worth mentioning that parrying and relying on shields is no longer a thing……swing away hunters!)
I’ve always been a fan of From Softwares art direction. The city of Yahrnam looks absolutely gorgeous by design. From the foggy, wet sewers to the sparkling cobblestone streets and Victorian architecture. The immense scale of Bloodborne becomes apparent shortly after leaving the opening area and taking a look into the sunset. It’s a vast landscape just waiting to be explored and conquered. It also helps that the game runs in 1080p, and looks pretty sharp at all angles, minus a few muddy corners. The game runs at 30fps through and through, so its not as responsive as I would have liked, but its pretty easy to get used to. From Software games never truly look groundbreaking from a graphical and performance standpoint, (at least on consoles) and this game naturally has the occasional dip in framerate when things get rough. The graphics are nowhere near on par with what the PlayStation 4 can do, but luckily you’ll be too busy exploring and taking in the atmosphere to care very much. The audio on the other hand, is pretty stellar, with the sounds of blood spewing on the ground after every landed swing, to the sploshing of water dropplets from puddles, to enemy growls and wind gusts humming through tight alleys. It all creates a very gothic and terrifying atmosphere, and sets the tone for many of the games incredible enemy and boss designs.
Bloodbornes slightly less impressive in the Multiplayer and Chalice dungeons side of everything. Chalice Dungeons are randomly generated sections that generate based on a ritual performed at one of the headstones in the Hunters Dream, Bloodbornes main hub. Problem is, it’s very possible to end up with some low-level enemies if you fail to carry out new rituals. It’s a good addition, but not something I could see extending the life of the game, even with the inclusion of downloaded dungeons from fellow players. Invasions work in a very similar fashion as they did in the Souls games where you use a certain item to ask for assistance from a fellow player. In this case, you’re going to be utilizing bells. I won’t give away much in this area as this review is mostly spoiler free, but as far as connection quality, it’s basically the same experience as dark souls. I generally play offline so I won’t get my day ruined, and my blood echos(dark souls’ souls) taken from me.
It’s worth mentioning that Bloodborne has horrendous loading times. It wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t a game about trial and error deaths, but it is, so prepare to stare at the loading screen a lot. Accessing the Hunters Dream, takes around 20 seconds, whereas the main world takes between 35 and 40 seconds. What makes matters worse is that you have no item descriptions, weapon lore, screenshots or anything to look at during the process. You just blankly stare at the Bloodborne logo with a black screen in the background. Now lets say the painful loading time is a good enough reason to take the game slow, and not take any risks…..well, I’m sorry to say you actually HAVE to teleport back to the Hunters Dream if you wish to fast travel ANYWHERE. For example. Let’s say you are at the first Lantern; Bloodbornes bonfire, and you wanted to get to the third Lantern deeper into the city. You can’t just access the list of lanterns you have discovered. Your only option is to ‘return to the Hunters Dream’. To fast travel in a nutshell, you MUST return to the hub world, THEN select the desired location from a gravestone that acts as the Hub’s main fast travel mechanism. It’s kinda crazy to force any gamer to sit through over a minute of a black loading screen just to get across the map. For all of you who have gone through the trouble to install a larger, and potentially faster drive for your PS4, you will be in for a treat. On my Seagate 1tb Solid State Hybrid drive, I can actually get into the main world from the hub in around 27 seconds instead of the reported 40. Still pretty bad, but at least it’s an improvement. Apparently there is a patch on the way that increases framerate, improves performance, and shaves some seconds off of the loading screen. We can only hope…
If you’re even mildly interested in the Souls series, then you most definitely should get this game. Its gameplay is fast, it’s reactive, and thrilling. Adding in blood, along with the regain system’ just makes things better, and putting a gun in my hand gave me more ways to survive a difficult encounter. I loved exploring the world, chatting with the inhabitants and leveling up my character. Its atmosphere like this that define the action rpg genre. The graphics aren’t mind blowing, and the performance isn’t stellar, but it’s a From Software game. You know what you’re getting here, and if you’re looking for a good challenge and a damn good game that just so happens to be exclusive to PS4, then say goodbye to the next 50-100 hours of your life. You won’t regret a thing.
My personal Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJdkY1LQQgs