Maybe the kick and existing on it's own wouldn't have made a powerful impact on the gamplay, but they would have been nice to have, along with a set of stats to improve.
At least some armor, resistances... hell even if they only added a Poise stat that can be increased with some eatable items and it would have made a difference.
Torrent can sometimes be too easily staggered. So bad that it can't move between 2 of the enemies hits, even if you try to sprint out of the way to skip the animation (like you can roll after being knocked down to get up sooner)... And in 2-3 hits it's killed leaving your arse in the dirt at the feet of a towering powerful enemy. If you're not so lucky yourself while rolling out of the way, you can follow your horse to high heavens soon after.
Torrent is an important part of your journey in Elden Ring, that, imo, could have been much better implemented.
"the game is a really bad console port" - yes and no, it has it's low points but i've seen much worse.
"the game is clearly meant to be played with a controller" - like many others of it's kind, even if they would have made the K/M setups better, it wouldn't have mattered, the best way to play such games remains the controller, no matter the patform.
"The graphics (whilst detailed) look very old" - not the point of a game in this genre to be graphically revolutionary. They cold have used better graphics, yes, like the Demon's Souls Remake, but it would have taken a lot longer to finish it up, given the huge world. An extra effort for almost nothing, especially considering the above: not the point of this game. It has many other good attributes that it relies on to make a good impression.
"the character walks around at right angles" - wrong. Look again.
"There is no real story, and your character doesnt talk" - There is a lot of story, it's just not handed to you and explained to a T the way you're used to see it in the "games for the masses" like Assassin's Creed. You have to fight for it, look for it, read every description, listen to every NPC, and piece it together yourself... yes, old school style, having to invest patience and attention in a game to be able to properly enjoy it... not something that newcomers really understand.
"Is just travelling from place to place and fighting" - wrong again, there is purpose to your travels, it's just not handed to you in "here's a destination, go there fetch that/kill that" quests. You have to find and listen to NPC's, explore the world, much of the lore is hidden in secret or off the beaten path areas. Play again and see.
"it is so amateurish and poorly programmed" - there are some problems in wolves movements, yes. Nothing that can't be patched. Go play Assassin's Creed Odyssey and see bears sitting on top of houses, horses spawning in objects, even inside other horses, or walking diagonally at 45° on surrounding objects, trees spawning inside rocks, boxes even houses etc etc.
"The game is very difficult - enemies jump out from you and you die on almost every encounter" - You're just stating that "A Batman game contains detective work". Or "Water is too wet". The punishing combat is exactly the point of this game genre, and I'm positive you knew that going in, given that it's not the first of it's type. If you've expected it to be a Souls game but to be somehow different in this area, it's no ones fault but your own.
"one bad click can lead to you dying" - The game registers each and every button press, unlike other games. That is the difference that many don't understand. If you've pressed the wrong button, or did the wrong action, it's not the game's fault, it's your own. Study the enemy's movements, learn how to dodge, parry, counter ... overall how to fight properly. Practice makes perfect in this genre, hence the multiple deaths. Once you get the hang of it, you recognize the patterns, and you learn to pay attention to every enemy no matter how small, it will be easier.
"isn't my sort of game" - clearly.
"The game is also quite buggy, perfomance on PC is wdely reported to be bad" - the stuttering is the worse bug. It was somewhat improved in 1.03 but it still lingers on, especially in new areas you discover (when new assets have to be processed by the CPU before they are loaded onscreen - hence the hiccups). And it's because they used DirectX 12 and the fact that From Software didn't optimize it properly. It will be patched later on, it's not something that can be done very fast, given the diversity of the PC configurations when compared to consoles.
Be more objective in your reviews and stop letting your personal feelings influence the final score. A rating of 2 is obviously given from personal disappointment, and doesn't reflect the overall quality of the game in any way.
Came in here for the recommended level, and that's exactly what's missing from the article. That I have to level up my primary stats I know, thank you very much, but I wanted a specific value or range for the clvl.
Oh well, I guess I'll get to it after clvl 50 or more.
Played for about 2h for now, 'cause I'm in the middle of Horizon FW.
Noticed the slow roll on my Vagabond but didn't look for a cause, was more interested in discovery and was more concerned with the stuttering and FPS drops (PC version) that were plaguing my experience... It seems it's due to the use of DirectX 12 and lack of proper optimization... the game keeps loading new assets as soon as they appear on screen for the first time, and that leads to stuttering. Once loaded, they won't be reloaded again until a new patch is launched, so upon revisiting an area the stuttering will be gone. Some CPU's are able to load the assets faster (like Alder Lake) and the stuttering is almost non existent even for first time loads... but my Ryzen 3800x is not so fast, it seems :) Didn't have this problem in Far Cry 6 though (a DirectX 12 game too) so it's clearly an issue in Elden Ring that needs to be resolved by From Software.
Back to the subject in this article : good to know. As soon as I finish Horizon, and From releases a patch to address the performance issues, I'll get back to it.
Heh... it won't really matter which one is the first you play, if the playstyle isn't exactly to your liking.
The first Soulsborne game i played was Dark Souls 3, because many at the time considered it "best"... I quit after about 2 hours and didn't look back for 2-3 years.
The next one was Bloodborne, which was my choice after I did an in-depth digging into the genre. So I chose it based on what fit my preferences: the combat style, the Victorian setting, and the Lovecraftian influences. And I ended up investing over 600 hours in it. It even was the first game I considered worthy of getting a Platinum in.
It's because of Bloodborne that I went back and finished the rest of it's "siblings" (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 2 3...).
If I were to keep listening to opinions, I would have stayed out of the genre for good.
So I consider Bloodborne to be my true first, because it was actually my choice, and was the one that "opened my eyes" to the genre.
So for any who want to start delving into this genre: do a little digging first, on your own. Get info on them all and judge for yourself which one should be the first you play and finish :)
The previous From Software games are rather cheap now, you can take your pick without worrying too much about "losses" in case you don't end up liking it.
@firstdawn: That's because you don't understand the main idea behind this genre, the "soul" of those games if you will (no pun intended). Something that Miyazaki implemented in each of the games he and his team made. Which is for the player to use all his talents in a struggle to overcome very tough adversity.
If you make an "easy mode" for those games, the intended experience is gone. You can test it if you want, with the method i've written in the comment above: use a trainer to level up a lot, and make yourself more powerful (but not invincible - just like an easy mode). You'll see that the more powerful you are, the less is the risk of dying, the less rewarding becomes the experience and the less meaningful becomes the game.
As I said in the other comment above, this is not Assassin's Creed. This "Souls-Borne" genre is different, it has a different scope, a different concept behind it. The enemies are not tough just for the sake of making the game harder, like a "Hard" difficulty that's always on. The "Souls-Borne" games are so well thought and balanced that the the only reason the player dies is because they made a mistake. Mostly due to a lack of experience... which is gained by repeating the area and try to find a method to kill the enemy that decked you.
Enemies in this genre are not there just to make the game harder, they are a basic block of the foundation on which the game is built... just like the game having a Story or having Combat in it.... If you take the tough enemies out of the equation by making the game easier, the game will no longer be able to "stand" on it's own, it will be "less" than it should.
Too bad though, this also means it's misunderstood and underappreciated by many. Either because they don't understand the above, and keep comparing it with games in different genres. Or they consider getting killed easily by the tough enemies "cheap deaths". Or because they consider this struggle too stressful to bare, they just want some easy fun... etc.
For myself, I've been (and still am) a fan of Darksiders 1, 2, the latest Assassin's Creed games, all of the God of War games, etc. And I've despised the Souls-Borne genre for a long time, exactly because of the painfully tough combat.
But during the holidays of 2018 I've decided to buy Bloodborne GOTY at a discount... Before I started playing I did a lot of "study" on it: red up on beginner's guides, lore, tips and tricks etc. It took me 6 hours I believe, while playing for 2h a day (to avoid it becoming too stressful and get me to rage quit), to finally beat the mob at the beginning of the game without dying. Tough, rough, dying repeatedly, rinsing and repeating, but I stuck with it. And only after I've passed through this mob it clicked... the joy i felt after overcoming that hurdle, got me more confident, and curious to see what more I can do and to discover... After I've beaten Father Gascoigne in the 3rd try, I was so pumped, so filled with adrenaline, with confidence, with curiosity and desire to see more... THAT is exactly the moment in which I understood the game. That is when it became clear what this genre is all about. For over 600 more hours I've played and replayed this game, with 4 different characters. And this was the first game for which I cared enough about to want to get the Platinum. First Platinum ever for me, and it was in a "souls-borne" game... If someone were to tell me before buying Bloodborne that my first platinum will be in a "Souls-Borne" game I would have said they're f..ng crazy!
So, yeah, despite still playing games in other genres, the game I consider to be a bit above all of them, is one of Miyazaki's "creations"... for me Bloodborne is one of the best games ever made.
My recommendation: pick one of From Software's games, which ever fits your style more (medieval like the Souls games, Victorian setting and Lovecraftian influences like Bloodborne, or maybe Oriental settings like Sekiro)... Give it your honest best try, don't give up, stick with it, try to understand it and overcome it. If you manage to beat it, to get to the end, you'll see that having an "Easy Mode" is neither needed nor fit for this genre.
@darthzzag64: In short: no. And that's how many SoulsBorne fans prefer this genre, including me. And it's good that From Software chose this path, it makes this genre distinct from the likes of Assassin's Creed and others like it.
But that doesn't mean there's no solution to make the game easier.... You can get it on PC, and use a trainer if you want, to level your character up as much as you prefer. Make it a little more powerful and make the game a tad easier.... and that solves the "easy mode".
It became obvious he was actually the one playing the piano in Peacemaker, when he missed a few notes. If you really listen to the song, you can hear it plainly. Anyway, I liked it, it was an unexpected and welcomed addition to the episode, and he did a really good performance overall. Congrats!
@doubtless1:About the Remaster/Remake - it depends on the timeframe.
If it's done now for PS5/PC, launching in 2022, it will certainly be a Remaster, because there's no time to do a complete Remake.
If it will be done for PS "Next" (PS5 Pro or PS6, whichever follows), launching in 2023-2024 or later, it will certainly be a Remake, just like they did with Demon's Souls, to bring it on par visually with the games of that generation.
Aside from the fact that Bloodborne deserves a lot more that a simple 60FPS patch, fans will certainly expect at least a Remaster, Director's edition or whichever name it may have. That will also contain HD graphics and unlocked FPS to bring it to a minimum 4k@60fps. To do any less will create a lot of disappointment waves.
About the game's graphics - Take a look at how many details they were able to add in Elden Ring, i.e. in the Exploring Castle Mourne trailer... search for it on youtube, pause in the interval 02:04 - 02:12 and take a close, patient look around the area.
Every piece of screen has something in it, trees, grass, fires burning, a lot corpses, broken wood, enemies praying, some beastly animals eating on the left side, a lot of hanging dead in the distance, a sort of bat winged enemy flapping all the way up on the ramparts on the left side, with a few birds flying right above it etc.
Then imagine what they could do in a Remake with Bloodborne's environment and atmosphere with a bigger processing power...
About a sequel: as I see it, Blue Point treated Demon's Souls with a lot of respect. They kept the timings from the original intact and improved the graphics as much as possible. Even added QOL improvements that help without ruining the original experience. Imo, if Sony can get Miyazaki to consult, Blue Point deserves a chance to make the sequel.
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