Next Gen Masterpiece in its own league when it comes to video games of today...
User Rating: 9 | Bloodborne PS4
The game that rewards you for your suffering. Bloodborne is a masterpiece in almost every regard. I played the first souls game reluctantly and never got very far. The frustration was a little too much for me. Bloodborne on the other hand, is the first real next gen game I've played, worth every penny and minute setting a perfect mix of gameplay, story, graphics, and pace of progression while staying challenging & unique. At first the game was a little frustrating, but after taking less of a gamble and not venturing forth until I leveled a bit it became much easier. I found a pace that allowed progress and satisfaction. This game is a game in which you will die. You will lose all your hard earned blood echos (main currency for many things in the game including being able to level). Luckily when you re spawn at the beginning of a level or area you get one chance to retrieve your lost cash by either finding it on the ground where you died or a monster will pick it up as indicated by their eyes glowing a different color. You will have to fight through all the monsters as they don't stay dead like in previous souls games, but if you get them back you have a hefty amount and time to go level or upgrade weaponry etc so the next time you venture forth you get a little further, faster, and this is what Bloodborne does so well. I never felt like I was grinding mobs or having to painfully go through previous levels, Occasionally I'd go back and collect various materials and loot in lower levels, but for the most part I was always progressing, finding some new monsters, or new areas that would link shortcuts through the zones. The game seems linear, but it's amazing opens with rewarding discoveries at every turn. Graphics are amazing. I had some frame rate issues and changed my TVs setting to a movie mode in which it utilized that soap opera style smoothing. I set it at the lowest smoothing tear which eliminated some pixilation, and then messed with the contrast and black levels. The game looks simply amazing and all my frame rate issues disappeared. My TV had a game mode that was supposedly the best for games, but the change was literally like playing with an upgraded video card. Night and day. The whole game has a very dark and gothic feel... Lot of browns, blacks, dark greens, and wetness to the streets and your blood soaked garb after killing mobs. The different zones I've discovered so far offer different visuals and the boss battles and mobs look great and are definitely epic difficult moments, The Gameplay, items, and weapons at your disposal are not overwhelming and give you an amazingly diverse arsenal that you can level up with certain materials and gems. Another addition that's when coupled with various stats like strength and endurance allow you to pull off combos and buff attacks etc. You can be in a two handed weapon mode in which you have a strong, med, and light attack as well as combos you can put together with each of those. You can also change that main hand weapon called a trick weapon from a two hander or special mode to single handed and carry a gun or torch in the other for instance. Weapons have different attacks based on their mode and you can even pull off a two handed attack and quickly switch to a one hander finishing the attack. It seems as though the developer wants you to utilize your environment when it comes to fighting certain enemies. Ie. Running behind some tombstones so that you can strike the enemy and they can't walk forward but can still hit you sometimes. The game forces you to stay aware of the enemy animations cluing you into if they are performing a strong attack or jumping one, sweeping attacks, becoming enraged etc. sometimes you just have to run and even easy monsters can have their critical hits that take you out when you least expect it. Coop has worked for me a couple times and isn't something unlocked right away. The game forces you to progress to unlock more parts of multiplayer. Unfortunately there seems to be some connection issues for some folks and a recent PSN update made things worse. As of right now it was great when it worked, but haven't been able to connect recently. You can enter or have someone renter your world (up to two friends or public people) and as long as e summoning person hasn't killed the boss in that area and you are within ten levels of them and in the same area during the time of summoning them it should work. Hopefully they patch this soon. There is also semi-procedurally generated worlds that you can run with friends and fight bosses collecting cash and certain materials. Though I haven't tried this mode yet as you need to unlock the chalices required to enter such worlds. My only other Negative comment would be load times when you die. Right now it stands at about 45 seconds. This needs to be and supposedly will be cut down with future patches. Hopefully they can get it down to 30 seconds we'll see. Bloodborne is a difficult game, rewarding and original... The gameplay, graphics are great and a unique story placing you inside a dream you are progressing through make for probably one of the best games I've ever played. Based on about 40 -50 hrs of gameplay unlocking several zones and killing about 5-6 bosses Graphics -9.5 Gameplay - 9.5 Story - 9 Mp/Coop - 7 (patch should fix) Fun factor / Challenge - 9.5 Only other negative - load times between deaths Also if framerate is off try switching your TV settings. I went to a smoother and blended movie mode with good contrast on a 240hz/hd 55" Samsung... Looks amazing and the switch from game mode made it like a new game with amazing framerate and no noticeable screen tearing OVERALL - 9.5 (when coop is smoothed out)
