Bloodborne - The Ideal Action Experience
From Demon Souls to Bloodbornes
Three years ago, "From Software" director Hidtaka Miyazaki took part in a secret meeting with Sony. He and his team of developers had just accomplished their second game in the critically acclaimed Souls-series and the planning for their next big project was in full throttle.
From Software had recently released Demons Soul as an PS3 exclusive with the promise of free hands in it's development and with a sky high budget Sony was able to convince the studio to once again lay their focus upon the PlayStation-format. The result of this joint effort is the smoking hot action game Bloodborne.
Dark & sinister story
Perhaps not one of the most original of storylines but still a pretty cool one. You start of in the city of Yharnam, where a mystical plague has desecrated the streets. You jump into this story as a newly trained hunter and take the first steps against your inevitable doom almost immediately. From Software are known to create really hard games and Bloodborne is no exception.
Full focus and concentration is required at all times while playing, with other words, don't smoke weed before playing. This game will not take your hand and lead you trough it and it will punish you for every little mistake you make. Every enemy that you do manage to defeat generates a certain amount of currency that you can spend on upgrades and gear but if you die you will lose it all.
At the same time, Bloodborne forces new players to try their way forward as a learning experience. Without any previous knowledge as a new player it can be hard to get a grip on all the details that are hiding in the RPG elements of the game. Fortunately, Bloodborne comes with a series of hints destined for fierce serials.
Attack is the best defense
The first hint of attacking being the best defense is the new combat mechanics. In contrary to the Souls-series there is not much emphasis on defense. The shield that was so crucial earlier is now switched to pistols and shotguns. The ranged weapons are mainly used to distract enemies from afar and only does minor damage when you get close.
The heavy work is instead handled by more traditional weapons like sharp blades and blunt hammers. These weapons also have multiple ways to be used for fast adaption to different enemy behaviors relieving the player of having to fuss around in menus to switch gear. For example a sword can be turned into a hammer and a staff can be transformed into a riffle with a quick button flick. If you manage to survive long enough to upgrade they will get so god damn effective eventually that the new ranged shooter-weapons will feel useless as the game progress. A feeling that can of course variate depending upon your weapon-preference and skill.
Increasingly challenging
To further feed the attack mantra of the game From Software has included a counter-system. As in any game with a counter mechanic you basically can limit the damage you take by fighting back at the correct timing. The regeneration of health is often not a problem as killed enemies will drop medicines and other well needed items. With that said, it's still very easy to die in Bloodborne. Count on yelling a few profanities at least a few times while playing.
If you want to be successful in Bloodborne you need to take your superhero-mantle on and dive in head first to win. This game believes in the saying "nothing risked, nothing gained" meaning that you will have to play with courage to conquer this game. That does not mean that you should just button mash your way trough, some strategic thinking is required, which the boss-fights are good examples of. The earlier bosses you'll face have a pretty clear pattern and rhythm's that you can learn and use in your strategy but as the game progresses more lethal threats will emerge, with both increasing size and difficulty.
A pure action game
In many ways Bloodborne can take its place as an ideal action game. Even if the roots are clearly present since the earlier games it still changes enough to work for both new and old players. The production value was also high when developing the game which shows as the Playstation 4 makes an effortless attempt to provide you with an detailed and unpleasant game-world. Sure, sometimes the fps will drop, but this happens very rarely and certain textures has certainly gained more attention then others, but all and all it is visually pleasing. The loading times can sometimes be annoying as they can be quite lengthy but these are still minor issues in my opinion. The little nicks in the graphics are compensated by Bloodborne being one of the coolest action-genres titles of the year, if not one of the best (time will tell).
