Brilliant atmosphere in this game. Far more accessable than the previous fromsoft games which makes it a much better starting point for most players. The world and the creatures in it are so well imagined and create a world thats completley drew me in. The combats is very fun and deep, the focus on aggressive combat made an enjoyable change from the slower more cautious souls games. Be warned it is pretty hard, but if you take time to learn the mechanics then none of it is unreasonable. You can also use summons, level up more and use online info to get an upper hand if struggling, so the reputation as unbelievably hard is a bit overegged. Overall it was an immersive exciting world to experience and a tight combat system gave me some brilliant challanges that felt great to overcome.

Bloodborne ha sido un juego el cual no me he pasado y además solo he vencido a La Bestia Clérigo y al Padre Gascoigne, pero me aventuro a dar la puntuación sobre este juego referida a la parte que llevo jugada. Me encanta la temática, gráficos muy bien encajados para un juego así, historia interesante y caracterización digna de From Software. Lo único malo que le veo (Y sí, malo para mí, ya que a los amantes del juego les gustará) es la dificultad, ya que a veces se hace difícil seguir jugando ya sea por los nervios o el tilteo. Tampoco exigo un selector de dificultad ni nada, es más, este juego está perfecto como está y aun más para los habituales consumidores de juegos del género. Simplemente, puede ser que no sea un juego para mí, ya que prefiero algo menos de dificultad y más exploración y demás; y aun y así, le doy un 7 porque es muy buen juego.

This has to be the hardest game I’ve ever played, hands down. Was “fun”… but ultimately far, FAR too frustrating. Glad that finished it because the game had great atmosphere and it probably made me a better video game player in general… but MAN I never want to do that again.

Score Breakdown

“The Tale”
Story- 6
Pacing- 7
Characters- 6
Originality- 9
Linearity- 9
Length- 7
Epicness- 9

“The Presentation”
Visuals- 10
Display- 7
Music- 8
Sound FX- 10

“The Mechanics”
Ease of Use- 3
Innovation- 9
Replayability- 7

The first thing you do in Bloodborne after creating your character is fistfight a werewolf. Sold yet? No?

Alright, let me explain.

The opening to Bloodborne is actually quite different from the openings of previous From Software games. There’s a short cutscene that prompts you to create your character, but no opening cutscene explaining the lore of the world. Speaking of the character creator- it’s amazing. You can almost (note the almost, because some games just have ugly characters) always judge a character creator on how much of an abomination you can make the default character into, and by god, have some abominations been made. But they aren’t all ugly. The Joker is a popular design, as is Abraham Lincoln, who’s evidently been referred to Yharnam after his time as a Vampire hunter. My character is modeled after the Norse God Odin. The character creator allows for complete control over all facial dimensions, much like Skyrim. That’s a big step up from Dark Souls’ creator. After your contract is completed, you’re almost ready to face Yharnam. The werewolf fight is somewhat of a supposed-to-lose fight, but if you manage to beat him with the strange karate chops your character makes with their bare hands, you can proceed to the first level. As soon as you die, you’re given your choice of three trick weapons and two firearms.

I would love to elaborate on the game’s levels, but Bloodborne is the sort of game you want to experience on your own. You don’t want to know what’s around the corner. You don’t want to know what the next boss will look like or even what their name is. I suggest you be careful with youtube videos as well. Unraveling Yharnam’s mysteries is much more satisfying on your own. Just know that you’re in for one of the most thrilling, mysterious, and addicting experiences ever had with a game. I’ll talk about the game’s mechanics to avoid any spoilers.

I was never a fan of Souls combat, honestly. It was quite a shame, as I really enjoyed almost every other aspect of the games. Bloodborne has changed that. The game rewards fast-paced combat. There’s no shields (barring one put in as a joke), rolling is replaced with dashing when locked on, health can be regenerated if you manage you hit a nearby enemy fast enough (before you say “streamlining”, using this mechanic forces you to be greedy and gets you killed often), and you can move, albeit slowly, while healing. Fights are more frantic and every small mistake you make is extremely punishing. There are less weapons, but every weapon is a trick weapon. This means the weapon has two forms, ensuring your fighting style is always unpredictable. Firearms are wielded in the left hand, and range from a small pistol to a cannon. Firearms exist mainly for the sake of parrying and riposting, which requires you to fire your weapon while your enemy is mid-attack animation, causing them to stagger, whereupon you press R1 and rip their organs out with your right hand. It looks just as badass as it sounds.

Bloodborne is incredibly atmospheric from beginning to end. The NPCs are all well voice acted, the graphics are astounding, and the level design is top-notch, much better than Dark Souls II’s. The clothing on your character’s back blows in the wind and flaps around gently with every movement you make. Many of the bosses are quite hairy or have something hanging off of them that moves beautifully as they attack. Blood simply pours out of enemies as you slash them, soaking your character as you slaughter more and more of them. One incredible detail I noticed was that getting covered in blood while wearing a full mask results in only the area around your eyes becoming blood-stained. Bloodborne simply does everything it sets out to do incredibly well without faltering or even seeming a bit over-the-top. One of the greatest things about Miyazaki and his team at From is that they can design broken worlds so well- Yharnam feels like a lived-in place that’s run into some really, really bad times, much like New Londo did in Dark Souls. You might get used to dealing with a beast or two, you might think to yourself “this isn’t too bad”, but Bloodborne will change that. Bloodborne will never leave you comfortable.

The game’s issues are mainly technical shortcomings. The framerate often dips, and while I personally think it’s more stable than Dark Souls’ framerate (nothing can be worse than Blighttown) it’s definitely noticeable. PVP is very hit-or-miss- it can take 10 seconds to find somebody else or 10 minutes, and the netcode is a bit shoddy regardless. There are a few covenants but none of them really make significant changes to the PVP meta. PVP may sound like a bit of a disappointment, but the core mechanics save it. The PVP is fast-paced and exhilarating and the lack of sword-and-boarding and cheese magic makes it more skill based than ever before (note: there still is “magic” in the game, it’s just used less often).

Conclusion: Bloodborne is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. This game is the furthest From has gone from the Dark Souls formula (besides Armored Core) and it’s payed off in easily one of the most unique gaming experiences of the past decade. I won’t lie- it isn’t without its share of issues- but whenever those issues rear their ugly heads, they are soon lost in Bloodborne’s enthralling world.

What can I even say about Bloodborne?

I’m not the type of person to give anything a perfect score. Often, I consider it sacrilege to imply that anything is perfection, as I don’t think a state of pure perfection can exist. Surprisingly enough, despite this, FromSoftware managed to deliver so hard with Bloodborne that I had to forget about that assumption entirely.

From the brooding macabre aesthetic to the sheer incredible atmosphere, FromSoft has crafted a world that you can’t help but Jones to explore. Sure, it uses typical horror tropes and ideas that we are accustomed to: werewolf-like citizens in various states of transformation, a Lovecraftian inspired horror that bleeds into and creepifies everything, dark and twisted themes that inspire gross-out reactions, but it twists them in such a unique way that one can’t help but be appalled. I’ve always been a big fan of how FromSoft likes to show rather than tell you the story, leaving clues all over the game world that hint at what happened but still leaving much open to player interpretation. This leads to a much more aware sense while playing, as the player will find themselves paying closer attention to just about everything in the search for answers, including such things we often take for granted and typically ignore in other titles. Level location architecture or various in-game art assets can create wild speculation for the most observational of hunters.

And then you have the fantastic gameplay systems, and oh man… I feel that this combat is FromSoft at their absolute best. It’s fast, frantic, and deadly, leading to many close calls and big sighs of relief after taking down a particularly tough boss or making it through a difficult section. The level design is probably my favorite part of the game. They have a way of building these fantastic levels with varying degrees of elevation that wrap back around in providing shortcuts for the player, taking into account everything about the player experience and using it to mess with the player in very unique ways. I wish so much that other developers would take hints from this, because I feel like this is one of the only games that takes the medium which it is in seriously.

Soulsborne games are known for being hard, but they aren’t necessarily that difficult. They ask something of the player: they ask the player to put in effort. The more effort you put in, the more carefully you play and the more prepared you make yourself for what lies ahead, the more you will progress. Some easy tips for those who are starting: start coming up with small farming routes as you move through the first areas. Experiment with taking out enemies and then going back to the lamp and coming back and repeating this. Talk to the doll to level up with the blood echoes that you’ve collected. Whenever you hit a wall, do a little bit of leveling. You will also pick up these items called blood stone shards. These are very important, as they will upgrade your weapons. Each weapon can upgrade up to +10. Leveling up and upgrading your weapon are key components of the Soulsborne franchises, and I see a lot of new players giving up prematurely because they don’t take advantage of these things in order to get ahead.

Speaking of grinding, Soulsborne is also not a franchise where time spent training against enemies is wasted. As you go down these paths, you start to become better at fighting the enemies. You memorize how they move and attack and start to make better decisions when fighting them. This element of teaching the player is key. There isn’t a such thing as a waste of time in a Soulsborne game. Every death is a lesson learned, and the game is actually fairly forgiving. You aren’t really repeating content, because when you go through the level again, you now understand more clearly what challenges lie ahead, and that experience is critical to advancing. When you make it to the end, you feel like YOU worked to get yourself there, and it feels incredible. There’s nothing else like it.

So… yeah. This review is a mess and I wish I could go over it again, but I have some things to tend to. Bloodborne is incredible and probably one of the greatest games of all time, and my personal 2nd favorite of all time.

One of the best of all time! This game will run you through the ringer at first but when you get into it finally, get the rhythms down, it’s one of the most rewarding things you can find on PS4.

I’m just starting with the Bloodborne universe. I think this game is great.