Bloodborne

Pros:

• Deep and satisfying gameplay
• Amazing level design
• Great music
• Great exploration
• Great art design
• Great character progression
• Great boss fights
• Good customisation
• Tons of weapons and Items
• Tons of enemy types

Cons:

• Story isn't really a main focus
• Can be too challenging for some

Verdict: Bloodborne is well-regarded as one of the best souls-like games. The challenge and difficulty of the game is where allot of the main interest is, as story or characters aren't really the focus. Overall, this is a must play for PS4 owners, but be warned of the difficulty.

9 / 10.

There's another four f words I use when playing this game that sound like duck. That's because Bloodborne is one of the most immersive and atmospheric games I have ever played. Now I do have to say that I've never played any of the previous souls titles (but after this I definitely want to give them a shot) so I was a bit cautious going into this whether or not I would like it. Well I liked it a lot, in fact I loved it and it is easily among the top ten games I have ever played. The combat is face paced and quite brutal at times due to the fact that when you've been hit you've got a couple of seconds to hit back and regain the health you've lost which a very nice mechanic and gives you more reason to be on the offence. Not to say that it's easy, no,no,no,no. When I say combat is brutal I mean brutal, like watching game of thrones deaths brutal. There are times when your overwhelmed by the opponents strength or numbers. Some enemies have lots of health or move very quickly and some enemies are near impossible to beat especially the bosses. I have to say though when I died (which was a lot) I rarely felt cheated or cheesed. Usually it was my own fault, either I didn't prepare enough, wasn't the right level, used a certain item (like my health potions) too much when I really didn't need to and so on. It makes you think about what you need to improve upon and when you do kill that enemy that's been a thorn your side for ages the sense of satisfaction is unparallelled. Speaking of bosses, most of the bosses in this game I liked or loved fighting, even the highly challenging ones, In fact especially the challenging ones, there are two bosses I came across that I felt where too easy (compared to bosses I fought at earlier stages) and in fact quite boring. Besides that though the rest are awesome with great soundtracks accompanying the fight. I felt my knuckles whiten as I was franticly trying to kill this boss or enemy and gain my blood echoes ( the games first form of currency, used for gear, items and levelling up) after dying previously. The games main story and subplots are not as easy to review mainly as its a "go and figure it out yourself" type deal which I personally liked and it's not too difficult to get what's going on (though near the end you kinda go wtf is that about) and speaking of endings there are three possible endings depending what choice you make and if you gathered certain items. I won't spoil what they are but I went for the third one as it seemed the most complete ending and I got an ex machina vibe from it, I preferred the other two endings I saw on YouTube . Other gripes I have is that I didn't find all the armour sets that great, there are maybe three or four that I'd use, though I love the weapons (at least the Melee as most of the side arms are a bit inept which is fine as it would have defeated the purpose of the game) that i've used and despite the fact there's only really two now that I use frequently I would happily use the others and there is a great variety of unique weapons. Another gripe is that sometimes, usually with bosses I did feel that I was cheated, either a boss or an enemy would spam the same attack over and over or I'd suddenly be surround by enemies that came out of no where. Possibly my biggest complaint though is that when your a higher level, going through the areas at the beginning to farm blood echoes to help level up so you can advance more easily through the area your stuck at can feel repetitive when your pretty much op and aren't really threatened by those enemies that once put the fear of God in you, the game looses a bit of its horror aspects in that regard. My other big complaint is that when you start a new gave + you can't change anything like your characters background ( this decides what stats your character has) or how they look, it was a bit annoying as I wanted to change some things. One thing though that I did like and was actually surprised by was the multiplayer which is not as in your face as other games like cod, destiny and so on. You can select from preset text (this I imagine is to avoid detailed spoilers or tactics) to leave notes that offer some cryptic advice or just leave a inspiring message, which can be found by other players in their world and they then rate them fine (which restores your health) or foul (which removes it if enough people rate it foul) also you can join or invade other gamers to help them out or kill them and vice versa. It's a nice addition that is appreciated in this day and age. I could go on in fact I would but all that matters is that bloodborne is a master piece in my opinion, there's so much more I could talk about, tiny little features like opening shortcuts to get around an area quicker, the chalice dungeons and the unique enemies. All in all bloodborne is a great game, and like I said I've already started a new game plus and I look forward to fighting old foes. 10/10

I beat Bloodborne after 30 hours with a level of 109 (i got the "give in" and the "true" final boss ending as i backed up my save) and have most of the trophies as i did all the secrets but the chalice dungeon final boss / rune as these dungeons are a good idea but they are too generic as of now. I messed around with co-op a bit (this is how you get invaded too) but i power-leveled so hard that i had trouble to get partners later so i did the heavy duty myself and kind of broke the game. Most of my later deaths came form cheap (back) attacks and from falling off stuff... Ludwig's Holy Blade is THE weapon of choice and guns are garbage but i am glad that magic went as that was borderline cheating earlier. This is overall the easiest of the 4 but the later secret areas are too hard to trigger at times without a guide and it is also pretty easy to loose the critical path during the first half. The game design is also heavily streamlined and blocking is a thing of the past so my Ninja Gaiden reflexes did double duty. Overall the best one after Dark Souls 1 so join the Esoteric Order of Dagon today! Lovecraft literacy helps btw. but the story is way too hidden this time so watch Bloodborne Lore - The Story on youtube after finishing to even get the basics and i would love to play a big budget Armored Core next.

Upon playing FromSoftwares gothic horror masterpiece, Bloodborne, it is immediately apparent that the game is the very definition of a passion project.

I don't think I have ever seen a video game with a world as detailed and utterly enthralling as Bloodborne. The environments are as nightmarish as they are beautiful and captivating to explore. The game's imposing cities take heavy inspiration from English Victorian era architecture. They are filled with larger than life gothic cathedrals, clocktowers, mansions, castles, and other imposing structures that are undeniably spectacular. The sky is a stunning blood red. The alleyways and streets within the cities are claustrophobic, dark, spooky places where monstrous enemies wait around every corner to surprise you! Almost every area in the game is remarkably immersive thanks in part to this stunning art design, as well as the bone chilling sound design.

The horrifying sounds of Bloodborne are wrought with disturbing bloodcurdling screams, the menacing howls of werewolfs, and the snarls of ghastly beasts. This type of sound design is present in nearly every area, and this, combined with the aforementioned foreboding architecture, has the effect of making the player constantly tense and on edge in nearly every area.

The game's story and dialogue as well as the art design for the characters in the first half of the game also take heavy influence from the works great Victorian horror authors such as Bram Stoker, and Edgar Allan Poe. In the second half, the game becomes much more similar to an H. P. Lovecraft story, with numerous cosmic horror themed imagery and storytelling. This unique style gives the game a sense of personality and identity not present within most games in Bloodborne's genre. It also makes the game feel fresh and distinct from other, more traditional fantasy RPGs.

However, if Bloodborne was all style and no substance it would not be considered a masterpiece. Luckily, Bloodborne's gameplay systems are every bit as masterful as it's art and world design.

Bloodborne's level design is some of the best in the gaming industry (typical of FromSoftware), with numerous shortcuts, optional paths, and even whole optional areas that greatly reward exploration on the player's part. The varied enemy design and layouts throughout the levels is also top notch. Every area in Bloodborne has it's own unique enemies with movesets completely different from enemies in previous areas. This helps keep players engaged with the game as they uncover new regions.

The combat system of Bloodborne is another one of the games major strengths. The main unique feature of Bloodborne's combat system that distinguishes it from FromSoftware's other soulsborne games is it's "trick weapon" system. Every weapon in Bloodborne has the ability to transform into an entirely different weapon with a completely different moveset from the base weapon. This allows the player to exucute a great variety of combo attacks with their weapon, by switching back and forth between the weapon's two forms.

When this system is combined with the fact that every weapon in Bloodborne has a totally unique moveset, you get a combat system with an immense amount of replayability. It is incredibly fun to test out different weapons on repeat playthroughs and this is one of the main reasons why the game has maintained a consistent playerbase for so many years since it's release.

Another unique feature of Bloodborne's combat system is how thoroughly it rewards aggression. Bloodborne features a "rally" system which allows the player to gain a portion of health back if struck by an enemy through attacking the enemy in return. Morover, the dodge roll of the Soulsborne games has been replaced with a quickstep dodge with more invincibility frames, encouraging players to dodge into their enemies aggressively. In addition, the shields of the Dark Souls games have been replaced with guns which, when shot at an enemy right before they attack, can stun them, giving the player the opportunity to counter with a high damaging strike known as a "visceral attack". All of these combat features reward an aggressive, in your face playstyle which makes the combat of Bloodborne an endless adrenaline rush.

The player's knowledge and skill with this combat system is also rigorously tested by Bloodborne's many challenging and creatively designed boss battles. The boss roster of Bloodborne (especially in the highly acclaimed Old Hunters DLC) is phenomenal. Bloodborne's best bosses are an outstanding combination of stunningly grotesque visual design, deeply tragic lore, and challenging attack patterns that reward the aggressive playstyle Bloodborne attempts to cultivate within it's players. Despite how monstrous and aggressive some of the bosses can be, players must learn to overcome their fear and become just as aggressive and ruthless as the bosses if they wish to slay them. Some of the boss fights have since become some of my all time favourites. Many of the bosses can also be incredibly challenging and are capable of taking players hours to finally conquer them. However, much like FromSoftware's other Souls games, this always rewards patient players with a great sense of accomplishment whein they finally do overcome the boss that has been killing them over and over again.

The experience of battling these incredible bosses is also further enhanced by Bloodborne's epic and haunting musical score. Many of the soundtracks for the bosses have a chilling choir element to them that makes them absolutely eargasmic to listen to.

Overall, when all of these elements are put together. The extrodinary art design, the marvelously detailed world, the deeply memorable storytelling, the unique combat system, and the unforgettable bosses. You get an experience that is more than worthy of being called one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time.

This game is truly something special. The atmosphere, weaponry, gameplay, music, boss fights, the dlc. Everything is perfect (except blood vials) and it can't get better than Bloodborne. If someone asked me what the highlight of this game is, it has to be none other than the final boss himself, Gehrman. My gosh this is just perfection, the beautiful melancholic soundtrack, the field of white flowers, the looming moon, the lyrics, the gameplay. It's all perfection and honestly just makes me feel so many emotions. Man Bloodborne really is the greatest game of all time. Please play it sometime, you won't regret it.