Bloodborne

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.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Bloodborne" (2015) is an amazing game. I loved pretty much everything about it, only story maybe could have been more explained. On the other hand, uncertainty makes a room in everyone imagination.

The art design of this game is a pure masterpiece. You have to simply stand for a minute and look around - so many attention to smallest details - the overall game design is amazing. Combat system was also very satisfying.

Overall, "Bloodborne" is amazing. I completed it, platinum it and loved every single minute of it. Great, amazing game.

I meant what I said there, but equally, I mean it when I say that my favourite game of the Soulsborne series so far also has my favourite expansion released for them so far. This DLC lets you loose on the Hunter's Nightmare, and then lets every trick it has loose on you in return. Make no mistake, if you like the base game, this is definitely a worthy purchase, but I would recommend at the very least, you get to the Lecture Hall 2nd floor and do all the optional areas before this, and have a +9 weapon before you even consider taking this on. It's HARD.

A significant portion of the enemies in the first area are hunter NPC fights, there are traps galore, and god do the bosses in this expansion let you have it. I remember the first time I played this part of the game, and three out of the five new bosses you get took me literal days to beat. Crucially though, in keeping with the game's philosophy, they never felt insurmountable, and with time and practice, they crumbled before me, and of these five, three of them are easily in the top ten, maybe even top five best bosses in the game for me.

The other two though...one of them is okay to me, while the other one is a little disappointing. It has some new and interesting things about it, but mostly it kind of feels like it's copying a boss from the base game, which does kind of suck.

Speaking of copying from the base game, my only other complaint is that the first part of the Hunter's Nightmare is more or less just the Cathedral Ward from the main game reskinned, which feels pretty lazy and there isn't even a story reason for this as far as I could see.

But eeeeeeverything else in this expansion is top-quality stuff, easily on par with, if not better than things from the main game. The new areas are well designed and as gorgeous as ever, the new NPC's are interesting and well voice acted, and every single new weapon and armour set added has its uses and is so fun to mess about with.

And the lore of these new areas and characters is as interesting as it ever was, with the last area in particular being an absolute delight for fans of Lovecraft's works, it being easily the most directly inspired place from one of his stories, yet still has that distinct Bloodborne flavour that I adore so much.

At the end of the day, if you loved the original game as much as I do, the mere fact that this is more Bloodborne is probably enough to make this more than worth it to you, so bloody well get it already, what are you waiting for? It's nearly six years old you dummy.

I have finally come around to reviewing this game. It's almost difficult to put into words of how phenomenal Bloodborne is. The character creation and customization is amazing with how you can define your hunter. The start of the storyline submerges the player into wonder and curiosity, due to mystery of Yharnam and its inhabitants. However, from the start of the game the hunter is given clues to why the city and lands are filled with miasma and misanthropy. Even the in-game items have descriptions that help to tell the storyline.

When playing my first time through Bloodborne I immediately felt immersed into the story and gameplay. While fighting off blood drunken infected people, otherworldly beasts, and even cosmic creatures; I felt not only the rush of action, but horror as well.

The gameplay and mechanics are incredibly smooth, including the character controls. As far as the story goes, it's up to the hunter to unravel the mystery to why Yharnam is infested with ghastly and grotesque creatures.

It's amazing as well of how they embedded the side quests into the story. One of these "side quests" includes rescuing certain people BEFORE the climax. Doing so requires the hunter to tell these people which safe haven to go to. The catch is, there's only one safe haven (though you have two options of dialogue, one of which tells the person where to go).

For H.P. Lovecraft fans, you will absolutely love the fact that majority of the lore in the storyline is HEAVILY Lovecraftian. Mainly because a lot of descriptions on items read, "The Greater Ones" and one of the last bosses is one of these said creatures.

The only two complaints I have about Bloodborne (which are small) are: The summoning system for cooperative play is odd and sometimes takes a while. The other is, you can't drop or trade items with other players. Nevertheless, it doesn't bother me too much. I highly recommend this game, especially if you're craving for a challenge!

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.