Bloodborne is set in the Gothic land or Yarnhem, where Grimm fairy tales and steam punk collide in a grotesquely beautiful fashion.
Bloodborne shares a lot of its mechanics and themes with previous entries in the series, while offering up new features that make the game feel unique.
The game, while punishing, still welcomes new players and long time fans of the series by creating beautiful environments, intense enemies, and a dark and mysterious narrative that entices players to push forward through the gruesome gothic world.
The game utilizes the capabilities of the ps4 to present a beautifully detailed world and stunningly grotesque enemies, with flowing bandages, ripping skin, and other haunting qualities that make each enemy unique. While there are some distracting visual and auditory glitches on occasion, the overall game looks very well designed.
The mechanics of the game feel intuitive and incredibly responsive. Movement and attacks feel fluid, but the game still suffers from some hit-box problems that can be frustrating and make some combat feel unrealistic. Occasionally the dodge/ roll mechanic won't let the player properly maneuver around an enemy or piece of the environment where it clearly should, again pulling the player from the game and causing some undue frustration. Otherwise the gameplay feels amazing and natural.
This game is definitely not for the faint of heart as it reaches deep into some primal fears to create feelings of dread and despair. Playing through the game left me feeling angry, scared, and occasionally elated when I finally mastered an area that I was having particular trouble with.
The game is grueling but satisfying in the most masochistic of ways, and no matter how challenging it became I always found myself crawling back to its devastating jaws.
As with previous Souls games, Bloodborne is filled with diverse and memorable Boss fights that require planning, strategy, or sometimes, just plain dumb luck. Each boss offers unique fights, and often through many attempts feel incredibly satisfying to finally vanquish.
One of the best, and perhaps joyfully unnoticed qualities, is the seamlessness of the world. There is absolutely no load screens in between areas and it possible to travel from one end of the map to the other without a single load screen. This allows the open world to feel even more immersive, but this unfortunately leaves the post-death load screen to take even longer to process the entire world of the game. It should be noted that From Software has promised to fix the 40-second loading time in a future update for the game.
The weapons of Bloodborne are scarce but unique. In previous souls games weapons were frequent, but many lacked diversity or any truest great qualities. However, in Bloodborne this problem is solved by only giving the player access to a small number of unique weapons that all hold interesting abilities that require the player to think strategically about combat. Luckily the diversity of the weapons, and the ability to switch between two different weapons, allows players to be ready for a variety of encounters.
One aspect that did not seem to improve since Dark souls 2 was the new transportation mechanic. In the previous entry players could travel to any rest location that had been unlocked from any of the other locations. In Bloodborne, however, it is only possible to travel to the players main hub from the game world, but players can travel to any rest locations from the main hub.
Despite its various glitches and extended loading times, Bloodborne is a fantastic entry into the Souls series, and should please old fans of the series, while still feeling welcoming to those new to the punishing world created by From Software
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