Bloodborne - Review

Well, it's been a while since I last did a review, this is due to a few reasons; I have been sick for over a week, visited London and made some new friends (shoutout to Katie and Ger), and have been slowly working my way through Bloodborne.  Anyone who plays a lot of games knows that it can be quite expensive.  I would love to buy all my games brand new, the moment they are released, but unless you have a ton of loose cash it's just not possible.  What's a gamer to do?  You need to be smart, buy second hand, share games between friends, or even go halves on a game, this is exactly what Siniša, and I decided to do with Bloodborne.


I'm not a big breakfast person, but every now and then I fancy something like a bacon sandwich, mini breakfast, or even some cereal.  On occasion, I even feel like having porridge.  The thing about porridge is that it is hard to eat, even a small amount fills you quickly, and can rest heavily on your stomach.  It's doesn't look very appealing either, dress it up any way you like it's still not going to look very enticing.  Finishing a bowl, while challenging can be quite nice, and there is a feeling of fulfilment.  Playing Bloodborne I found myself asking was I really in the mood for porridge, and did I feel fulfilled?

Story


What's the one thing none of us want to wake up to?  A creepy old guy in a wheelchair looking at you?  That's pretty bad, but imagine you are on a less than clean medical table, you are having a blood transfusion, and you are seeing demons.  It's clearly time to stop drinking and get off the drugs. It turns out you are now a demon hunter of sorts and need to, well, kill demons.


The story is really hidden, you are given small tit bits, here and there but nothing major.  According to the writer this was purposefully done, and all the answers are in the game you just need to piece it together.  I needed to check a few forums, and got the answers I was looking for, it sounded quite interesting.  Now don't get me wrong I don't need my hand held through a story but the way it was told in Bloodborne just felt lazy.  Some people seemed to really like the way it was hidden and cryptic,  but it didn't do it for me, which is a shame because after checking online it seemed that story itself was quite interesting.

Visuals


The visuals in the game are amazing and are really where it shines.  The town of Yarhnam is bleak, and devoid of all hope, the enemies are terrifying and are straight out of a horror movie.  There are of course your crazy townsfolk, but for me something that constantly freaked me out were the carrion crows.  They are really large crows, that look like they have been bitten in half, and often only make their presence know once you step on them.  There are some really great looking bosses, two of my favourites with Mergo's Wet Nurse, and Vicar Amelie.  Mergo's Wet Nurse looked liked the Grimm Reaper, but with multiple arms each with scythes in them. Vicar Amelie looks like a beast, but unlike the others it looks like she is pain, huge amounts of hair, and horns on her head.  While almost everything is dark there was one area of serenity, the Hunter's Dream.  It is your home base, and is a beautiful garden/graveyard.  The picture above shows the Messengers who you can buy weapons, and items from.


There are number of complaints I had with this game, but when it comes to the design, and overall look of it I had nothing but praise for it.


Music


The soundtrack suits the game perfectly, it is dark, eerie, and there is a real unsettling feeling throughout.  There is harsh uses of stringed instruments, and there is a choir who are featured heavily, especially during boss battles.  The score was crafted by a slew of artists including:

Ryan Amon, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, he has worked on;  Assassins Creed Unity, Elysium, and Blackhat.

Tsukasa Saitoh, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who has worked on a number of titles including; the Armored Core Series, Eternal Ring, and Kings Field IV.

Yuka Kitamura, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who's works include; DarkSouls II and III, and Armored Core: Verdict Day.

Nobuyoshi Suzuki, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who worked on; Super Mario Oddessy, and Dark Souls III.

Cris Velasco,  an American Composer, who worked on a number of big titles including;  Overwatch, Injustice: Gods Among Us, God of War, Borderlands 1 and 2, and lots more.

Michael Wandmacher, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, who has a really varied background, his works include; Underworld: Blood Wars, Ben 10: Alien Swarm, Tokyo Pig, Twisted Metal.

The original soundtrack runs at just over ninety minutes, it a great score with many chilling pieces, my favourites included: 'Omen', 'Bloodstained Beast', 'Hail The Nightmare', and 'Darkbeast'.

Gameplay


Onto the blood chunks that is the gameplay!  The game starts with you designing your character, there are quite a lot of options which is really fun, in the end I settled on a professor look, and called him Professor Tim.  There are different back stories you can choose for your character, which all effect your initial stats, my favourite was called 'waste of skin', the description was 'you should never have been born'.


Bloodborne had one of the best save areas in a game, the Hunter's Dream was a nice tranquil place, despite all the graves.  It has a storage area which was really great, anytime you collect too many excess items they automatically get transferred there.  When you are in the Hunter's Dream you can purchase items, weapons, and armor, along with levelling up.  The currency in the game is blood echoes, they are used for everything, at times this can be tough as you need to sacrifice levelling up to ensure you have enough healing vials, or other items.


The are a multitude of weapons in the game, but being honest I only found a few that were worthwhile, most notably the Axe, which I found to be Axe-tastic!  It has two modes, one handed (close range), and two handed (long range), and could be changed at a moments notice depending on the enemy you had to take on.  The combat as a whole is similar to Dark Souls, roll, roll, roll some more, and occasionally hit an enemy.  The targeting had a lot to be desired, and I found on a number of occasions my weapon did not make contact.  The armor was very underwhelming in the game, and did not get much better which was a little disappointing.


The gameplay focuses on you working your way to the next boss, some were okay, others were bordering on the ridiculous.  The two most straight forward to me were, The One Reborn and Amelia, mostly due to the fact that by careful dodging, and not being afraid to hack at an enemy they were easily beatable.  Then you had bosses like Blood Starved Beast, everything would be going fine, dodging out the way, taking cover, using antidotes, and then all of sudden you just can't get away from him, the difficulty kept spiking like crazy.  Being honest the bosses in the game nearly made me walk away from it a few times, sometimes it felt like you won due to skill, other times luck.


The gameplay for the most part was good enough, but some poor weapons, and armor, some frustrating boss fights, and poor targeting stopped it being all it could be.




Final Thoughts

So after forty hours plus how did I feel? Conflicted.  The visuals and music were impressive, the story was valed for the most part, the gameplay, and difficulty spiking varried between fun, and frustrating.  So many reviewers game it ten out of ten, and being honest I really can't see why because it has multiple issues.  I struggled scoring this game, but in the end, I can only give it 3 out of 5