Bloodborne, A touch of Nostalgia
A Bargain Basement review
A Bargain Basement review
Publisher Sony
Retail price with Dlc £15
I still remember the first game I ever played on the ps4, it was Sucker Punches Infamous Second Son.
To be quite fair I enjoyed the game immensely, giving it a solid 7.5/10 on my own personal games scoring system. After completing it, I moved on to the Last of us part 1, a game that every review site touted as a must-play and one of the greatest games ever made. Once again I enjoyed Sony's offering, but yet again it was a game that failed to impress me to the heights that I thought it should of. Yes, it was a much better experience than Infamous Second Son but as a game that was touted as an ultimate Masterpiece, I still felt slightly underwhelmed by its completion.
In the end, I gave TLOU a very respectable 8.5/10 score. Saying that I found its DLC to be rather exceptional and right up there with some of the best add-ons I have ever played. As for my grand yet slightly underwhelming experience with Sony exclusives, well that was all about to change, with the introduction of a little game called Bloodborne.
I had of course seen reviews of Bloodborne pasted all over the internet.‘Explore the dark world of Yarnan they said, take a fantastical journey through a brutal dark fantasy setting.’
The truth however was, that I had never played a Dark Souls game before, I was not even sure if this whole ‘Get Good’ setup was something I would actually like or enjoy.
My past gaming resume had seen me come from a hardcore World of Warcraft raiding guild. My accomplishments in those games were killing bosses like Lady Vashj and clearing Kharazan, these were pre-nerf patches to you modern-day achievement hunters. If anyone remembers those events in particular, before Blizzard made the ‘Game for everyone’ they will testify to exactly what a pain in the arse those particular encounters were.
Bloodborne is also the first game that I have ever received platinum. For the record, I don't have many platinum achievements on my console list, about 5 in total, which includes God of War. The last Valkyrie fight in particular, is one of my personal favorite fights of all time and massive respect for anyone that has completed those extremely grueling scenarios.
With that tiny backdrop out of the way, let's get started with my Bargain basement review of Bloodborne.
I remember starting the game with no weapons in hand, I made my way forward from its starting point into some sort of gloomy laboratory clinic, a few seconds later I came face to face with the game's first foe, some sort of werewolf monster feasting on a corpse in front of me. With knuckled hand voracity, I proceeded to dance my way around a square table trying to fist the growling beast to death, a few moments later, I found myself dead, being resurrected at the Hunters lodge.
-Side-note (Trying to fist the animal is in regards to a combat setting, not the way some of you weirdo perverts out there might be thinking) here's looking mainly at you @PropellerEar and @TubzGaming )
My new spawn location, The Hunters Lodge or Dream Lodge as it is often called, is a lost refuge point where among other things you can pick up some amour, engage in some chit-chat with a talking female Doll, and receive some cryptic messages from an old man in a wheelchair.
After a brief scout about, you also get to choose your weapon of preference, a choice between The Hunters Axe and an Elegant Walking Cane. My choice was the axe, a powerful weapon that would eventually carry me through the entirety of the game.
Bloodborne's arsenal of weapons are called trick weapons, meaning, besides having a quick and heavy attack, said weapons can be converted on the fly to become a much more powerful variant of itself. Take the Hunters Axe for example, in its standard form, it is a one-handed bludgeoning Axe that can be wielded with deadly precision but switched to its trick specialization, it becomes a two-handed heavy weapon with incredible reach and a massive staggering attack.
The good news for new players is, there are dozens of fabulous weapons in Bloodborne to choose from. From axes to swords, to maces and blasting cannons, there is even a flame thrower that works wonders when lighting up enemies in an inferno-red of roaring flames.
The hunter's axe is a tool of utter destruction.
After a brief discussion with the man in the wheelchair, I found myself being teleported back to the game's world and with it, I explored into its Gothic world setting.
Not long after your return, you find yourself staring at a large bonfire setting. This particular hot spot is actually rather famous for a couple of things, one for its incredible mob density and two for its ability to kill new players as they charge recklessly toward its glaring center. The surrounding area of the bonfire is packed with an overabundance of enemies, some in plain sight, others hiding behind nearby wagons and crates, there are also some rather annoying riflemen that only awaken once you have engaged in combat.
On my first-ever attempt at clearing out this hot spot, I pulled the entire surrounding area in one gleeful go, a dozen mobs or so in total.
So in I went, like some sort of rabid charging Xbox fanboy defending a Microsoft studio take-over, in my attempt to dominate the competition, I refused to take heed of the warnings around me. I soon found my entire world turned upside down as droves of enemies swarmed all over me.
Many deaths later, and with some newfound patience, I finally cleared that terrible setting, after that, I came across my very first boss.
The Cleric beast is a gigantic marauding fur-ball that is more yeti than a werewolf in its appearance This all-screeching beast first descends its way down from a nearby rooftop, then like a deranged hairy Tarzan, spends the next few minutes trying to smash and pound you into oblivion.
To my utter surprise, the fight is a rather easy affair, his massive form of stringy hair also contains an all to easy-to-smack hitbox. His lumbering attacks are mainly slow and easy to avoid with a series of quick dodges. Within a couple of minutes, I have downed my prey in an encounter that consumed less than half a dozen of my blood vials. (Blood vials are the game's equivalent to health potions).
After the fight, I eased my way onward to investigate the lower depths of the city. I find myself dredging through levels of dank dark sewerage, dispatching among other things a group of crawling undead and hordes of giant rats. Then, at the end of a long passageway, I come face to face with a rather large pig, after killing the beast, I found a little red ribbon, a secret that will remain hidden, for perhaps new players of this review to find out for themselves.
From then onward, I find my way to Father Gascoigne, or as I like to call him, the ultimate noob killer.
In many ways, this boss fight reminds me of Diablo 2's end-of-second-act boss, Duriel. You enter an enclosed arena with a boss whose sole purpose in life is to relentlessly hunt you down.
The fight is in essence a skill check, one of those ‘Your trapped in here with me or am I trapped in there with you’ moments.
The arena itself is a graveyard of typical design, with a scattering of tombs, coffins, and wooden shrubby abound. As the fight starts, I use the terrain around me to my advantage, magnificently dodging all of his swinging attacks.
Father Gascoigne is deceptively quick for what looks like an old man but there is nothing too fearful or threatening in his initial onslaught. As we skirmish, I carve my axe deeply into his solid frame, removing large sections of his health bar.
As the fight continues, a brainstorming eureka moment of ‘Good God, this shit is really easy’ starts to trickle through the runnels of my mind. All things considered, I am starting to consider myself a bit of a maestro at this game, just like that Red Viper guy from Game of Thrones, you know the one, the guy who fights The Mountain.
Well just like that fight, something goes terribly awry and it all happens as Father Ted's evil brother's health bar hits 30% percent.
Suddenly that ‘Easy-to-hit-foe-in-front-of-me’ begins to transform. The once man of the cloth, draped in his attire of Sunday-School-Tidings now turns into a howling snorting rabid beast of utter destruction, and to make matters worse, it is coming for me.
Within seconds my persona has gone from Hero to Zero, I am now a mouse trapped in a cage with not just some ‘Puddy cat’ but a fully grown-up pissed off Sabre-toothed-tiger. My meaningful attacks of earlier, those once flowing blows of destructive poise are now nothing more than flutters of cowardly retreat.
As I flee from the advancing beast, I find myself being caroled into a narrow corner of the graveyard.
Those graves stones that I so eloquently dodged around earlier, the same ones that I used to my advantage are now being shattered, smashed into oblivion by this insatiable mutt.
In the end I have nowhere to run. As a final act of total desperation, I swing my mighty axe one more time in the creature's direction, just maybe, maybe I will inflict enough damage to fend off its relentless assault. However, that dream of survival is a monumental bridge too far, as seconds later, I see my death unfold before my eyes, as the beast stands above me, ripping my body to pieces.
It is then that I see myself reborn again at a nearby lamppost. My inner hero of “GET GOOD” has been totally crushed, throttled by one of the game's earliest bosses. With a shaking hand and a pounding heart, I gather my trembling thoughts and step forward once again, into the misty gloom of this magnificent setting.
These types of scenarios are all too commonplace in Bloodborne. Truth be told, this little episode is what makes the game a true masterpiece. There are moments of utter brilliance fused within the lashings of pure mental panic.
Japan Studios to their credit, not only lead you down a strange and twisted path but make you skip and dance to their dark demonic beat.
While most souls games will have you stand there and take what comes at you with a mighty shield, Bloodborne does something different, it embraces the slick flow of combat. With unbridled viscosity, your character is built to dance in and out of combat, in essence, you are the Fred Astaire of all souls games.
To complete this review, I present my personal draft of grotesque indulgence, a list of what makes Bloodborne so special to me.
For those of you that have not played the game, I strongly suggest that you skip the following segment. For those of you that have already dined on the game's dark delights, perhaps the next few tidbits will serve as an awakening, to make you boot up the game once more.
Here are but a few examples, a list of moments that have left a permanent mark on my psyche.
-Welcome back hunter
-A hunter on a rooftop, constantly tracking your every move, firing volley after volley of bullets at you.
-A large creature thudding his fist loudly into a door, just beyond the first bonfire.
-Rom the Vacuous, AKA The spider fight.
-Patches, what a complete and utter bastard.
-Returning to the church, and finding everyone inside dead, and to make it worse, it's all your fault for inviting that bastard in. ( I felt guilty for an entire week after discovering that I was indeed the one responsible.)
-Learning to communicate with the Brain of Mensis.
-Getting hit in the face by many a boulder, damn those giants.
-A little music box, and the story of a ‘loving sister.’
-The Lady Maria boss fight- An encounter of pure combat poetry.
-Ludwig the accused, getting literally stomped to death by that stupid horse jump. What a brilliant fight it was.
-Sharks in the fishing village well.
-The whirligig saw, a weapon that Leather-face, Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers would truly appreciate.
-Defeating the Orphan of Kos.
-And finally, my top pick in the game is, this sweet-sounding song, from one of the game's most terrifying monsters.
Positives.
-From start to finish, the game is an absolute masterpiece.
-Amazing Level design, short cuts and secret paths abound.
-Sound design, screams that make the hair on your neck stand up.
-Incredible bosses.
-A plethora of satisfying weapons to use.
-Fabulous lore.
-Some of the slickest most intense combat ever made
-Possibly the greatest DLC ever made.
-Insight system, an unseen world that changes as you level it.
Negatives.
-If ever a game deserved to be remade, this is the one. Even on my brilliant Ps5, I found problems, especially with frame dips and screen tearing.
-I find it shameful that Sony has not remade or remastered this game yet, my fingers are crossed for the future, who knows what is lurking around the next corner.
-Chalice dungeons, are somewhat hit-and-miss for me, I would have preferred more DLC like the Old Hunters.
ICON-ERA Game Score 10/10
For the grand sum of around 15 bucks, DLC included, this is easily one of the greatest games ever made.
If you have not played this, unfriend me NOW.
If you have played this and your name is @Gamernyc78 , unfriend me NOW
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