Exclusive to PS4
Bloodborne Release Date: March 24 2015
Preview - March 16 2015
Since we last saw Bloodborne, the game has inched terrifyingly close to release. I had a chance to play the near-final build of this game and experience the graphic quality of From Software’s latest title.
Due to be released on March 24, Bloodborne is just over a week award from launch and it is looking great.
The cloudy midnight light bathes the cobbled streets in an eerie glow, while our protagonist – whichever character you create – makes their way through the city in a tricorne hat and duster coat. Bloodborne has a much darker beauty than previous From Software titles and even the scenery seems much more brutal. After the first couple of deaths you’ll be longing for the flickering glow of a respawn lamp, which are few and very far between.
We attempted to play through the first chapter of the game, up until the first boss, and the opening cutscenes are seriously impressive. The detailing on the eyes and skin of the characters is on-par with The Order: 1886. However, when you get deeper into the game, some of the lip-syncing is out and ruins the realism that was there in the opening scenes.
The game begins with you laid out on a gurney in a grim, lightless room, with a bandaged, wheelchair-bound man calling you a “Paleblood”. To make you more powerful and ready to explore the Bloodborne world, you need a Yharnam blood transfusion. But in order to do so, you’ll have to sign a contract.
Then comes the character-creation section. For those who are familiar with any of From Software’s previous titles, including the latest Dark Souls 2, the Bloodborne creation tools will be very familiar. In fact, they’re almost identical.
You get nine origins to choose from, all with slightly different traits and back stories to give your character that bit of personalisation. For example, choosing to be a Lone Survivor gives you higher life essence and vigour than the other origins, which include Noble Scion, Troubled Childhood and Waste of Skin. Then you can move onto choosing your character’s facial details, gender, body proportions, age and other qualities.
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To be honest, although I get really into character creation in games, when your character is wearing a hat and long coat you don’t get to see them all that much. Especially as when you start getting into fights you’ll get increasingly smothered in your victims’ blood.
When you’ve made all your character choices, you’ll need to sign the transfusion contract and the game begins properly – and rather creepily. As you lie writhing on your gurney, horrid skeletal monsters spawn from the blood pool on the floor, which later turn out to be your aides in the game, giving you helpful tips.
Eventually you’ll be free to wander around the lab, but you’ll soon come across a rather powerful werewolf that will kill you pretty quickly. But that’s probably because you don’t have any weapons yet.
It’s now that you first get introduced to the Hunter’s Dream. This peaceful churchyard is the cloud-free realm where you can level up, upgrade your weapons and travel to different locations via the tombstones. You can opt to come back here every time you die, which is often, and tweak your get-up.
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You’ll need to bring back Blood Echoes in order to actually purchase stuff from the storefront. However, I couldn’t quite figure out how these worked, despite picking them up repeatedly in the game from the point at which I died previously. They seemingly work in a similar way to Souls did in previous games and you can use them to purchase items such as Blood Vials for health, pebbles to distract enemies, Quicksilver bullets and firebombs.
Before you leave the Hunter’s Dream for the first time, make your way up the stairs to the church. Those creepy, bubbling skeleton friends will rise from the ground and gift you some weapons. I opted for the excellent Saw Cleaver and Hunter’s Pistol.
The latter is useful for separating enemies from a group if used carefully. That’s when you’ve got some Quicksilver bullets to hand, of course.
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Enemies work a little differently in the section of Bloodborne I played. Whereas previously enemies tended to stay quite still, allowing you to run and find a hiding place when the going got tough, Bloodborne now sees enemies roam in packs. Thus, you have to pick them off one by one.
Tactics are key here, just as they have been in previous From Software games. But this time you won’t have your trusty shield. It’s all about dodging and wielding your Saw Cleaver at opportune moments, holding down the attack button for the ultimate power swing.
Although we said previously that this seems like the easiest entry point into the hardcore realm of From Software titles, I’m now finding it the trickiest. Enemy packs have no set patrol paths and their numbers ebb and flow, meaning there’s often no safe place to cower.
The enemies have much more varied attacks too and when they start coming in thick and fast from all sides, you’ll realise how much you miss your trusty shield. But you mustn’t forget your new firearm. Don’t worry about using it as a long-range weapon at this early stage; it’s great for distraction. Fire a couple of shots at a pack straggler and you can get him to come running at you, enabling you to take him out without his buddies’ support.
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You can also take advantage of the Regain system, which you’ll quickly realise is your biggest asset. That’s because aggressive play is rewarded by allowing you to claw back health lost in battle if you strike your mark within a certain timeframe. An orange section will briefly appear in your health bar and if you counterattack at the right time you’ll regain a little health. That might just be crucial to your success.
Now I must admit I didn’t use the Regain system to my advantage in this preview, but skilled players will definitely find it a boon in the full game.
Also, just a reminder for those who might not have experienced a From Software game before – there’s no pause. And there’s no escape.
Put it this way, I played for around two hours and didn’t even make it to the first boss.
Early Verdict
Bloodborne has the potential to be one of the great PS4 exclusives, but only for a very niche market. Just like its origins, Dark Souls and co, it won’t have the mass appeal needed to make it a console-defining title. For those who are fans of Dark Souls and Demon Souls, Bloodborne is right up your street. It’s just not for me.
Preview - December 7 2014
Bloodborne is Dark Souls for those who were intimidated by From Software’s dungeon crawler. That doesn’t mean it’ll go easy on you
You die a lot in Bloodborne. That’s just the way this game is wired.
You’ll get shot to pieces by a lone, lanky goon whose position you’ll misjudge for a powered-up strike. You’ll be chopped up at the hands of an axe-and-pitchfork-wielding mob that gathered in the street to watch the corpse of a monster burn in front of them. You’ll be turned into paint by a fat, bloated giant whose speed of movement belies his overweight form.
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Bloodborne, after all, is the brainchild of Hidetake Miyazaki, the mastermind behind Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls – two of the hardest games ever birthed into the industry. His last two titles weren’t just a pair of superbly crafted hardcore dungeon-crawlers, they became a rallying call for old-school gaming sensibilities.
If you didn’t like Dark Souls, some said, you weren’t a real gamer.
Funnily enough, though, a lot of people didn’t like Dark Souls and that fact didn’t in any way put them off playing video games. Bloodborne may be the hardcore title that papers over that crack. It’s difficult, unforgiving and it doesn’t offer any free rides but players are more likely to be drawn to it than the games Miyazaki presided over ahead of it.
It’s easy to chalk this up to the game’s presentation. Bloodborne is set in a nightmarish city that owes as much to HP Lovecraft as it does to Victorian London in terms of visual representation. A permanent cloudy midnight hovers over the necropolis’s leering spires and bloodstained cobbles. The game’s protagonist sports a leather duster and tri-corn hat that become more and more bloodied as they carve their way through the streets. The whole environment is soaked in a Gothic pallor that never shifts, whether the player is stalking through the street or engaged in a pitched battle with myriad foes.
It’s a more popular – and by extension, one would say – easier world to get to grips with, in spite of the fact that it’s darker in tone than either Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls. A purist would argue that it’s warmer and more inviting and they’d be right. Bloodborne is more accessible. Players will want to invest in this world.
The mechanics are more inviting too. Rather than have players oscillate between attack and defence – slash away or hide behind a shield – Bloodborne offers only a powerful dodge as the primary means of evading damage. The protagonist walks into every battle with a weapon in both hands. There’s no blocking option here – at least not in the build on offer at Sony’s demo – and instead there’s just a dual attack. You can’t cower behind a shield in Bloodborne. You get out of the way or you get badly hurt.
The new attack set-up lends a new fluidity to the combat. Since players have no blocking option, they’re forced to be on the front foot, regardless of the challenge ahead of them. Bloodborne rewards this bloody minded approach; if an enemy scores a hit, the player is given a limited time to score multiple attacks in return that juice their lifebar back up to healthy levels. Here, offence isn’t just the best defence – it’s a life-saving tactic.
There’s a rather sick logic underpinning all of this; Bloodborne is an intimidating beast, but it’s also one that pushes players to move out of their comfort zone. For example, at one point the player may find themself caught between two enemies of equal threat. On the one side, there’s a group of five goons on patrol and sneaking past them is impossible. On the other is a mutated giant – who easily qualifies as a min-boss – who will be unaware of them until they attack. Both camps pose equal threats, but which should the player pick?
It’s moments such as these that make Bloodborne such an enticing prospect, because the answer to the above question all depends on how confident the player feels, given their ability and the equipment they have stashed. That, and the fact that the truth is they’re probably capable of taking down either set of enemies provided they’ve done their homework and they’re prepared to treat each encounter in the game as potential lethal, regardless of what they’re facing.
Just like in Dark Souls.
Bloodborne is better than Dark Souls, because it makes no concessions and still provides the hardcore with the experience they need to feel challenged. It seems strange to say it, but Bloodborne may be the best gateway into the hardcore gaming experience that casual players have ever been offered.
After all, you die a lot in Bloodborne. That’s just the way this game is wired.
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