Bloodborne

An incredible power emerges from Bloodborne. Not only does this title stage surprising sequences of dodges and strikes through confrontations which often push the limits of reflexes and endurance; but in addition, it offers a reflection that made its way through my mind and made my reservations disappear. Through persistence, patience, and skill, Bloodborne has proven to be an unconditional adventure that ultimately brings much more than it seems - and from time to time, it can be mind-boggling. Finally, the only frustrations that are not triumphs come from technical problems. After more than 60 hours of fighting against its monsters, its terrors and its environment, I was stunned by the capacity of Bloodborne to make me feel powerful emotions, and to make me achieve various successes which I will remember for years to come .

Its unconventional approach to Action RPG gameplay oscillates between total exhilaration and despair, as it takes us on a breathtaking journey by means of great satisfactions and the darkest and deepest disappointment. The developers of From Software have chosen to tell us little about how to survive this challenge, and yet expect from us prowess of intelligence and perseverance in the face of a brutal and continuous difficulty. This balance is slightly marred by long and painful loading screens after death or for traveling in different areas. Fortunately this is counterbalanced by the numerous and intimidating bosses who make up for these few idle times.

In Bloodborne, we find the structure of the semi-open world and the difficulty of progression of Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, titles which made the celebrity of From Software. However, it offers a new aggressive fighting rhythm of its own. These deep and breaking melee fights, with an impressive arsenal of melee and tactical handguns, destroyed the horn with my fingertips to form a new layer, even as a hardened veteran of Dark Souls . Alternating between light and heavy weapons on the fly makes it possible to chain interesting combo-type attacks, which bring new versatility, even if these are less calculated battles than what we used to with other games. From Software.

That doesn't make them any easier. Being overwhelmed by enemies is usual, but thanks to your ability to steal life with rapid counterattacks, and your ability to knock out opponents with secondary weapons, it is possible to maintain constant assaults by gaining enough skills .

And these tools are absolutely necessary, as the horrible creatures of Bloodborne cover a wide imaginative field, from crazy villagers to cosmic horrors, or even different monsters. The creature design is striking in several ways - skeletons armed with huge axes, strange semi-transparent creatures resembling children, and howling witches brandishing mincers - each entity is well done in order to be truly threatening. The best illustration of this design work comes from the bosses, who have the power to mystify, terrify and exasperate at the same time. I found a lot of these fights simpler than succeeding the usual battles, with the strong “Die and Retry” aspect (die and start again), with these dozens of smaller enemies I fought against before reaching the bosses fortunately satisfaction with each victory was great.

The progression that follows after these difficult victories is a skillfully measured reward in Bloodborne. For one reason only, the bright pale purple lamps that serve as checkpoints are rare. Surviving long enough to reach the next point is rarely an option you can count on, but diving out of your comfort zone to find a secret shortcut will be a good way to reach safety again. Unfortunately, the impossibility of teleporting between the lamps without a stopover in the Hunter's Dream (your celestial base) brings a dose of additional boredom which intensifies the problem of long loading times.

After arriving at your destination, covered in blood but almost unscathed, the amazing surroundings reveal something new about the enigmatic and vague traditions of Bloodborne. Rumors and clues are everywhere, waiting to be interpreted. Despite a framerate that suffers too often under the weight of loading new areas or heavy actions, the atmosphere remains intact. One has the feeling that this dark and disturbing place is alive. In the dialogues, you can find critical innuendos about the real world about concepts like faith or worship, taking each of these strange stories seriously makes progress even more enjoyable.

Again, your personal story will be created according to your own decisions, and your exploration of the winding and secret paths that intersect in the world of Bloodborne. Everything is filled with hidden meaning, and spending time chatting with the forgotten citizens of the grim city of Yarnham creates new ways of interacting with the world. At one point, I spoke with a victim about the dark circumstances that allowed me to inherit a family object that seemed unimportant at the time. This was the case until I took the time to read the description: this object suddenly became vital for an upcoming battle. The rewards in Bloodborne come after careful examination and curious effort.

There is so much to do, see and try, that I stubbornly uncovered all the secrets, which greatly extend the already important lifespan of Bloodborne - even if it can still be extended easily thanks to the mode New Game Plus, or at the Chalice Dungeon, randomly generated levels. These places are not only simple additional areas, they are filled with objects that can be brought back in the main story, exclusive weapons and bosses, and thus bring replayability to the solo game that has always been missing in the series of Souls.

Even if Bloodborne is primarily a solitary game experience, there are subtle elements of cooperation that improve the whole. Finding (non-interactive) ghost players who have traveled in this area, reading warnings and advice left by others who have come before, or studying reconstructions of players' deaths by activating aftershocks on the ground - all these are of great help to avoid unpleasant surprises that could confuse and kill you.

While these features are largely identical to previous iterations of Dark Souls, some elements have been improved. The better integration of the messaging system, with the icons of emotions, brings life in the form of a hologram when the message is read. On the lowest rung of Old Yarnham, at the corner of dirty streets, I used the selection tool to choose and put the message: "an object is waiting in front, but watch out for ambushes", then I targeted and added the emoticon that points to the hiding place where the killer was waiting in the darkness. According to the evaluation system, this has been very useful for others, and it gives great satisfaction. I saved lives.

When it comes to cooperative multiplayer, Bloodborne is just as obtuse as Dark Souls. It allows you to call on another player when you need it most. For example, when you don't feel confident to challenge a group of enemies or a boss, and this can be done by ringing the bell. Each player in the same area who responds with the chime will be teleported to your game. The trick (there is always a muddle in Bloodborne) is that at the same time, you open your world to an invasion of hostile players, actively seeking prey to hunt. In a show of compassion, this time, From Software wisely included a password so that you and your friends can connect together, removing the problems of cooperating with anonymous players.

There is no doubt, in fact, that The Old Hunters would have no sense of existence, except as an extension of Bloodborne. And not only for technical reasons (to play the expansion you need to be in possession of the basic game), but also for artistic and philosophical reasons.
The DLC can be purchased from the PlayStation Store (Bloodborne is an exclusive PS4) at the price of 19.99 euros and its installation is actually already included in the 1.07 patch of the game, which will also allow non-owners of the expansion to continue playing online maintaining full compatibility with users who purchased the new package, as well as being able to see the new weapons and new sets, clearly on the owners of the DLC.

The Old Hunters is basically the addition to the main campaign of a new large optional area, the Hunter's Nightmare, reachable by all players who have beaten the base game Vicar Amelia boss. Sony and From Software advise to try this new adventure starting from level 65, but I would abound a little more, since, with a character of level 260, in the New Game +, some bosses and some enemies have nevertheless committed me not little. My advice, if you are a new owner of Bloodborne, is to face the Hunter's Nightmare, and therefore the contents of The Old Hunters, as a last thing to do before trying your hand against the final boss of the base game, therefore with enhanced weapons at most and a character of level 80-90 at least. If, on the other hand, you have already gone ahead of several New Game +, you should not have excessive problems, unless you have gone too far even compared to your level (like you are now in the New Game +++ at level 150: in this case The Old Hunters can be very tough).

To start the new adventure, we said, you must have beaten Vicar Amelia in the game you are in (even before installing the expansion). In the Hunter's Dream, near the Automa, you will find a new gift from the Messengers (Eye of a hunter drunk with blood), which will allow you to access the expansion. Collect the object and head to Cathedral Ward, exit on the left and be captured by the Amygdala that you find there (you are not positioned right under the monster, but at the coffins that you find there in the area). As soon as you are caught, a movie will start and you will find yourself catapulted into the Hunter's Nightmare. From this moment on you can return to the new Nightmare as many times as you want, starting from the Hunter's Dream and using the plaque in front of the last tombstones of the chalices.

At the end of the expansion, this new plaque will contain 10 different awakening points for as many lanterns scattered in the new play areas. In short, the amount of new content is, in my view, quite satisfactory and consists of three large areas plus some connecting areas. Initially, by exploring the first new area, which is a clear revisitation in Nightmare sauce of the areas of Cathedral Ward and Central Yharnam, one can have the feeling that the main theme of the proposal is that of the remix of already known areas. It is not so. There are at least two totally unpublished areas with totally unpublished enemies, among others particularly inspired areas that can easily have their say in a hypothetical ranking of the most beautiful and fascinating areas of the entire game world. Even the initial area, however, or the one that most of all cites what has already been seen in the base game, manages to do it in an interesting way and, above all, giving the sensation of citing, and not of copying.

From the aesthetic point of view, and above all from the point of view of conception and artistic direction, The Old Hunters confirms and enriches the very high level reached by Bloodorne. The universe and atmosphere of this expansion are still the same as in the base game, they maintain the same strong Lovecraftian inspiration and are still able to return that wonderful sense of unease that completely captured us in March of this year. From this point of view, the ability to maintain a stylistic uniformity, albeit with interesting excursions (the three macro zones of the expansion are very different from each other), is definitely commendable.

Demon's Souls ushered in the legend of From Software, a Japanese industry veteran, years of little known in the West. The subsequent Dark Souls confirmed that the success of that game was not a coincidence, but a consistently realized vision. With Dark Souls II, we were a bit stressed - whether From could manage to pull the subject and production will not be secondary. Bloodborne, on the other hand, is a slightly different type of test - a return to the game of Hidetaki Miyazaki, the person who is probably the most responsible for all the commotion.

I didn't have to say how high expectations were - it was easy to get over it, try too hard to fulfill the desires of the fans. Or on the contrary - feel blasé and burnout. After all, after passing Demon's Souls and Dark Souls several times, it seems to man that he has already seen everything. Can a person with such a package of "experiences" surprise anything else? You can, a hundred times - Bloodborne would be enough to build the legend of From Software from scratch.

I would venture to say that Bloodborne has a slightly more specific story envelope than the previous games in the Souls series . We play the role of a hunter dressed in leather clothes or a monster hunter who goes to the city of Yharnam to discover the causes of the curse that digests them. Residents turned into crazy beasts, and werewolves are roaming the roofs - that's the climate here, paraphrasing the famous statement of a politician. Regarding the climate, I would add that this time From Software clearly focuses on horror elements, as evidenced by the disturbing introduction. Locations straight from the horror movie hit the previous games, but here there are much, much more. It worked for me - I felt more uncomfortable than usual and anxiously looked for another mascara lurking in the bushes.

I thoughtlessly slogan "we have the climate here" ... My mistake, I should write: CLIMATE. Capital letters, bold. Bloodborne is a complete insanity in this respect. From Software has created a coherent and attractive world, combining Gothic, Victorian influences and the aforementioned horror , built on - here the long-awaited novelty - finally better technology. City streets are claustrophobic and smelly, dense and heterogeneous forests, interiors full of objects and details. Even a stupid fire hydrant is worth a look. Opponents? Creatures pulled straight out of the dark recesses of the subconscious and twisted into the strangest shapes.

The most important thing is that technology remains at the service of artistic vision and functionality. As proof, it is enough to mention a decaying cathedral with burning crosses embedded in the square in front of it. The richness and colors have spread me - this is a vision straight from Beksiński's paintings. On the other hand, the effects "do something" - smoke not only has to look great, but also to hide opponents. The game is dense, tangled and beautiful. So tangled that I had to explore some locations meter by meter to avoid getting lost. Someone will say, "Why bother so much?" This person probably does not understand that this was the point - exploration in Bloodborn is more intense than in any other From Software production I know . It is good to get lost and find the right way later.

Note that I wrote about the "more specific story", not the story itself. Just because we can identify with the character faster does not mean that the story is easier to read. None of these things - From Software has remained true to its style. Bloodborne therefore uses similar narrative means as its spiritual predecessors. You will learn more about this world from the descriptions of objects than from the statements of some, not very healthy in mind, characters. Despite this, you listen to it carefully, absorbs every mention, tries to understand various situations (because not only the descriptions contain curiosities). Also because of the well-chosen voices and characteristic, saturated with cynicism, and at the same time resignation approach of most people encountered. I will only add that the Polish language version is decent and atmospheric - so much that I adopted its names for good.

From Software has been tempted to make several changes in the current formula. First of all - the tracker cannot use the invention in the style of "estus bottles" (bottles with life, which we get from the machine). This means that you must collect or buy medicinal blood vials (bows Demon's Souls ). Initially, you can carry these up to twenty, and then a few more. Secondly, you can't sit by the fire to reset the opponents' spacing (unless you use a special item). You have to teleport to the headquarters and back - which turns out to be problematic, as the loading screens are unbelievably long. This is by far the biggest problem of Bloodborne .

The very return to the necessity of farming is perceived differently - also as something that disrupts the rhythm of struggling with difficult bosses . Indeed, it happens that we shoot out of the vials and instead of continuing to try to beat the opponent, we have to go for the potions. As a tracker, we have a bit of extra work, but it suited me to the concept. From Software balances the fact that a lot of items fall out, and some types of enemies leave even a few vials. Often, these enemies appear on the way to the boss, so you can somehow make up for the shortcomings in flight (excess equipment collected is automatically sent to the headquarters!). In Demon's Souls I spent a lot of time collecting herbs, here they are obtained casually.

Generally, this system rewards aggressiveness, the more that now part of the lost life can be recovered by quickly attacking opponents. Aggressiveness, but still also prudence - the game does not have to turn into a slasher, because everything depends on our style. There are tactics a bit more defensive, conservative and careful. Even the biggest "turtles" from Dark Souls , that is, people usually hiding behind heavy armor, will, however, have to hop and jump. I admit that in my case these changes brought a lot of healthy frustration, fun and satisfaction - even if the game became more chaotic and crazy. This is due not only to innovation in the combat system, but also to great opponents.

They say briefly: It's difficult to break away from Bloodborne . The game sends us more and more mascara, frightens atrocities lurking in the dark and sends to places where the best satellite navigation would display error information. Delving into all this, we don't have to take hundreds of levels as in Dark Souls II , but like in that game we often die and don't understand much. It's a beautiful process in which friends, pages, guides and your own inquisitiveness are useful. Without it, the title can cause blood - still in a positive sense, because we feel we're treated fairly. I would n't consider Bloodoborne to be the most difficult game from Software, but there are difficult situations. You should not feel disappointed.

Due to the enormity of secrets, I can not describe everything - I can only mention, for example, that the times of the day and moon phases change, which affects the game. Or that there is a level of so-called "insight," which is also responsible for what things we can discover. I can't, but I know I will be soon - the effect of the Souls series works and I'm not going to let go of the game until I see everything. This may take several dozen hours, because you need 35-45 to pass this title.