Bloodborne: The Game That Made an Impression on Me

This is not a review. This is an expression of genuine feeling. I'm not going into technicalities too much, I'm going into the impact this game has made on a gamer that has never thrived for a hard game.

I know fine well that I will take a long break from this game, like I do with many others, and play something else, as this is what an open-minded gamer is tormented with: so many games to choose from and play.

With every game I have played on PS4, Xbox One and PC in the last 2 years, I have been met with brilliant games - some of them are games I may have already played on previous generation consoles, such as The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V and Tomb Raider. A few new games have grabbed my attention, such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and inFamous: Second Son.

The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One was amazing and I finished all four Halo titles in the space of three-and-a-half days. The multiplayer was a disappointment but it gets better as the weeks go on.

Games I have yet to finish as of this blog are:

• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Assassin's Creed: Unity
• Destiny
• The Crew
• Watch Dogs
• Knack

While I like all of the games above (yes, even Knack, even if it is a bit cheap), none of them have grabbed my attention as much as I hoped. In other words, nothing in any of those games have kept me glued to the screen or made me leap out of bed the following morning to turn it on immediately and play.

This is where Bloodborne comes in.

I am aware of From Software's titles. I first played Dark Souls when I discovered it in my local video game store. I had never heard of it, and I didn't even know what it was (I had no internet for the best part of a year so I was out of touch). While I enjoyed it, the difficulty was too great and I found myself playing it in little increments. I have played a snippet of Demon's Souls when it was free on Playstation Plus, I wasn't in the mood for it. I haven't played Dark Souls II, currently awaiting the remastered version on PS4.

Bloodborne was released on Friday, 27th March 2015 here in Europe. I wasn't even planning on buying it. I was on my way to my girlfriend's house and I normally take my PS4 with me. I thought I had forgotten to bring my games, and as there was no way I was hiking back home, I thought "well I've nothing to play, so I'm just going to buy something". I bet you're wondering, how can I spend 60 quid impulsively. No, I do not have much money, I live on a small amount a week, I'm just a bad spender :P. But I digress. I bought Bloodborne, under the impression I was probably going to get too frustrated by it and shelve it within a few days.

Quite the contrary, much to my surprise. When I died all the time on Dark Souls, it slowly put me off the game. And I would leave it alone for weeks, months, before going back to it and trying again, to progress a little bit further then take a long break again (I'm doing it on PC at the moment. I defeated the Bell Gargoyles and I rang the first bell about a month ago. I haven't progressed since), but when I died on Bloodborne, I wanted to try again, and when I died again, I wanted to try again. Basically, when I died, I didn't want to turn the game off. I wanted to keep going, I was determined.

When I arrived at my first Boss Encounter, I was destroyed. I re-spawned and I ran through the hordes of enemies just to get back to that Boss and try again. I killed it.

Now, this is no big deal to those who are used to games by From Software. However, there is something about Bloodborne that doesn't compare to the previous instalments. It's faster, and your character is more agile, as opposed to the heavy, slow pace of Dark Souls. This suited me down to the ground. And as for the Boss - it was because of this Boss fight that I realized I have found a new game mechanic to thrive on, a mechanic I have little patience for in most games, and it is my own made-up mechanic: the Come-At-Me-Bro Mechanic. In other words, this game's difficulty and ridiculous challenge fuels me to continue. It makes me learn from my mistakes, it has a hard-but-fair trial-and-error style to it's gameplay, where it forces you to try again and learn. No other game makes me tremble after a boss battle like this game does. No other game makes me hold my head in pure relief after capitalizing on a boss like this game does. This game does more than just give you a challenging boss battle and absurdly horrific and ruthless enemies, but with every boss you fight and every encounter you beat, you are rewarded. It's like the game is telling you: "Well done, you killed this boss. Here, take this as a reward and have a rest. You deserve it".

This game punishes you for your mistakes but also gives you a chance to redeem yourself. You die, you lose all your XP, however, you are given the opportunity to trek back to where you died and get that XP back. This mechanic has lived on since Demon's Souls and it was only in Bloodborne that I learned how special this mechanic was. Bloodborne is, by far, as I write this blog today, the best thing to happen on Playstation since The Last of Us on PS3. I have finally found a new thing to look for in my games. I now thrive on the difficulty. I thrive on it's challenge. I thrive on killing the next boss. I thrive on Bloodborne and I will not be shelving this for a long time.

This game doesn't have much of an active story, but more or less puts you into the midst of something terrible and let's you deal with it your own way. You can go anywhere you want, kill any boss you want in any order you want, provided you are fully prepared. This game doesn't give you a big fat arrow to follow. It doesn't give you a map, it doesn't tell you what your objective is. There is no objective, you basically have to cleanse the world of it's filth. You can have help along the way in the form of other players, but once they die, they're gone and may never come back. You might have to hope someone else arrives that does a better job. But you're mostly on your own. Some NPC's provide direction, but it's only brief, and you have to figure most of it out by yourself.

This game is just how a game is meant to be. It is a beast. And it is not a game to take lightly. If you haven't played Bloodborne and are desperate for a challenge, you are missing out. And if you didn't like a game from From Software, I am sure this one will change your mind.

For review's sake. I give this game 9.5/10 with the only negatives I could think of are the relatively small choice of weapons, and the loading times. However, more weapons may be available as DLC in future, and the load times could be patch, I reckon.

Again, I say if you haven't played Bloodborne, you must. It's a masterpiece.

-Gamer Bhoy