Bloodborne

There has certainly been plenty of talk about FromSoftware lately. After the success that was Dark Souls, the company was put in a position in which nothing they could ever have done could’ve possibly lived up to the monumental hype put upon them. Following the slap in the face that was Dark Souls II, suffice to say there was fire over the message boards, people really not happy about that. And out comes Bloodborne, in a position in which the only way it could go is up. And up it has certainly gone.

The game is currently serving as a PS4 exclusive. Yes, that insufferable little demon sitting under my TV has taken another hostage, a direction that FromSoftware hasn’t taken since Demon’s Soul. This in itself isn’t too much of a problem. Exclusive titles are, as a concept, entirely anti-consumer, but it’s a common practice set since companies can’t ALL receive the experimental tech that would become the next generation of consoles. From only had early access to the PS4, so focused development for that tech. What ISN’T forgivable is the loading times. If the game was on PC, at least you could console yourself in knowing that you could do something about them; but no. That smug plastic box sulking under my PS3 can’t seem to load the game it’s been given, resulting in tens of seconds of waiting every. Time. You die.

And you WILL die. FromSoftware has evolved into a company whose very identity is about murdering its audience. They’ve been hammering down and evolving their gameplay model for four games now, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. About half of the gameplay will take the form of exploring a Metroidvania style world rife with corruption and disease. There is a thick, heavy overtone of being in this Victorian-era plague that only gets more and more nightmarish as you go.

The vile creatures that make this place their home show the demented body horror that really did cheer me up. Too long had I been being squeezed down corridors in military realism games, being shouted at by grizzled white dudes to shoot anybody wearing a turban or ushanka. Here, the lonely overtone just left me, Herbert the transforming buzz-saw and a parade of werewolves, cosmic horrors and snake demons. Visceral, petrifying fun.

The other half of your time will be spent in the combat. This is where the bread and butter of the game comes in. As is common in the now-standard third person action brawler recipe, you’ve got your light attacks and heavy attacks, you can stun lock enemies by hitting them and there’s a dedicated dodge button to save yourself from getting stun locked yourself.

The FromSoftware model mixes these elements up in two major ways. Instead of being able to attack constantly you’re held down by a stamina meter. This meter decreases by sprinting, attacking or dodging, making the player weigh up whether it’s appropriate to keep wailing on the enemy or pre-emptively back off before you run out of stamina.

The other way is by murdering you.

Yes, FromSoftware is a company famed for its intense but fair difficulty. The enemy attacks carve out immense segments of health with every swing of their combo, making it so the player has to be in a constant state of awareness and attention to avoid certain death. The player is given a dedicated heal button to correct mistakes, but first they have to survive the mistake. There is also a mechanic in which you gain back health if you hit an enemy directly after they hit you, rewarding skilled players who can afford to risk not healing immediately.

The game also has RPG elements. For every fallen foe, you gain a supply of Blood Echoes, which serve as the games currency. To avoid people stockpiling the stuff, you drop all of them when you die, and if you don’t retrieve them in your next life, then they’re gone for good. You can spend these echoes to level up from a certain NPC, which means you have to weigh up the pros and cons of retreating to spend souls versus pressing forward and risking death to reach another checkpoint.

Moving on, this is where I’d usually give a quick summation of the plot, however I haven’t been allotted the months of archaeology needed to figure out the main story. Bloodborne, like its predecessors, is quite happy to let the player wander round without knowing what on earth is going on. It rewards the more intuitive, explorative players with nuggets of the story stuffed in item description, cryptic dialogue and visual storytelling, and if you’re a returning player or someone who enjoys subtle storytelling, then you’ll certainly get a kick out of this.

Let me give an example; you start the game by waking up in a bloodstained clinic without knowing what on earth is going on. If you open your inventory and look at the clothes you’re wearing, you’ll see they’re referred to as ‘foreign garb’. In the clinic you’ll find a note explaining the process of blood ministration; a medical process unique to the city of Yharnam that is said to heal any injury. From this, you could conclude that you are a foreign wanderer who came to Yharnam to get healed of some sort of disease, and that it was successful.

Yharnam is, of course, the setting you find yourself in. The scourge of beasts has claimed it, and werewolves roam the streets. The Hunt is out as well, a collection of city goers out to slay the beasts of Yharnam, though they are just as poorly deposed to outsiders such as you.

The game backs up its cryptic story with equally cryptic characters. It would seem that whoever was in charge of writing dialogue just got off binge-reading poetry written by depressed cockneys, and no-one seems to understand the benefits of being frank. Then again, weird dialogue for weird people, I suppose. The first NPC you’re likely to encounter is the Plain Doll, an animated wooden doll who serves as your way of levelling up. She speaks calmly, almost dreamily, and can sometimes be found sleeping, but never moves from her spot or says much of note. You might also encounter the Chapel Dweller, whom offers you to send people you find in need of aid to his chapel, as his Incense wards off the beasts of Yharnam. He looks untrustworthy, but means well and ends up being one of the few characters who remains unequivocally good to the end.

If you’re a returning Dark Souls fan, you’ll certainly enjoy Bloodborne. The gameplay is faster and encourages a faster pace. All shields have been removed as they “engender passivity”, as an item description will gladly let you know. If you’ve never played a game in the series, you’ll find the experience unforgiving and unrelenting, but if you’re a fan of achievement or think you’re up to the challenge, you’ll find Bloodborne to be a game for you. If you’re more of a casual player not out for a challenge but ready to experience a good story, then sod off back to Kirby’s Epic Yarn, ya pansy.

I have to recommend Bloodborne. For all its lengthy loading times, demanding of full attention, and that time I died 12 times to a cockney weasel with a pitchfork, it’s that difficulty that makes it work. The dark tone, cryptic story and diseased aesthetic really do all come together with the difficulty to make an experience that will steal weeks from people, and you’ll come to love it just as much as you hate it. Difficult but fair games are a dying breed, as companies adopt the policy of no player left behind, it leaves those players looking for challenge put out. Bloodborne is the exception, so if you enjoyed the difficulty of the games of yesteryear, of games like Super Meat Boy or The Binding Of Isaac, then buy Bloodborne. You masochist.