bloodborne is the exclusive action rpg for ps4 of the creators of demons and dark souls series from software. The game acts like no other and throws you directly on a world of desperation and decadence, the city of yharnam not even tutorials are obligatory, youre a hunter battling against all types of beasts and insane psychopaths that are really aggressive and intrinsically require strategy to defeat. Must say in a few words that the game exceeded my expectation and if youre new on this series you will probably find my review as plenty of explanatory to this ps4 title.
Gameplay
Bloodborne have its core gameplay based on demons souls but with a more fast paced and aggressive touch, you have at your disposal two styles for your primary weapon as well as very strong, strong and fast attack used to deal great quantities of damage, the secondary weapon which most of times is a gun is not used to deal damage but for interrupt enemies attacks giving you a chance whether is to escape or counter your enemy, evasion plays a great role in bloodborne theres not blocking here and you need to evade opponents attacks, a well timed press of circle button allows you to do a quick roll or footstep evading the opponents attacks, is a relief even bosses attacks can be evaded however every action your character does requires stamina which recover automatically when youre not attacking, evade or attack in excess and you wouldn't be able to perform an action without stamina maybe when you needed most. As for the health you have a bar which is depleted every time an enemy hit you, theres a recover system which allow you to recover a fraction of the lost health if you hit an opponent quick enough as well as blood bottles that acts like potions that restore your health. For every monster you kill you obtain ecos of blood which are like money used to buy weapons, armor, accesories or upgrade your character, if you die you start from the nearest checkpoint again with all your ecos gone and all enemies respawned, you can retrieve your ecos in the place you died before or killing the enemy that is near of your ecos, die 2 times without retrieving the ecos and they're gone. Enemy IA isnt a genius itself but definitely the aggressive nature of maniacs can give anyone more than a problem. You can return to a place called the hunter dream in this place you upgrade or buy your character or weapons. After the introduction every checkpoint is only achieved after defeating a boss, when you defeat him a lamp will appear and from this lamp you can either respawn or travel to the hunter dream.
Art
Bloodborne is artistically impressive the city and its details are a joy, the textures seem great, even if youre like me a person that valorize more gameplay and story over graphics, the game seems both terrific and beautiful , however as a weird fact due to the constant deaths is easier to memorize appreciate and discover hidden paths, enemies blended in the city and the amazing architecture, remember theres no map so the city paths enemies placed in so ingeniously positions are in your memory only. The city itself isnt as big as skyrim or another open world and more than a sandbox is a city interconnected in areas. The frame per second drops from 30 but these occasions are rare most of times even in boss fights the frame rate is stable.
Experience
Bloodborne exceeded my expectations a combination of exploration, strategy fast paced combat and map awareness for me is a must have however the difficulty can be really high not as high as i had with sega plataformer games but definitely sometimes it gets frustrating if you dont enjoy high difficult games think twice to put an example after the introduction i found an enemy with the form of a butcher, 3 hits and youre dead at least i got 30 deaths there, the first area you encounter is probably the most difficult as there are around 25 enemies some hidden, for those who have played souls series areas here are larger and so the number of enemies, unlike devil may cry or another hack and slash game you must always take on consideration the stamina, one wrong move, attack or failed reaction can take away your character whole health, fortunately for that is the leveling system that will make you stronger to face bigger odds, the exploration is rewarded like in no other game with items that feel more than deserved, things so simple as search to open certain door will make you save an immense amount of time as well as dangers and numbers of enemies, the bosses looks and fights incredible they're agile and fast. The game unlike demons or dark souls put you in a more fragile position, your character is somewhat weaker to resist hits but at the same time is faster and inflict more damage, that make some combats easier however most of deaths dont feel cheap like in previous game where you knew the death you got was because the protagonist incapacity to act or a glitch instead of your own fault. Every death you got here induce a process in which you must accept your mistakes, develop an strategy and use it to progress in the game, enemies don't spawn from nowhere making this process joyful.
Bad points
I been praising the game but not all is perfect, the first bad point is the long load times usually 30 to 40 seconds for a game in what you have so many deaths knowing this load times are a technical problem really deserve the attention and a fast patch to fix it The second bad point is that there is no pause, seriously this is 2015 you need to do something, or some friend call you and you're in the middle of a boss battle its practically a 100% death this is an accessibility function and only make it at times frustrating as all your progress can be lost in seconds
Conclusion
If you like rpgs and a punishing difficulty but satisfying, rewarding exploration get this game theres no lines or much cinematics of the story so every area npc or monster tell the story for itself however what most shine in this game is the gameplay mechanics and the rewarding exploration and strategy, blood borne aside of the technical issues is the BEST soul game to date