Bloodborne

How hard is this game? Well, it normally takes me a few days to finish a game like this, maybe a week if I take it easy. Bloodborne took me over six MONTHS to finish. Of course, I did not play every day during those six months, there were lengthy stretches where I abandoned the game, but that was not because I was bored, it was because I was intimidated. The game is not insanely hard, don't get me wrong here, but it will certainly test you. Why is it worth the trouble? Because it offers you a huge, darkly beautiful and ingeniously structured world to explore, and you will keep going because you will be dying to see what is around the next corner — which may very well be a door to a place you thought was miles behind you by now. Such is the brilliance of Bloodborne: eveything is distant and close at the same time. The pleasure of finding a shortcut that means you won't have to traverse miles and fight or evade dozens of enemies again is no less than the pleasure of beating another boss. There will be a lot of those, by the way, and a lot of enemies that do not count as bosses, but are no less dangerous for it. They will make you sweat, they will make you scream, but persevere and observe, and they will fall. Like I said, the game is not insanely hard, and the latest patch made some of the bosses more bearable. If you find that a certain boss is too difficult, you can go farming — respawning enemies make that easy — or find better tools. There aren't as many weapons and items of clothing in Bloodborne as in other similar games, but each is distinct and unique, and you will be certain to find something to your taste, whether you prefer swinging a huge hammer that sends your enemies flying, or weaving an intricate pattern with razor-sharp blades. I guarantee you that either will look cool and be effective, as long as you use it right. What about the story? Well, there isn't one. Or, rather, there is, but you have to piece it together yourself from random scraps of information that you encounter along the way. It is a dubious approach, but I, for one, had no problem with it. There are strong indications throughout the game that all that is happening is some sort of dream, and one does not question a dream, does one? One simply accepts its rules and has fun, although, if you are convinced that some meaning can be extracted from the surreal events of the game, you are welcome to try. Does the game have any flaws? Well, the biggest one is that so much content is so easy to miss. For example, there is an entire castle that I would never have found if I had not read about it online, and it is one of the game's most memorable locations. It's baffling that they would put so much care and effort into something, then hide it away. On a lesser scale, I was slightly annoyed by the fact that enemies become immaterial when you kill them (i.e. your hits no longer have any effect on them while they are falling), and the ragdoll physics are unrealistic (you can brush aside a body twice your size as if it were made of cotton; I realize this was probably done so that passageways wouldn't become blocked, but there had to have been a better solution). That's all I can think of. Well, what are you waiting for? Go and buy it (and don't forget the DLC)!