HighWire: [Game Review] Bloodborne

"I cherished, you perished.
The world's been nightmarished."
-Lemony Snicket

I'll admit that I may have had it in for Bloodborne before I even played it. Firstly, I don't usually mold well with mainstream gaming, I typically find them much more boring and tiring than their indie counterparts; because while with an indie-game I can sit down for an evening, finish it, then return to watching anime, main-stream games take up considerable more time and effort, time and effort I'm usually not willing to waste when the game-play is repetitive and the narrative as bland as a saltine cracker without salt actually on it.
There are exceptions of course, but I won't list them for fear of possibly spoiling the likely topics for my game reviews in the future. Secondly, the reason Bloodborne had considerable hype prior to release is because the developer: From Software, is also the same company that gave us Dark Souls, a gruelingly hard fantasy adventure title where you play as a warrior of your choice(armed with a sword, armor, and a flask), as you take on nearly single-handily the abominations of a world leaning on the edge of collapse that could easily kill you if they so much as sneezed in your direction. However, unlike seemingly everyone else, I wasn't all that found of Dark Souls, and I never even finished the game because of how frustrated I got with it. And before you call me a pansy for not being able to finish the game, and an idiot for disliking it, let me make clear why I didn't find Dark Souls all that enjoyable. I'm not denying Dark Souls isn't a good game, in fact, it's even exceptional in some regards: the atmosphere of the game hangs over your character the entire time like an ominous storm-cloud, and the environments and monsters never ceased to be impressive. But as I'll get to, there are a couple huge flaws that From Software made that drowned out all the good for Dark Souls, and unfortunately, nearly all of those same flaws have translated their way into Bloodborne, one way, or another.
So, hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're having a great day, and welcome to the first game review in quite a while, where we will take a look at the immensely popular game: Bloodborne. Now, let's get started.

Here is where I would talk about the story, but to be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sure I missed it entirely in my play-through, either because I skipped all the cut-scenes, or just because I didn't really care. Let's be honest here, you don't play a game like this for the story, a story which is largely just there to be a backdrop for the setting and exposition, this isn't Bioshock after all, but since I suppose I am obligated to say a little something about the plot, let's give the basic run down.
In a ancient and crumbling city reminiscent of some nightmare warped version of old-time Victorian England, you are a Hunter, a "person" tasked with the responsibility of tracking down and killing the various monsters that have destroyed the city. See, there's been this weird plague going around turning everybody into monsters, and since many of the Hunter themselves have been infected with this plague themselves and are slowly going insane, your vague goal is to kill anything that is trying to kill you(monsters or sickness-crazed Hunters alike) so you don't becoming another walking embodiment of despair and corruption, and also, according to a note you one day randomly found on your desk, "seek pale blood", whatever the hell that means.

The fast gameplay is a key difference.

The game-play styles of Bloodborne and Dark Souls are fundamentally the same(apparently From Software like to stick to a formula if it works), with the key difference is that Bloodborne plays much faster and crazier. Fights in Dark Souls would often just wind down to you circling an enemy, dodging the few and deliberate strikes as they drove their weapon of choice at your face, and chipping away at their health. Bloodborne is different; enemies are a lot faster at the cost of being weaker, which means that the fights are a lot more exciting as you dodge, parry and counter their furious attacks, and you are even able to take on multiple enemies at once, a thing that was nearly impossible to do in Dark Souls. Your weapons are also slightly tweaked; you now have a gun, which I appreciate since I like guns, but the thing is the gun isn't there for actually doing damage from long range as much as it is there for stunning opponents so you can go in for the kill with your weapon. That's disappointing, I guess.
Also, you collect Blood Echoes from your slain enemies, and very similar to the Souls from Dark Souls, you can use them to either boost your stats or buy items, and by "very similar", I mean exactly the same; the two are completely interchangeable in their use and design.

And if you think I'm comparing Bloodborne to Dark Souls too much, well you've probably figured it out by now. Yeah, the two aren't exactly similar by any stretch, but for the most part Bloodborne is just a faster and messier Dark Souls set in Victorian England, and I think From Software are very aware of this. The loading screens, the overall design of the hub, and other components are directly cut and pasted from Dark Souls, and while that's not inherently a problem, I'd say Bloodborne fails to be a different experience than Dark Souls. Hell, there are even similarities that shouldn't be there. For one, Bloodborne has inherited from Dark Souls the complete lack of direction. By that, I mean that the game does a really bad job of actually telling you how to play the game. Everything is pretty much left up to you to find, including the story, which I don't have an inherent problem with since I'm a fan of "show don't tell", but all the same, you need to at least tell your players what the hell they need to be doing. I think it was half-way through the game that I figured out the bird-bath out back of my house actually doubled as a store to buy health potions and other items (because that makes sense), and more than once I went down a stupidly long path and defeated a hard boss... only to learn that said boss was completely optional.
Look, I understand you want to be vague Bloodborne, but that doesn't mean you just sit in the corner and let the player figure the story and game-play out. I can't count the number of times I died because of some aspect of the game that I was completely unaware of. Oh, you can rip out enemies' hearts, Bloodborne?. That would have been great to know.
Of course, I'm not sure how much of this is the fault of the game and me just not paying attention, but disregarding that, there is a clear problem with direction in the game, which sometimes makes it frustrating to play, and hampers the overall experience.

An example of the awesome scenery of Bloodborne.

As for the aesthetic, I have very few complains. The game looks great on the next-generation consoles, the city-scapes are breathtaking to look at, and the game mostly manages to separate its aesthetic identity from Dark Souls by really going full throttle on the Victorian setting. I also love the variety of monsters, bosses and environments; it all feels very creepy and unnatural, playing to the tone of the game nicely. My only problem in that regard, and I know this is mostly a nitpick, but I don't really see a point for the setting being as run-down, crumbling and empty as it is. This was fine in Dark Souls, you were one of the last people in a world gone to hell, it made sense for the world to look like it was on the brink of collapse, but it doesn't really translate for Bloodborne. Look, I know there's a plague going around, but why does the world look like its been abandoned for 100yrs? And, yeah, I get a plague is turning people in Lovecraft-inspired monsters, but shouldn't there just be more people around regardless? You only meet a grand total of about 10 or less people in the game who aren't Hunters are just plain insane, and the cities never feel populated or even lived in.

I rather enjoyed Bloodborne, I guess. It's mostly just a bloodier, more plague-rotten Dark Souls, that continues From Software's line of "slightly-different-but-basically-just-the-same-near-impossible-semi-linear death/despair-themed-games-that-encourage-you-to-keep-running-at-the-nightmare-fueled-monstrosities-till-they-or-you-die" games, and I won't be surprised if we get another "Deathsouls", or "Despairborne" a couple years from now. It's the same game with a different crust, but the filling is the same, and if you like the filling(which in the case of this metaphor, is a grueling hard game revolving around themes of decay and death told with an almost "find the puzzle-pieces" sort of story) then you'll be just fine. I would like to recommended if you haven't played Dark Souls, to play Bloodborne first; it's a little more accessible and easier to get into, and if you find you like the filling, you can go on to play to rest of the "slightly-different-but-basically-just-the-same-near-impossible-semi-linear death/despair-themed-games-that-encourage-you-to-keep-running-at-the-nightmare-fueled-monstrosities-till-they-or-you-die"...you freakin' masochist. As for me, I'm going to go back to slight easier games, maybe Wii Sports, or Tick-Tack-Toe. Goodbye for now guys.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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