Bloodborne Review

Being able to play with others ties into the second currency in the game – Insight. This mysterious bargaining currency is rare and can only be acquired by finding pieces of Madman's Knowledge in the world, as well as encountering and defeating bosses. After you acquire a Beckoning Bell, you may use one point of Insight to ring it, which begins cooperative matchmaking. It's like sending out a request for help, and hoping that another player is offering their services. Besides being a bartering tool, Insight also appears to be a game-changing item. The more Insight you have, the greater changes take place in the world – enemies change their behavior, become more dangerous, and even gain new abilities. It's an intriguing and mysterious mechanic that only the toughest of Hunters will utilize.

Once you've reached 10 points of Insight, a new merchant appears in Hunter's Dream that sells rare items for Insight instead of Blood Echoes. Here, you may purchase a Sinister Bell which lets you invade other players' worlds, and a Small Resonant bell that allows you to respond to others' requests for help. It's a system that will be familiar to Souls veterans. Anytime you're struggling with a boss fight, it's great relief to be able to call up to two other Hunters to assist. Players can set a password on their game, to ensure that only friends join; otherwise anyone in the physical area who has rung the Small Resonant Bell will be joining your world. With the help of cooperators, the game's most challenging battles become more manageable. And if you ‘re helping others, you get the benefit of extra Echoes as well as the satisfaction of beating bosses for a second time, with likely better gear than you had during the encounter in your own world. The co-op session forcibly ends when a boss is defeated.

Using Insight to request help does have its drawbacks, as it spawns a Chime Maiden that rings a bell in your game zone. Until you find and defeat her, this bell will attract players who are looking to invade your game and fight you. The competitive multiplayer in Bloodborne underwhelms. Your invaders are invisible to enemies, and will try to pull you into AI foes to improve their odds. Both players can heal themselves until they run out of vials, which makes for some prolonged encounters. If you do happen to find and defeat the Chime Maiden, she doesn't re-appear until you've used a bunch more Insight, so you won't be invaded often.

It's odd that by this point in the franchise, there is still no dedicated competitive play mode. And even the cooperative mode doesn't always work well. Finding a partner (even with the search criteria set to worldwide) takes on average 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes longer. When you finally connect, the framerate can take a hit– not ideal for dangerous and difficult boss encounters. Also, the game sometimes matches players poorly – you could get summoned to a game where the player is already on NG+ and so the boss you're about to encounter is miles tougher than you can handle. Overall, the multiplayer aspects of Bloodborne are intriguing, but they only function on a basic level and it's the same sort of asymmetric design that we've seen in the Souls games before it.

There is an option to play offline. This way you won't be able to utilize co-op, but won't be bothered by invasions either. Further, you'll miss out on the notes left by other players all across the game world, warning you of ambushes, or helping you discover shortcuts. The notes are actually helpful more often than not, and occasionally entertaining. Other marks on the ground are Specters, that document the last living moments of other Hunters that have met their doom nearby. It's interesting to see where and how other players have met their untimely end, and perhaps avoid it yourself. Further, users can see ghosts of other players in their game, which is often jarring.

Multiplayer used to be one of the key reasons to keep playing after you've beaten the game, but in Bloodborne, there is a New Game + and ++ options to carry on your adventure. Disappointingly, no big changes take place in the game world; enemies grow stronger, and you gain access to some new weapons and armor sets. But beyond that, the experience is mostly the same. So perhaps instead of playing through the game again, you'll want to check out Chalice Dungeons. These procedurally generated levels are summoned by players themselves, and create a random set of dungeons to explore that contain bosses. There are different tiers or "depths" indicating their difficulty. These tiers do not scale, so players will be able to easily get through the first two or three (out of five) tiers if they've already beat the main game and have the best gear. The dungeons can be played cooperatively of course, and you'll need help against the tough bosses at the lowest levels. It's worth noting that the bosses appearing in the Chalice Dungeons are sometimes unique and don't appear in the main game.

Having described many of the reasons why Bloodborne shines, we must now delve into the negatives. Difficulty, and the lack of "hand holding" as some players describe it, has continued to be a major selling point for the Souls games, and Bloodborne is no different as has been mentioned. But such design philosophy sometimes impacts the experience negatively. For a game that's difficult to play, it shouldn't be so difficult to understand. It starts even with the basics - whatever few tutorial messages that exist are scattered across the floor, as if with disgust, so chances are some players won't see them all and may therefore lack crucial information.

There is no world map, no quests, no markers or direction. It works against some of the effort that the developers have put in. The few NPCs you meet actually have quests, but the dialog is so cryptic that most will never be completed unless players go out and seek help online just to see what needs to be done. Some zones and bosses in the game world are optional, and meant to be tackled at a much later point in the game, but they aren't identified any differently. So some players may run into an incredibly frustrating boss that is actually optional, but it might put them off from playing the game. Or you might be unable to use runes because you missed the optional boss that unlocks this ability. Players might miss a zone because they bypassed the small doorway that leads there; the game will make no mention of its existence or way to reach it. Without consulting with guides or looking online, it's entirely possible some players won't get the full Bloodborne experience, or worse, their adventures might be much more frustrating than they should be.

This is all part of the From Software experience, sure, but introducing some optional features to make the game just a tiny bit less withholding of information would go a long way to recruiting new fans. And there will be many hopefuls, with their shiny new PS4 roaring to go. Including some kind of optional journal to identify quests or a way to guide new players would have been welcome. Again, optional and off by default - please don't send us angry emails for suggesting that the next game should be dumbed down.

The incredible atmosphere of the game has already been alluded to, and it’s supported by sharp visuals and a steady framerate. It's not exactly a technical masterpiece, but Bloodborne looks good and sounds even better. Most of the game is silent, save for boss battles, where the orchestral soundtrack adds to the already incredibly high tension. Audio effects during combat bring further satisfaction to landing blows. The only technical misstep here is the loading times. Anytime you fast travel or die, you will be faced with a very long loading screen – over 30 seconds in some instances. It's not ideal for a game where you're supposed to die a lot. Until it's patched, though, think of it as a time to reflect on your failures and find peace. Understand why you died, and what can be done better on your next attempt.

The key to the Bloodborne experience lies in the first few hours. If you can get through the starting zone and defeat the first two bosses, you'll find that the game finally "clicks". In that moment, you will be consumed by the atmosphere, the addicting gameplay, and the endless cycle of frustration, joy, and tense combat. Experienced Souls players will find Bloodborne to be something new, with a much more aggressive play style and a fresh start for the franchise. Newcomers that love the equivalent of "don't get hit" challenge modes in other action games will also be off to a strong start here. If you're completely new or only tried the Souls games briefly, Bloodborne brings enough new elements to the table to warrant a look. If you get through the first few hours and get a sudden urge to push onwards (that's the big decision point for recommending the game), you might just get it. You'll understand why some gamers love this franchise, and why you should join their ranks. Once you're hooked, there is no going back. It's the game you'll be thinking about all day when you're not playing it, looking up guides and tips, and generally planning your sessions ahead of time. And that's not something that happens very often. Enter Yharnam at your own peril, for there is nothing that can save you now.