Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a fun, fast-paced action game drenched in style by From Software in the same style as the Dark Souls series.

As you can see in the above image, in Bloodborne you get to wield two weapons at once: a melee weapon in your right hand and a gun in your left. Each melee weapon can transform between two modes, each with a unique moveset. On top of that, you can select a second weapon for each hand to put in reserve, and easily swap between the two weapons you've chosen for this hand. As a result of all of this, you always have lots of options for how to fight.

Attacks are mapped to the four L/R buttons. R1 does a simple attack with your melee weapon, R2 performs a charge attack with your melee weapon, L1 fires your ranged weapon, and L2 transforms your melee weapon. However, this only covers the 'type' of attack your character performs; the actual move they use is highly dependent on context. For instance, pressing R1 while standing still might do a simple slash, but pressing R1 while running could result in a running jab, and R1 immediately after a backstep could make your character hop forward (to cover the distance created with the backstep) and then slash. Pressing L2 while standing around will make your character just transform their melee weapon, but pressing L2 in the middle of a combo will result in an attack that transforms the weapon. The way the context affects the move always makes sense and feels natural. In this way, Bloodborne manages to create a combat system with a massive number of moves controlled mostly by four buttons. (There's also the dodge and item buttons, but that's only two more.)

The base of Bloodborne's combat system is the same as many other "high skill cap" action games, built on a core of a stamina bar and acts that can't be cancelled. Each action uses up a certain amount of stamina, which regenerates fairly quickly when not otherwise acting. Therefore, you need to think about how much you're going to attack in general before backing off, to make sure you have enough stamina for any necessary defensive maneuvers. Like in Monster Hunter, attacks can't be cancelled once queued. Once you start an attack, you're locked in until it finished. Therefore, each attack must be carefully evaluated to ensure you have enough time to pull it off without getting hit. These two constraints build a foundation that require you to constantly plan both the micro and macro strategy of your battle.

Bloodborne has two more systems that really kick the combat into next gear.

First is the parry system. There are essentially no shields in Bloodborne. (There are technically two, but you aren't really going to be using them.) However, by shooting an enemy with your gun right before they attack, you can send them into a 'vulnerable' state and perform a visceral attack for massive damage. Your only two defensive options are dodging and parrying, which provide a trade-off in difficulty, risk, and reward. But both of them require active commands; simply turtling up behind a shield is not an option. Therefore, even defense requires you to be proactive.

Second is the rally system. Whenever you're hit with an attack, you can regain your lost health by attacking an enemy within the next few seconds. This sounds simple, but it's actually brilliant. Usually when you're hit in an action game, that's your cue to back off and heal up. However, the rally system provides a way for you to heal up without using any consumables by keeping up the action. What would normally be a break in momentum is replaced with even more frenetic combat.

When you add all of this together, you get a simply superb combat system. The stamina and animation systems ensure you're always thinking about your moves. The parry system and lack of guarding means you're always acting, whether you're doing so offensively or defensively. Finally, the rally system encourages you to keep fighting when you get hurt rather than simply backing out. As a result, when fighting in Bloodborne, you're always watching your enemies and thinking about your next move, keeping you constantly engaged.

Bloodborne doesn't really have a story. It technically does, but it's minimal, obtuse, and doesn't seem to affect much. You appear to be a foreigner who has come to the city of Yharnam in search of a cure for some sort of disease. You become a hunter after a blood transfusion and then... go out into the city and murder everything you come across. That pretty much sums it up.

Rather than a story, Bloodborne has atmosphere. Everything in the game is (sometimes literally) oozing with macabre style. From the dark Gothic architecture, to the labyrinthine streets, to the grisly beasts,  to the tongue-in-cheek item descriptions, the game is covered with a grim, visceral atmosphere. That being said, the game employs two types of horror, and one is much more effective than the other.

The first half of the game deals with classic Gothic horror, and it is enthralling. You wake up alone in the grimy streets of Yharnam. The city is overrun with decrepit beasts trying to maul your face off, and your only method of defending yourself is to hack and slash your way to safety. Bloody death lurks around every corner, and moments of respite are few and far between. I think the main reason the Gothic horror works so well is because it functions regardless of how the battles go. If you get your face ripped off by a rabid demon dog, that's obviously horrifying. But even if you're victorious, every fight feels like a desperate, visceral--the next one may not go as smoothly.

As the game progresses it transitions to Lovecraftian horror, which isn't nearly as effective. On one hand, the lore feels like quintessential Lovecraft. No matter how deep you delve into the backstory of Yharnam, it feels like there is some great, unknowable answer just beyond the veil of your understanding. The game also deals with themes of the cosmos, sanity, and eldritch secrets. On the other hand... Lovecraftian horror is supposed to deal with horrors so ghastly they are beyond human comprehension, and that can destroy a person merely through contact. But even if I don't understand what the pudgy blue alien thing is, if I can just walk up to it and kill it in one punch, I'm not going to find it very scary. In other words, the Lovecraftian horror is severely undercut by the fact that the Lovecraftian enemies can be killed the same as every other enemy. I think it's telling that Frenzy, the key 'Lovecraftian' status, functions exactly the same as Rapid Poison, a 'physical' status.

The leveling system functions the same as in the Dark Souls games, just with different terminology. Killing enemies nets you Blood Echoes, which function as both experience points and currency. You level up by spending Blood Echoes, allowing you to increase one parameter one point. Each successive level costs more Blood Echoes. There are no classes in Bloodborne, and instead you have full freedom on your character based on your how increase their parameters. Additionally, this allows you to modulate the difficulty to a certain extent based on how often you level up.

However, I found it slightly frustrating how, even though the game systems allow you to play in any way, you end up limiting yourself. For instance, if you spend all game maxing your strength stat, you end up locking yourself out of the dexterity-based weapons. While nothing ever stops you from starting to increase your dexterity, it will take a lot more Blood Echoes than if you had increased dexterity from the start. But more than that, it stops you from even efficiently testing out dexterity-based weapons, so it's tough to tell if investing in dexterity is something you'd like. It's a relatively minor qualm, but a way to reset your skill points would have been greatly appreciated.

The game looks and feels great. Bloodborne maintains a dark color scheme, keeping with the atmosphere, while keeping everything visible and distinguishable. The level design is fantastic, forcing the player to always stay on their toes and providing lots of shortcuts if you search for them. The game takes place in and around a single city, so it can't follow the grassland-desert-forest-jungle-ice-fire boss design of games with discrete levels, but there is still a good variety of areas, from back alleys to snowy castles to overgrown forests to otherwordly voids.

While most of the game consists of meticulously crafted levels, there are also procedurally generated levels called chalice dungeons. These are a bit fun at first, but quickly lose their charm and become samey since they're all randomly generated. There are a couple of unique bosses in the chalice dungeons, but they mostly reuse the bosses from the main game.

Bloodborne is a wonderful, engaging and immersive action game. It's dark, challenging, and well worth your while if you have a PS4.