Came in hear just to read Preacher's review of Bloodborne, he must be too busy fixing his broken controllers from playing the game to post about it? I'm not sure how I missed it was made by "Souls" until just recently or I would've been more excited about the game (cautiously as I can feel my echoes of rage from old memories past coming back) I haven't gotten it yet as I am still finding fun in DA Inquisition that and as I get older I just have less and less time so the time commitment and mental exhaustion have kept me from getting it but I will probably cave in today and download it.
Well, I'm heading to a medical procedure in about 10 minutes that will leave me pretty well zonked-out for the rest of the day due to sedatives, but I can give some early thoughts.
It is a
Souls game in all but name. The big gameplay difference is that there are no shields, which makes the game faster and more offensive. There's also a system in place now where if you attack an enemy shortly after being damaged, you can get some of your health back... again, they're encouraging a more offensive style.
I have to tell you, even as a hardened
Souls veteran, the lack of a shield left me frustrated for the first couple of hours. I actually ended up starting over so that I could pick a different starting weapon: Hunter's Axe instead of Saw Cleaver. That really helped. The two-handed strong charge attack with the axe is pretty great... uses a ton of stamina, but does a double spin attack that will knock most enemies over. I've been leaning on that attack pretty hard, and I've done well with it. Feels kinda cheesy, actually, but there's no such thing as cheesing in these games. You do whatever works.
Oh, and by the way, there doesn't seem to be any sort of viable ranged build. You have a gun in your left hand, but this is designed to stun enemies rather than damage them. No more ranged magic build to lean on, which to me was always the easiest way to play a
Souls game when it came down to it.
In any case, I could go on for a while about all the tiny changes they made to the formula (like the fact that equip load no longer exists, and potions are now finite rather than being automatically restocked at bonfires), but the details don't really matter so much. What matters is that the game is very good indeed. Miyazaki's touch is back after being absent from
Dark Souls 2. The bosses are much better, and the world feels more organic than it did in
Dark Souls 2. The only real downside is what fishonjazz already mentioned: the load times blow, particularly since you'll be dying a lot. I'm talking 30-40 second load times every time you die.
All that said, if you love the
Souls games, and you own a PS4, this is a no-brainer. Get it now. Hell, if you're a
Souls fan and
don't own a PS4, now may be a good time to get one. On the other hand, if you never liked the
Souls games to begin with, I think this probably still won't be your cup of tea.
