Bloodborne - Maxi-Geek Review

The much anticipated game, Bloodborne, had receive high ratings from major gaming website, averaging around the 9 out of 10 mark. Prior to it's announcement, this game seemed promising with a great genre, theme and game play from the trailers that were published online.
That being said, there seem to be some mixed feelings about this game.

The narrative starts with a character facing the camera addressing the fact that you have to create a 'contract', and in this particular instance, meaning a character creation. It then takes you through to a character customisation menu where players are able to select the protagonist's gender, physical looks and some customisable stats. Quite similar to what you would find in an RPG character creation. That being said, Bloodborne didn't execute these features well.

The graphics shown in the customise screen lacked the capability of what the PS4 could offer in terms of visuals. For something that's supposed to be fun turned into a very tedious task, which would make players skip the second half of this particular part of the game. Once completed, it takes you through to a cut scene (no spoilers here), and the game starts.

Regarding Bloodborne's story, there's not much to tell. It doesn't take you though any type of narrative to explain why your character has woken up on a table, but simply lets the player run around and commence the gameplay itself. Within the first 5 minutes, you learn that any tutorials are only to be read from what we would assume are 'friendly ghouls' holding up parchment. In no way does this game ensure players test and play their newly found controls, which was what was great about the God of War series. By the time you walk through to your third room, you're engaged in a battle with a giant werewolf in which you die due to lack of weapons, and taken to the Hunters Dream.

What's the relevance in all this, you're asking? Exactly!!! It makes no sense at all. So far after playing Bloodborne for 3 hours, all that we can work out is the fact that you're in a town where people barricade themselves in their houses. There are monster/humans walking around with pitchforks, torches and swords walking around the town that will try and attack you, should come close to it's proximity.

The camera rotation and views for this game seems really rough, almost to the point where it seems incomplete. Parts of un-rendered buildings get in the way should you try and rotate your views into a building or object by accident. Additionally, after killing an enemy, your character could possibly drag the dead body along should it be in the way.

Your character control feels a little jittery and unfinished, however, it could be what the developers were going for. Players are forced to utilise the 'lock on' feature to defeat enemies, as you might end up finding yourself slashing a blank wall and completely missing your target. Lastly, the surrounding areas are set up with wooden boxes and coffins in which your character can destroy, however, achieves nothing as there are no treasures to be picked up.

The visuals for this game starts off impressive (initial cut scene), then leads to a disappointing character customisation feature where it feels like you're playing a PS3 unit even though your'e playing on your PS4. Game play graphics seem to have lacked texture, almost feeling like there's always a shine to your character and surrounding areas. That being said, it could be the fact that the development of this game might have been rushed, considering the game play, controls, visuals and lack of narrative.

In summary, Bloodborne might be tailored to a particular niche audience. I'd assume people who enjoyed the Dark Souls series. The game's difficulty came across more frustrating than challenging, but it's what made the appeal for Dark Souls. Additionally, it has similar concepts like losing all your characters statistics should you die. Graphics were very mediocre for a game that we tried on the PS4, coupled with practically no story or motivation for you to find out more lets the game down dramatically.

Thanks to PlayStation Australia for supplying the game for review and to Terence from The [Insert Name Here] Show for reviewing it