I am going to preface this review by going a bit into my own personal history. I am a lover of From Software RPG's, I actually played King's Field on release day (it is actually King's Field 2 in Japan) and the tradition sort of went from there. I was so excited for Demon's Souls in fact that I even ordered two versions of the Atlus collectors edition just so I could keep one in the plastic, and it still is. So it is not a shocker that Bloodborne is a game that I really looked forward to and easily the system exclusive I was most excited about. Hell to be honest they could have made this exclusive for the From System a system that costs 500 dollars and only plays From Software games and I would have forked over the chedda.
So it begs the question... What the hell happened?
Bloodborne is a game I feel was made with a specific design intention and to appeal to one specific crowd. The problem is two fold. The crowd it was made for was not the fans of Demon's Souls. Sure the Maiden in Bl.... oh sorry the Doll levels you up, sure there is a hub world where you can visit each main level of the game. But the slavish detail given to making sure everything fits, the "this game is super hard" push, the little "hey you can summon help!" reminders, and the prevalence of "player like" enemies everywhere just ooze the feeling that this game was meant to appeal to fans of Dark Souls 1 over everyone else. The problem is I also believe the devs drank their own Kool Aid and forgot what made the games good in the first place. They focused on the idiosyncrasies of Dark Souls 1 and the "hardcore" aspect more than they did the mechanics or making sure it was still fun to play. That was a mistake which resulted in the game losing most of it's well.... soul.
Much like Demon's Souls Bloodborne starts out on a hard note. Many a player was beaten back and intimidated by the first area of Boletaria which you had to complete to move to other zones. Bloodborne was not satisfied with that though and makes the game quite challenging at the start and often goes to perplexing lengths to accomplish that. All characters start with the same "armor" which is also totally useless, there are no starting bonus items this time, you have no clear direction and is it easy to go the wrong way, and you cant even level up until you meet a "insight" gate that is never explained or even hinted at. It doesn't help that this is by far the hardest starting area any souls game has ever had (even more than Scholar of the First Sin) and of the first three bosses two of them I would place in the "hardest bosses for when you meet them" category. Much like the original release of Witcher 2 the challenge curve is completely off and the games first few areas and bosses are far harder for when you encounter them than most of the other areas of the game with the only exception being the last main plot area of the game and the Unseen Village.
To make matters worse the mechanics have taken a step backwards and character building is actually more shallow than it has ever been. Rolls have been replaced during lock on by a faster but much shorter range quick step. "Parries" are now done by shooting guns which for the most part have strangely mediocre range and don't do impressive damage. This games version of spells can't even be found until about 30% of the way through the game and you don't even get any that can be used for actual attacks until the last 25%. Shields are also a thing of the past despite there being one in game. All in all the game forces all new characters into the same playstyle and builds and dumbs the first half if not the first entire playthrough into a question of "Do I want to go with Strength weapons, Skill weapons, or weapons that scale with both?" Armor in the end is so samey and minor you could really end up beating the game wearing the same armor set you find in the first level of the game, I did. The worst part of it all is this game has a camera and a lock on that literally seem to be trying to kill you half the time and are far worse than the same features in any of the previous games even Demon's Souls.
Now it isn't all bad. There is some definite pro's to the game. First off there is no more hollow nonsense, your only penalty for death is just that you have to retrieve your souls, called Blood Echoes in this game. There is no more encumbrance system so you can feel free to equip whatever gear you feel works best for you and roll with it.... literally. The blood gem system is pretty cool and gives you a ton of ways to build a unique weapon loadout or take any weapon and make it work for both a physical or "arcane" build. The graphics of a souls game have never been better despite some serious FPS issues at points dropping in the 15-20 range and despite all that the controls are very responsive and your character moves quickly and is highly agile. Additionally this game is more consistent and better put together on a lore, atmosphere, architectural, and design level than other souls games easily. There are even some really high points to the game, such as the climactic final boss (maybe depending on ending) that is a better last boss than any other souls game, or the creepy weird battle with Micolash where he constantly babbles strange nonsense and taunts you as you chase him through cramped and foggy castle corridors.
I really do think GB's own staffer Rorie said it best in a recent post. A game like this is a series of highs and lows. When the lows become fewer than the highs something has gone wrong and the game went in the wrong direction. Bloodborne is a good game, if you enjoy the previous soul games you will probably still like it... if you did not like those games though I can't see you enjoying this one. Because in the end Bloodborne has more lows than highs.