5/5 ★ – larsdilio's review of Bloodborne.

Few media products shape who I am as a person. Bloodborne is one of those products. It is my favourite game. I think about Bloodborne every day. It’s the perfect gateway to the souls series in my personal opinion despite being jarringly different in some aspects. Bloodborne ticks all the boxes for a souls game; perceived difficulty, ambiguous lore, the interface. But it takes the shortcomings of those games, mixes it up, does a shit on it, sculpts it, masters it, vomits on it and the result is pure gaming genius in design. The horror of this game is perfect; the fear is not of the jump scares, the game only has one, but the fear of losing your blood echoes, the currency in this game, with one blood vial and no lamp in sight… the game is creepy. The atmosphere is gothic and changes frequently throughout the game. It’s truly breathtaking, requiring you to keep an eye out at all time for important changes. Unlike the chosen undead in Dark Souls, you are a nobody. A foreigner even; NPCs behind doors reject you, and you’re clad in poor armour. Said armour allows for swift movement and an aggressive play style. No fat rolls here. The omission of shields encourages further aggression; a parry can be achieved through the introduction of guns. Shields in the souls series encouraged passivity. None of that none sense in bloodborne. Don’t let the perceived difficulty of these games deter you. Just imagine them as big puzzles. Though this game is difficult, bosses always feel fair. Lady Maria of the DLC took me over 30 tries and to this day is my favourite boss fight in the series. Because of my persistence I became a parry god and beat the final boss of the DLC on my 4th try… my biggest flex. Controversial, but there are no bad bosses in this game. Except maybe Rom. The level design allows for broad exploration whilst being intertwined with prior areas with all the short cuts and elevators that you’d expect. The lore of bloodborne is found in notes, short dialogue and item descriptions… it’s all some big puzzle and has taken me beyond days in total to grasp. The game begins with familiar horror: werewolves… beast people… grave tenders… and then evolves mid game into lovecraftian horror. Then the DLC acts as a prologue, introducing some of my favourite characters in the souls series. The difficulty and ambiguity of this game is what keeps you hooked, and why it has been such an obsession of mine. I could write for hours about this game. Nothing compares. Despite playing DS1, 2 and nearly finishing 3, none have given me the same omph! as Bloodborne. Perhaps Dark Souls 3… regardless…. You need to play this game.