4.5/5 ★ – oldultan's review of Bloodborne.

Second time through this gem. It really is FromSoft’s best world to date, and probably the only game on par with the original Dark Souls’s level design. Great weapons, near perfect pacing of combat, and enemies that (generally) encourage the wild aggression that leads to that FromSoft high. Of their catalogue, only Sekiro beats it. We all know its praises, so I’ll just say a few words on what holds it back. The base game struggles with some weak boss design relative to the rest of the genre. They encourage slow play and often result in tediousness. The DLC fixes this by having the best boss in any FromSoft game (looking at you, Ludwig) excluding the Sword Saint. There are also a handful of sections that keep me from wanting to revisit the game. They’re the second things I think of when I feel like replaying. You know the ones. Blood vials <<<<< Estus So many awesome weapons being SO late into the game really holds back NG replayability.