Boss fights bring ‘Bloodborne’ to epic heights

FromSoftware

Walking into the graveyard, a lone man stands. He starts to talk, but the figure that entered is quick to refuse this man’s talking. The man, who refers to himself as a Hunter, quickly darts with a scythe. The figure dodges, but he is quick to start dashing again. A quick shot to the stomach makes the Hunter fall over, and the figure walks over and throws his hand into his chest, quickly throwing his hand out to tear at the man’s chest. He clenches his heart, falling over and perishes after the short, yet brutal assault.

“Bloodborne” is made by From Software, the makers of Demon Souls and Dark Souls. It costs $20 and is exclusive to the Playstation 4.

“Bloodborne” has an independent story from the Dark Souls universe, taking place in Yharnam. This city takes inspiration from Victorian and gothic architecture, most representing London, especially since the people there have a British accent.

The basic run-down of the story is that the residents found a certain source of blood that gave them a cure to ailments, although when used, they would fall to madness because of a plague. As Hunter, the player character is injected with the blood and sets out to kill all of the monsters of the nightmare that the people are trapped in.

The gameplay is reminiscent of “Dark Souls,” although it manages to add a few things. One thing is the Rally mechanic. Normally, in a “Dark Souls” game, when damage is taken, it’s taken. Although in “Bloodborne,” there is a small window where that health remains and doing damage recovers some of that health.

Due to how aggressive some enemies are, that game really encourages players to attack and fight rather than back up and wait for a moment to heal.

Another thing added is a secondary gun. This secondary gun is designed to parry enemies, and in order to do that, the player must shoot the enemy at the right time during an attack to stagger them.

At that point, if the player goes up and attacks the enemy, a visceral attack is performed. A visceral attack is an attack that does heavy damage, showing the character reaching into the enemy’s heart, and then ripping it out. It not only does heavy damage, but also throws the enemy back, allowing the player the time to heal or ready for another assault.

The strong point of almost every game From Software has made is the boss fights. Boss fights are designed to test what a player has learned and put the skills to the limit.

The first boss is very “Dark Souls”-ish, being a basic, hulking monster with big attacks. People with experience in “Dark Souls” shouldn’t have too many problems against this boss, although the second boss is where the game begins to push into the player’s brain that “Bloodborne” isn’t “Dark Souls.” It’s not a game where the player can attack and then hide for an opening.

Learning how to use the gun is absolutely vital for survival in the boss fight, as well as using “Bloodborne’s” quicker and more brutal fighting style against the boss in order to lay the pressure on and defeat him.

Overall, “Bloodborne” is a very welcome addition to the “Dark Souls” series of games. It has a different, much more fun fighting style from “Dark Souls,” but the major problem is that it’s exclusive to the PS4.

For the computer gamer, every other “Dark Souls” game can be purchased on Steam, but not this one. I’d love to be able to play “Bloodborne” on my computer. It being exclusive does gives me a good excuse to crash over at my friend’s house and play “Bloodborne” with him watching and having fun over a series we both love and enjoy.