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Bloodborne Gamescom Demo and my thoughts on it


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Howdy-ho everybody, so i just got back from my first day of this year's Gamescom and i felt the need to talk about what i'd consider my personal highlight so far, the Bloodborne Demo.

Now Bloodborne might be the next-gen (or current-gen, whatever you call it) title that i'm the most excited for, i enjoyed the other Souls games tremendously and i was excited to see just how From Software was gonna change up the formula for this new title.

Keep in mind that all my speculations and statements i make in the following are only based on 30 minutes of demo gameplay, out of which i only played 10 myself, so there might be misinterpretations or some things that will only apply to the segment which i got to play.

With that beeing said, let me give you my thoughts on the demo as well as some speculation regarding the finished game based on the information i'm given.

Extra Note: I'll probably be making a lot of comparisons to the Dark Souls Series, as the way i played Bloodborne was heavily influenced by how i played these titles.

Point 1: The visuals

Bloodborne looks good, but not great, from a technical standpoint. We have yet to see just how good graphics can get on ps4 so i can't say how well it will compare to other future titles, but the comment i got from most other players on the matter was: "Looks a lot better than Dark Souls 2". Lighting looks great, esspecially on the environment, though not as great on some of the enemies i encountered. Most of the game's asthetic appeal lies in the gothic atmosphere the city creates, which i found to be much to my liking. I had heard of some issues regarding the framerate, but i have not encountered any drops in framerate during my playtime. Overall, it's not as great as it looks in the gameplay trailer, but it's not far below and could possibly be polished up to that level.

Point 2: The level-design

Level design reminded me of Demon's Souls, lots of twists and turns within a smaller area. I got to watch several people play the demo and i noticed that some would take entirely different paths than others, though they'd all eventually lead to the same point. I also unlocked a shortcut to the beginning of the demo only 1 minute into the game, so many smaller shortcuts instead of one big one as we saw in Demon's Souls might be a reocurring trend in Bloodborne. Now i'll get back to this in the gameplay segment, but approach to combat also seems to have changed in comparison to Dark Souls 1 & 2. I encountered no open areas, all the fights i fought took place in smaller areas, forcing me to react quickly within a small room ( i didn't i died). There was one part where a guy was walking away from me, so naturally i tried to sneak up on him and get him with a backstab, just to be ambushed by two guys from the back and another guy from the right. Bloodborne seems to enjoy throwing you right into dangerous situations, forcing you to think on your feet rather than cautiously planning your approach as you'd have in Dark Souls. I can almost guarantee that ambushs and enemies blending into the environment will be a major theme in the game.

Point 3: The gameplay

It's like Dark Souls, but different. If you've played any Souls game in the past you will feel right at home with Bloodborne, the controls are pretty much the same and your character handles very Soul-ish, for lack of a better word. I'll mostly be focusing on the small, but important differences as well as some new mechanics. First of all, i'd say the most major difference lies in the fact that you can't block, or at least i haven't found a way yet, possibly you can while two-handing a weapon i don't know. I was given the chance between a light and a heavy guy, though heavy only means heavy weapon, as both wore the same outfit. Both had a swinging weapon in their right and a gun in their left hand. I played the lighter setup, with a shotgun in the left and the sword/scythe weapon previously shown in the right. I didn't use the shotgun much, as it took too long to shoot and only caused little to moderate damage. I imagine it beeing useful stunning larger groups of foes before engaging in melee combat. I also read that there's a way to counter enemy attacks with ut, similar to parrying the Dark Souls, but i couldn't pull it off in the time i was given. The other new mechanic was that you could change your weapon from a quick low-range to a slower high-range weapon just by pressing L1, a feature i used a few times, but never mid-combat as i found it to take too long to risk it while fighting multiple enemies at once. I say i used it as much as i changed my right hand weapon in the Souls games. Now as i mentioned before, the areas you fight your enemies in are much more restricted and you can't block so you'll spend even more time rolling and interestingly, backstepping. I never used backsteps in any Souls game, but they're much more useful in Bloodborne, helping you get a safe distance when beeing overrun by baddies( which also seems to happen a lot more)

Conclusion:

All in all, i really enjoyed my time playing the demo and i'm left wanting more. Exploring the city is great, combat is more intense than i remember it from the Souls Series as you'll be thinking (and dying) on your feet much more. I can't say much about the sounddesign, as there was a lot of noise and people talking in all directions, sadly. And as far as difficulty goes, don't worry. Not a single one of the people playing the demo lived for longer than 3 minutes.

Should you have any questions regarding the demo, feel free to ask, i probably forgot about a lot as i just got back and i'm just writing this as it comes to mind. I'd also like to hear about your thoughts one the demo, should you've played it.

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You lucky bastard, I wish I got to play Bloodborne :'( My question is: In the trailer, you can see the main character combining his swords or something to create a scythe, was any of that present in the demo?

 

 

 

Also have you played the Until Dawn demo? I heard that was public hands on :)

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You lucky bastard, I wish I got to play Bloodborne :'( My question is: In the trailer, you can see the main character combining his swords or something to create a scythe, was any of that present in the demo?

 

 

 

Also have you played the Until Dawn demo? I heard that was public hands on :)

Question 1: The scythe-sword, which can turn from a sword into a scythe and back again was part of the demo, the transformation fluidly integrates into combat and takes about as long as switching weapons in Dark Souls by pressing right on the D-Pad. If turning two dual-wielded swords into a single weapon will be a thing i don't know, as there were no dual-wielding characters in the demo and i couldn't figure out how to check my equipment :D

Question 2: No, the Bloodborne demo, a live demo presentation of Batman Arkham Knight and a look at the ps4 version of Journey were all i managed to directly get my hands on, i'm hoping to see Dragon Age Inquisition and Smash Bros. tomorrow.

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This game looks great, but would you say its harder then the Dark Souls series? I never played them as I aren't such a big fantasy fan nor do i enjoy dying repeatedly

It's hard to say at this early point, me and the other people who played the demo all thought it was pretty difficult, but i can't say in how far this will change once you get used to the game's mechanics some more. However, based on the level-design, it's very much possible that dying over and over will still play a role in the game. There were a lot of doors that could only be opened from one side so i guess that you'll either be dying a lot or there will be some backtracking involved, as there would be no point in these shortcuts otherwise.

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