Bloodborne - First Impressions

Admittedly, I was never a big fan of the “Souls” series by From Software. I never had a PlayStation 3, so I was never able to try Demon’s Souls. I did try getting into Dark Souls on Xbox 360 because I had heard so much about the series and had a friend who was a huge fan talk it up to me. But after playing for several hours, I wasn’t impressed. The ambiguity and intentional obscurity in the design and presentation, mixed with the immediate and steep learning curve really turned me off and I barely made a dent in Dark Souls. When Dark Souls 2 came out, I contemplated giving the series another chance but decided against it.

Considering all that, I was surprised when I found myself so intrigued by From Software’s latest title, “Bloodborne,” a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Not only that but I was even more surprised when I found myself really enjoying Bloodborne.

Set in the strange, forgotten town of Yharnham, you take on the role of a hunter seeking an ancient medicine rumored to be held somewhere in the cursed city. Incorporating an exaggerated gothic style, Bloodborne is like a horror movie come to life as Yharnham is inhabited by all manner of outlandish and vicious beasts.

If you’ve played any of the Souls games before, you’ll have a good headstart on how Bloodborne works, though there are some key differences. Careful and considered play is your best course of action since the lowest level enemy can kill you in a moment’s notice and the towering boss monsters can dispatch you even quicker. Unlike the Souls games, there is no blocking in Bloodborne, only dodging and evading. Due to the lack of blocking, the stamina meter is much more quick to recharge in Bloodborne.

There is also another big difference in the combat between the Souls games and Bloodborne. A new mechanic called the “regain system” allows you to regenerate a portion of life lost but it is a risky proposition to make the most of regain. After you’ve taken damage, your health bar drains with a white mark noting how much health you have left but to the right of the mark, a lighter shade of red remains for a few seconds. If you can deal damage while this portion of the bar remains, you will regenerate some lost health. Obviously, therein lies the risk – attacking the creature that just damaged you to regain some lost health could result in even more damage or death. It’s a risk but the quick combat in Bloodborne makes it a possibility.

Also like the Souls games, you earn “blood echoes” which can be spent on purchasing gear or leveling up your character. Though if you die, you lose all that earned XP creating a risk-reward dilemma between grinding for blood echoes and risking losing them all.

Overall, I’ve been having way more fun with Bloodborne than any of the Souls games and I think it’s because Bloodborne isn’t as intentionally obscure and confusing as the Souls games, making it more accessible to people who don’t want to spend time experimenting with every item or stat trying to figure out what it does or affects. Similarly, while the combat and difficulty are intense, I feel like Bloodborne has more in common with hack-and-slash games than the Souls series. Now, that isn’t to say that Bloodborne is hack-and-slash because it most definitely is not. But the emphasis on staying quick while dealing damage reminds me more of standard action/adventure games than the time I spent playing Dark Souls. Also, the atmosphere and aesthetics of Bloodborne are much, much cooler (in my opinion) than the Souls games. The easiest way I can explain it is if the Souls games are fantasy movies, Bloodborne is a horror film.

I’m planning on doing a full review for Bloodborne but I want to get a little deeper into it before I do but that could take some time. (I’m several hours in but only just recently beat the Cleric Beast and found the second boss. Right now I’m trying to grind for more XP to level up before trying to fight the next boss again while looking through Central Yharnham for any secret areas I surely missed.)

If you were a fan of From Software’s earlier games or are looking for a game that offers a serious challenge, definitely look into Bloodborne.

Dying Light offers a visceral and fun first-person zombie apocalypse

In the last decade, zombies have pervaded nearly every aspect of our pop culture. There are still movies and TV shows being made about zombies (“The Walking Dead” on AMC remains one of the highest rated shows on TV, for instance) and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of this trend slowing down any time soon.

In 2011, developer Techland released a game called “Dead Island” where you took on the role of a tourist stuck on a tropical island that had been overrun by a deadly plague which turned everyone into zombies. The game was comprised on several large maps but the emphasis wasn’t so much on exploration as it was on completing generic missions while bashing every zombie in sight in the head with some sort of blunt instrument.

Dead Island was fun at first but over time the fun wore off as technical glitches became more apparent and the repetitive nature of the game began to wear thin. Because of these reasons, I was hesitant to try out Techland’s latest title, “Dying Light.” However, Dying Light is everything that we wanted Dead Island to be – and then some.

Dying Light is a first-person, action/adventure game set in a giant open world environment with roleplaying elements. Combat is still very melee-focused, though firearms do exist, but unlike Dead Island, Dying Light incorporates free-running and parkour as a way to navigate the large, highly-detailed environments and after playing Dying Light, I found that running away is often the best strategy for survival.

I don’t want to consistently compare Dying Light to Dead Island throughout this review but I find myself doing it quite often as I try to formulate my thoughts on the game. I think this is because at its core, Dead Island and Dying Light are very similar. But where Dead Island presented many interesting ideas, it didn’t capitalize on them – whereas Dying Light feels like a much more complete game. One could say that Dying Light is the game we all thought Dead Island would be.

Zombies will overwhelm you quickly in Dying Light and staying mobile is often a better choice than fighting

In Dying Light, you play as Kyle Crane, an operative of the GRE (Global Relief Effort) who has been covertly inserted into the city of Harran where a massive viral outbreak has infected a majority of its citizens and been quarantined from the outside world. As Crane, you’re tasked with retrieving a secret document from a rogue agent but along the way, you befriend a group of survivors and it isn’t long before you realize that the goals of the GRE and the goals of the survivors are often at odds.

There is one main story quest that carries you throughout the game but as you complete story missions, you’ll unlock several side missions which offer extra XP toward your three skill trees and also money, item upgrades and blueprints.

The three skill trees affect different areas of the gameplay – survivor, agility and power. The survivor tree affects things like how much damage Crane can take, kinds of items he can create and more. Agility allows Crane to become better at free-running over the environment and gives him new abilities (the best of which is the grappling hook). And the power tree will unlock new offensive moves for Crane both with weapons and while unarmed.

Unlike many other games with RPG elements, if you die in Dying Light, you lose your earned XP, putting extra importance on careful play and weighing options of fighting and running very heavily. Where Dead Island focused more on combat, Dying Light does an exceptional job of balancing combat and running for your life. In Dying Light, you’re vulnerable to being overwhelmed quickly and fighting every zombie you see is rarely the smartest decision.

Though free-running over the environment is often better than standing and fighting, you will have to battle the undead every now and then. It’s difficult to find quality weapons early in the game but these weapons can be improved with blueprints and upgrades. Utilizing the crafting materials scattered throughout the world. Blueprints help improve durability, damage and handling and these stats can be further upgraded with one-time use items that are often awarded for helping survivors in random events or for completing quests.

As in most zombie apocalypse fiction, humans are often more of a threat than zombies in Dying Light

 

Dying Light has a very highly detailed sheen to the visuals with an impressive use of light and shadow and also incorporates a day/night cycle with a unique twist. Nights in Dying Light are extremely dark and even with a flashlight it’s hard to see the zombies around you. But at night, a special type of zombie comes out – the volatile. During the day, the typical shambling zombies clog the streets, with scattered variants (like zombies which are more aggressive, exploding zombies and ones that spit toxic slime) but at night, the volatiles come out of hiding. Extremely sensitive to ultraviolet light, volatiles are highly aggressive and strong and just as quick as Crane. Sneaking slowly to avoid their attention or sleeping through the night at safe houses are your best bets against volatiles. It’s possible to kill them but standing and fighting with them in the dead of night will get you killed very quickly.

If taking on the various beasts is too much for you to do solo, you can play through the entire game cooperatively with up to three other players. While playing with others, you can take on challenges or create challenges between your friends to add even more replayability. Also, there is a manner of competitive play where you take on the role of a super powered zombie which invades the games of others and hunt the human players. Granted, I haven’t played this mode yet it seems very cool and is an interesting twist on the standard game.

While I was hesitant at first to give Dying Light a chance, I’m glad I did. The balance of running and fighting in an open-world zombies apocalypse is perfect and being able to play the entire game with friends makes it even better. Plus, there is a harder difficulty which increases the zombies’ durability as well as putting limitations on healing, flashlight life, making night last longer and other challenging.

If you’re like me and were nervous about giving Dying Light a chance because Dead Island didn’t live up to expectations I can guarantee that Dying Light is everything you wanted from Techland’s first offering and more - and it’s even better with friends.