Bloodborne
While the PlayStation 4 went on to become of the best-selling consoles ever, its first few years were a bit lacking in terms of heavy hitting titles. Then came Bloodborne in March 2015, FromSoftware’s first first-party title with Sony Interactive Entertainment since the release of Demon’s Souls.
Players take on the role of a Hunter, a slayer of beasts, who travels to the ancient city of Yharnam to find a cure for the disease that afflicts them. Yharnam is a gorgeously gothic world that is so deeply layered in terms of design that you could be caught exploring for hours.
Bloodborne is a far more offensive game than any Souls-like game before it. There is no true block in Bloodborne, and players must rely on their agility to maneuver around enemy attacks and survive. Like Dark Souls, checkpoints, or lamps, are more abundant than in Demon’s Souls.
To offset the lack of defensive abilities, Bloodborne rewards offensive play by allowing players to retrieve health by quickly following up an enemy’s attack with their own. Bloodborne also introduces firearms, which can be used to stun enemies to perform visceral attacks (akin to a riposte in Demon’s Souls) which inflict massive damage to enemies.
Bloodborne’s offensive gameplay, gorgeous art direction, and masterful level design makes it a fan favorite more than five years after its release. Now if we could only get Bloodborne 2.
