Bloodborne Press Preview Impressions (16/03/2015)

I like reading the impressions. I'm still not sure if I'm going to give this game a try or not. I never really got into the other Souls games.
 
I'm starting to think maybe it is a con that Bloodborne essentially forces people away from the choice to sword and board. Not sure I'm onboard completely with the idea of less options being better. I'll love it anyway probably, but this particular feature is now starting to sound like a step in the wrong direction.

What kind of monster would ever pick a shield over a shotgun?

I can't even. Can you?
 
What kind of monster would ever pick a shield over a shotgun?

I can't even. Can you?

I barely sword and boarded in the Souls series. Just didn't feel as great as double handing/dual-wielding. Bloodborne certainly looks like a game that doesn't require a shield.
 
I don't think TW3 will be GotY. It will be MGSV because of the fanbase. Bloodborne's exclusivity will most likely result in being not GotY in most of the outlets.

That didn't stop games like Demon's Souls, MGS4, LBP, Uncharted, & The Last of Us from winning GOTY awards, & in the latter two cases nearly sweeping all the awards.
 
I don't see anything out of TW3 that would make it GOTY material.

MGSV looks awesome, so that one could be pretty good. But this is Bloodborne. After Demons Souls was my GOTG, and seeing how good this is turning out, I find it hard to believe anything will best it.

Only game on my radar that could leapfrog Bloodborne is No Mans Sky if they indeed pull it off.
 
I definitely think The Witcher 3 is GOTY material, but I'd also bet on Bloodborne to take most of the GOTY awards.

If Uncharted 4 wasn't delayed, it would be that.

My personal GOTY though will be a fight between Bloodborne and Persona 5 (if the don't delay that too, which seems likely to me), I'm sure of that :')
 
I like reading the impressions. I'm still not sure if I'm going to give this game a try or not. I never really got into the other Souls games.

I wouldn't buy this game if you couldn't get into any of the other Souls titles. Bloodborne shares the same philosophy of other Souls games. Just with a different, faster paced combat and new setting.

It seems a lot of people who never played a Souls game before will still grab it without having any idea what they're getting themselves into. And I fear a lot of them will be unpleasantly surprised by what they get with the game.
 
The first game I plat'd was Uncharted, because I happened to be playing (and loving it) when trophies were born and they got patched in. I never bothered again...

till Demon's Souls. I plat'd that happily, which then caused me to start getting them for more games. But Demon's Souls is one of the few that deserved that level of attention. Rarity of Pure Bladestone was terrible though.

Yep. I remember backstabbing that stupid black phantom dual-katana skeleton in 4-2 over and over again waiting for that sucker to drop. Finally got it after repeated sessions of God only knows how many attempts.

I like reading the impressions. I'm still not sure if I'm going to give this game a try or not. I never really got into the other Souls games.

If you tried one or two of the Souls games and they never clicked for you, I'm not sure why Bloodborne would be any different. Nothing wrong with not enjoying these particular titles -- personal preferences and all. I have lots of non-GAF friends who hated Demon's and/or Dark Souls.
 
If you tried one or two of the Souls games and they never clicked for you, I'm not sure why Bloodborne would be any different. Nothing wrong with not enjoying these particular titles -- personal preferences and all. I have lots of non-GAF friends who hated Demon's and/or Dark Souls.

I finished the 3 games and they didnt click for me. I found them alright but thats it. Is Bloodborne a game I would like?
 
I finished the 3 games and they didn't click for me. I found them alright but thats it. Is Bloodborne a game I would like?

Bloodborne will be "souls-esque" but the combat and play style will vary a lot from the past Souls titles. Much faster paced, more action than RPG. If spoilers don't bother you, go watch some of the previews IGN put out. I'm personally beyond stoked for Bloodborne and fully confident that it's going to live up to the hype.
 
I'm starting to think maybe it is a con that Bloodborne essentially forces people away from the choice to sword and board. Not sure I'm onboard completely with the idea of less options being better. I'll love it anyway probably, but this particular feature is now starting to sound like a step in the wrong direction.

Less options? No, no, no. This isn't about less options. Sword and board didn't give you more options, it gave you one superior one - be cautious, wait, and things will be okay.

The one superior option here is to frantically strike back, out yourself at risk, and stay frosty at all times. If that isn't a better atmosphere for a compelling gameplay experience, I'm not sure what is.
 
Would you play another game in the same vein as the 3 you finished? Then go for it. Unless these games are starting to bore you.

People will kill me but i found the gameplay repetitive after 40 hours. What bothers me also is that you need to know in advance what weapon you are going to use and upgrade, and the fact that enemies seem to have infinite stamina. Those are my opinions of course. It doesnt mean that Bb doesnt look good.
 
People will kill me but i found the gameplay repetitive after 40 hours. What bothers me also is that you need to know in advance what weapon you are going to use and upgrade, and the fact that enemies seem to have infinite stamina. Those are my opinions of course. It doesnt mean that Bb doesnt look good.

I didn't get the impression from either Dark Souls or Demon's Souls. Haven't played DS2 though.

Maybe the faster paced, agressive combat style would be more of your liking. Not sure. The gameplay in the other titles didn't feel repetitive to me even after more than 500 hours.

At least Bloodborne won't crush you if you managed to beat the other games.
 
People will kill me but i found the gameplay repetitive after 40 hours. What bothers me also is that you need to know in advance what weapon you are going to use and upgrade, and the fact that enemies seem to have infinite stamina. Those are my opinions of course. It doesnt mean that Bb doesnt look good.

I've never gotten that impression after 300+ hours spent on Souls.

I didn't find gameplay to be too repetitive either, but honestly if a game doesn't feel repetitive until 40 hours, that still sounds like a really good game.
 
I've never gotten that impression after 300+ hours spent on Souls.

I didn't find gameplay to be too repetitive either, but honestly if a game doesn't feel repetitive until 40 hours, that still sounds like a really good game.

Yes you are right, thank you. If a game entertains you for 40 hours it might be worth buying.
 
People will kill me but i found the gameplay repetitive after 40 hours. What bothers me also is that you need to know in advance what weapon you are going to use and upgrade, and the fact that enemies seem to have infinite stamina. Those are my opinions of course. It doesnt mean that Bb doesnt look good.
Maybe in DS2 there are a few enemies that have ridiculous stamina (those stupid hammer knights in Dragon Shrine) but in general enemies have a wind down after a big attack, they don't have infinite stamina.

Also not sure what you mean about weapons - you can pick up any weapon you like at any time and upgrade it, the final slab for an upgrade might be limited, but that's on purpose - everything else can be bought (or farmed very easily).
 
People will kill me but i found the gameplay repetitive after 40 hours. What bothers me also is that you need to know in advance what weapon you are going to use and upgrade, and the fact that enemies seem to have infinite stamina. Those are my opinions of course. It doesnt mean that Bb doesnt look good.

Dark Souls 2 at least gave respecs. It is unknown yet whether BB has them.
 
Lol imagine if it scores a 55 metacritic.

With all the positive press impressions already, I don't see that happening unless every outlet gives this game to their in-house CoD guy to review. Would still be funny to see the meltdown among Souls fans though, myself included I'm sure.
 
I definitely think The Witcher 3 is GOTY material, but I'd also bet on Bloodborne to take most of the GOTY awards.

If Uncharted 4 wasn't delayed, it would be that.

My personal GOTY though will be a fight between Bloodborne and Persona 5 (if the don't delay that too, which seems likely to me), I'm sure of that :')

You forget Batman, MGSV and Zelda also release this year. I don't think it'll be so straightforward for Bloodborne, as good as the game will be. End of this year will be extremely interesting for this reason alone.
 
I've never gotten that impression after 300+ hours spent on Souls.

I didn't find gameplay to be too repetitive either, but honestly if a game doesn't feel repetitive until 40 hours, that still sounds like a really good game.

Agreed on the first point, disagree on the second. The way enemies pause a bit after attacks leads me to believe that stamina affects them as well. As for repetitive, yes, it's repetitive as fuck. But I like what it's repeating, so I do it in order to both advance the game, and also upgrade my character.
 
With all the positive press impressions already, I don't see that happening unless every outlet gives this game to their in-house CoD guy to review. Would still be funny to see the meltdown among Souls fans though, myself included I'm sure.

Souls fans don't deserve meltdowns!
 
A lower metascore then expected, I don't think, would be as entertaining.

Post DS2, it's entirely too easy to dismiss critics and their understanding of Souls games.
 
Nah, this game wont get low scores. Sony is going hardcore dks2-tier marketing on this, i doubt it's going to turn out shit. Probably gonna generate some low scores from reviewers trying to get some controversy going saying how from is dropping it after souls or some dumb shit. Scores are dumb though. Isn't DeS even the lowest scored one? And that's the best. Souls games took a lot more shit before it got the whole "haerdest gaem evr" stamp that ruined 2. The usual artificial difficulty whining and similar. Now that their games aren't niche anymore, that shit probably won't fly as easy, and it would get a lot more blowback.

If i'm wrong about the scores i'm very sorry i'll go smash my head on a rock.
 
Some people liked a game more than me. Their opinions are now invalid.

That's not what I was getting at. People can like Dark Souls 2. I liked Dark Souls 2. My point was that the critics understanding of the Souls series is so little that they were unable to see the flaws that Souls 2 had. Hell, you could say the same for Demon Souls or Dark Souls.

I'm not saying that they can't recognize that the games are inherently good or bad. I'm saying they don't have the skill, nor the expertise to articulate a good review on the Souls series.
 
You forget Batman, MGSV and Zelda also release this year. I don't think it'll be so straightforward for Bloodborne, as good as the game will be. End of this year will be extremely interesting for this reason alone.

You know what, you're actually right, I did forget.
 
That's not what I was getting at. People can like Dark Souls 2. I liked Dark Souls 2. My point was that the critics understanding of the Souls series is so little that they were unable to see the flaws that Souls 2 had. Hell, you could say the same for Demon Souls or Dark Souls.

I'm not saying that they can't recognize that the games are inherently good or bad. I'm saying they don't have the skill, nor the expertise to articulate a good review on the Souls series.

Is this where we pretend reviewers aren't real gamers?
 
Is this where we pretend reviewers aren't real gamers?

No, this is where we acknowledge that for certain types of games and genres, they are simply out of their league. The vast majority of them.

Sorry but I'll be damned if I listen to a reviewer tell me about how complex a combat system in DMC/NG/Bayo is or if a sim racer is worth buying.
 
Where is this talk of less options coming from?

Strength & Dex (in the form of skill) are back & function identically to previous games, Arcane has replaced magic, & considering the fact that the arcane stat scales with items like Molotov, you can be sure that there are plenty of offensive "gadgets" that scale with arcane, they can be even deeper than the magic spells in previous games (bolt bombs? Flash grenades maybe even?), & for the first time ever, not OP as fuck (I'm assuming here).

You can also do a "Bloodtinge" build that focuses on guns, which should offer an entirely new playstyle. & of course you can put all your points in vitality & be a "tank".

There's also the hidden
Beasthood
stat, it's a big spoiler so click at your own risk.
 
Is this where we pretend reviewers aren't real gamers?

To be fair, reviewers seem to be shit at games in general.

Jokes aside, isn't most souls reviews after like 40 hours or something? One playthrough and some dabbling in ng+ doesn't really feel like enough time to make a coherent review of a game like this. Some games just don't work well with the usual review formula.
 
Where is this talk of less options coming from?

Probably because they're emphasizing speed and being offensive in this game. So some are taking that as meaning that you can't play any other way. No one will really know the different tactics you can take until more people have it. Right now the people playing and streaming it are struggling to even get past the first part the game.
 
Is this where we pretend reviewers aren't real gamers?

After playing Alien: Isolation and then going back and seeing some of the coverage and reviews it got, safe to say that some game reviewers suck at playing games that don't offer enough pampering and hand-holding. Game doesn't tell you exactly where to go and exactly what to do when you get there? Obviously the game is flawed.
 
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