Bloodporne
Member
They are bullet sponges in the sense that you can't take them out easily. I assume from what I saw you can only kill them at certain points in the game, where the story asks you to take them out (haven't read Gamesradar, but I assume they are actually talking about these fights?). You can't really take them out on a random encounter, you can just stall them. I think it took maybe 2 to 3 headshots to stagger one of them so I could run far away from them. But usually you can get away anyway, as they tend to walk towards you in stead of run. I only fired on them when they were to close to realistically be able to escape. You should really compare them to the Xeno in Alien: Isolation, whom you can't kill either.
I don't think the shots you fire into them make them easier to take out later on. I would advise against shooting them even, as your bullets are way more important against other enemies you can kill.
I understand. I am actually not a big fan of it either (it's the reason I didn't finish Alien: Isolation), but I found it very cool in Resident Evil VII and handled well too as you have ways to deal with it. It's just really tense and cool to backtrack to a place to solve a puzzle you finally got all the pieces for, and suddenly see a Baker shuffling down a hallway. It's very tense and cool to try and do your thing without them even noticing you are around too. Compared to the Xeno, it's less of a drag. He was to unpredictable at times. Combined with the terrible saving system there, it was a drag to go trough that game at times. Resident Evil 7 saves a lot, so I never had to replay big chunks. (This was normal mode)
Also, it's balanced in the sense that in certain parts of the demo you weren't stalked by one of the Bakers in any way, and I assume they never will in those parts. There were other enemies there though you needed to manage (and actually could kill, though running is often the best way to go about it, like it was in classic RE)
Since you mentioned there ARE save rooms and it also saves automatically, how do those two coexist?