Bloodborne: Alpha Impressions (Sony Approved)
Oct. 4, 2014Bloodborne: Alpha Impressions (Sony Approved)
Editor’s Note: This article was approved by Sony for publishing, and features Castielle’s observations primarily, with some Skarekrow13 thoughts chiming in on occasion because he likes to stick his nose into things.
The level the Alpha occurs in is easily recognizable by anyone who has watched any gameplay footage to date. You are dropped into the game in exactly the same spot as the Playtester running the booth at E3. Except this time you get to choose starting weapons. There were 4 premade setups to choose from, all involving one melee weapon and one gun. Choices for melee included a range of weapons in the right hand (from the light daggers to the ultra heavyKirkhammer). These were pre-paired with either aBlunderbussor aPistolin the left hand. Castielle decided to go with the dagger(s) and the pistol as he likes speed. Skarekrow13 chose the more methodical bringer of death known as the Kirkhammer, which has the added bonus of a very sexy looking sword in the handle.From here on assume it’s Cas speaking. Or writing. Or whatever. Skare will make his presence obvious (yes, we’re such fans of the Souls games here at FextraLife that even our articles have invaders).
Having seen the gameplay at E3, I was relatively familiar with the level and knew where the first few enemies were, but what I didn’t know was what the personal effects on my character did (personal effects in the Alpha is a menu of items opened by pressing down on the right side of the touchpad). After messing around with them for a little while, I learned that there are two bells: one you ring to summon and one you ring to be summoned. There was also a “parting shot” which sends you or your phantom(s) back to their respective worlds. Of course an item for sharing messages with other players was present, as in the Souls games. In Bloodborne the item needed to do this is anotebook. Having sorted that out, I set out on my journey toward the boss.
After fighting several enemies and seeing a good portion of the level, I can say with confidence that the number of enemies is much higher than in the Souls series of games. Around 2 to 3 times higher I’d wager. This is something that wasn’t overtly clear to me at E3 when I watched the gameplay there. You certainly have to be more careful or you will just get overrun by enemies. I’ve heard comments around the internet that the combat is much faster than in Souls games and some people have even compared it to Devil May Cry. I believe that the speed of combat is generally the same as Dark Souls (Skare agrees, movement general seems to be nearly the same). In Bloodborne though, you sort of have the option to just jump in and make it hectic and fast (which I must say is a lot of fun). The difference here, is that in Bloodborne you are given the movesets to be able to handle many more enemies at once in comparison to a Souls game. You are even rewarded health back for striking an enemy who has struck you (if you can do it quickly). Skare’s pro-tip: hitting enemies who are in their dying animation will continue to recover your life. You are rewarded for smashing them into a pulp after the fight is over. Once they hit the ground for good, recovery ends.Editor’s Note (again): You should have mentally inserted a“Dark Spirit Skarekrow13 has invaded”message in a few moments ago.
The dodge and dash mechanics take some getting used to, but after about an hour you’re flying around the screen, getting comfortable. Combat feels much more exciting that Dark Souls. It may also feel more frantic and nerve wracking. I’m not sure this will appeal to all Souls fans, as there are many who like to take it slow and methodically whittle away the enemies. It is still possible to take this approach, however, it just really isn’t as much fun! Unless you’re using the Kirkhammer, per Skare.
Pros:
Cons:
All in all, the game is shaping up to be about what people are expecting. The 3 hours of the Alpha flew by before I knew it and I had a blast. The combat was challenging, the world was intriguing, and all I kept thinking was how much fun this is going to be with my friends. I’m not your typical lore junky like some Souls fans, but I can honestly say I’m dying to know more about the story. Why am I here? What is happening to everyone? How do I stop it? Hopefully soon we will know more. Until then “Praise the Moon!”
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Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
Brazil does sound nice…
Cas
Well it would depend on the location, its gotta be in Brazil for me to go -_- or else I can’t.
but that would be a nice idea yeah!
Haha epic that you guys crossed over like that. We should hold mini Fextra conventions someday
Im surprised you were there man! I was there too, I managed to beat it thankfullyits pretty difficult to control the character sure, but you get used to it pretty quickly
Went to the Brazil Game Show today and finally got to play BloodBorne! It looks freaking amazing, and besides having some core stuff from souls games, the combat is quite different, I found it difficult to control the character, and yes, I died twice and had to leave
Tomorrow I may post an article about it.
I was able to use the pistol on a heavily armored guy effectively. The Blunderbuss was the bigger problem for me
I saw videos after i made that post, and yeah, i saw that. The timing is probably just strange so they missed it, or it’s only useful against specific things and they’d given up by then.
Guns are for parries and they seem damn satisfying to use and very, very useful especially against slow “fatty” enemies. Take a look for example, at 4:14 on thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDwVAxqNt0
The Cleric Beast boss can be beaten solely by ripostes initiated by the guns too.
Cool. I was worried they’d FF13 and set you in a massive city, and then stick you in linear hallways. The still might, but the locked doors and alt routes are exciting to think about.
@Sardonius
I understand people’s disappointment with the DLC and maybe DKS2 in general, but in all honesty I haven’t seen anything from Bloodborne yet that warns of disappointment.
@Forum_Pirate
Playing the alpha (and demos) we found multiple ways to go, shortcut to unlocks and so many locked doors (doesn’t open from this side, locked by some contraption, etc) – it did not feel any more linear than the Huntsman Copse beta did.
Dude. Stop. It’s like 9 threads now, it’s not cool. If you hate the games/company so much, go away.
Hopefully they get the camera kinks worked out and either we figure out how guns work or they make them useful, seeing as they occupy a mandatory slot in your offhand. Saw the (probably NDA violating) video, what little there was to see looks really good.
It was strictly linear as far as I could see, any Idea if that’s a constant or if there is exploration to be done?
The camera angle….…The Blunderbuss is mostly useless as I couldn’t get the stagger to trigger consistently on even small enemies and the spread shot didn’t help me in crowd control (they just kept on pushing).…Lock on. Although the lock on works 90% of the time just fine, there is that 10% where you can’t lock on to the guy standing 10 feet in front of you no matter how many times you click the button. Or you try locking on to a guy and running back as there are more enemies nearby only to not and have your camera swing wildly. Sadly this issue exists in previous FROM titles and has yet to be fixed.
Ah, yeah, I know I’ll be skipping this game even if I get a PS4. I don’t have time for From’s crap anymore.
Well the boss did bug out on me once. He got stuck in the wall, my fellow hunter and I hit him a few times and he ran away never to come back. We stood there and looked at eachother for a minute, as he didn’t get sent back to his world…
Cas
Looks pretty much like the demo gameplay we have seen. Good to see that no one has found any sort of bugs yet, and the gameplay is smooth to go along with the graphics. Epic alpha!
It’s a shame about the pics (though perfectly understandable). I woulda loved a selfie smashing a few avian enemies.
It’s only fitting
Great writeup! Loved the beta, the boss was fantastic!
