Friday, April 3, 2015

We survived the journey into the horrors of Yarnham. And it was worth … – Videogame.it

It all starts with a transfusion, to immediately put the record straight. In Bloodborne all part of the blood. It is at the center of the mysterious rituals of an imaginary Church of Care. It is the means, when solidified, which empower yourself and your weapons. It is what will cover you profusely after every fight, and that you will pour abundantly over and over again, when the creatures you will encounter on the journey you will remember painfully that your presence is not welcome. Because if one thing From Software has demonstrated the ability to do well in the past is to create game worlds that communicate forcefully their hostility to the player. Bloodborne is no exception, but rather pushes this aspect at levels of paroxysm. The dark, Victorian and twisted Yarhnam welcomes the player with the warm affection of his bestial inhabitants.

Anyone who has kept a minimum of sense remains barricaded in the house: the streets are made for beasts and for hunters. The mission seems pretty clear, at least at the beginning: to kill the animals and find out what is behind this horrible epidemic that turns people into monsters. Then pass the hours, and as our alter ego – literally – opens his eyes to the horrors that surround it, it becomes clear that the creative director Miyazaki has read Lovecraft, that the line between nightmare and reality is probably very narrow, is that in essence things are even more complicated than expected. Obviously, the game will do nothing more than the minimum wage to reveal to you its secrets. From Software has always been a teacher of indirect narration, and Bloodborne no exception in his total refusal to take us by the hand to guide you through the intricacies of his night terrors. In this way makes any discovery, however small, a thousand times more satisfying.



DÉJÀ VU?

Who is the experience of previous titles in the Japanese software house such as Demon’s Souls Dark Souls or two, you’ll end to perceive a complex mixture of familiarity and estrangement. Much of the basic mechanical and structure of the game are the same, but at the same time are sufficiently different as to require some recalibration of mental processes. The fight, say, a focal point of the titles From Software, in Bloodborne is much more visceral than in the past. Best to avoid approaches fence-sitters, with shield raised well, possible and effective in Dark Souls. Here the shields do not exist (or almost, but the only one is clearly a nice “subsidiary” of the developers), and the password is attacking. Let me be clear, Bloodborne not Devil May Cry and who come from the previous titles From Software will do well to apply the rule number one in those learned: never approach any fight with overconfidence and head down. Also because the enemies are always aggressive, and have a great variety of moves. The hunter, however, is agile, and in addition can recover part of the damages suffered if it hits fast the enemy that has inflicted them to him. The alternative is to inject a vial of blood to recover, but the maximum number of transportable vials is limited. The battles have then a fast pace, made of lightning dodges and counterattacks.

In place of the shield there are guns, bullets that use mercury blood-soaked. Inflict damage almost always ridiculous, but their real use is another. Shooting at an enemy with the right timing, and is going to hit us, it will be stunning and we can take advantage of it to inflict a blow of rare brutality and effectiveness, a bit ‘as happened with the “parry” of Souls. It is a mechanical one which absolutely must be assimilated, because it can facilitate the life on many occasions. The news does not end here, and push themselves to the ductility of the main weapons. Each of them has two “states” different, each with different uses and damage. The threaded rod, for example, is a weapon by the rapid but short range, but can turn into a sharp whip, slower but dall’allungo very generous. If you have read with horror that in Bloodborne there are far fewer weapons than a Dark Souls, though, we’re not here to rincuorarvi. Thus, throughout the game there are only a dozen instruments of death. But each of them exudes personality, is fun to use, and has a set of moves right. In addition, you can “transform” the weapon of the middle of a combo to get several more attacks. This general sense of “streamlining” is also reflected in the fact that the enemies fall from only consumable items or materials for upgrades when killed.



GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT!

Another aspect that Bloodborne declines in its own way is that of the” bonfire “, whose place is taken by lanterns. These do not restore our health, nor the vials of blood healing. Their sole purpose is to act as a “point of rebirth” and give us the ability to transport us to the Dream Hunter, an external dimension to the game world in which to shop, change weapons and upgrade your character, spending our hard-earned echoes blood . These are essentially the currency of Yarhnam, and are obtained by killing enemies or taking advantage of special gems blood solidified. If you get shot down before they went to spend it in the dream, a pool materializes on the place of our departure, offering the chance to return to retrieve them. But you only die a second time before it is retrieved to greet them permanently. So far nothing new, except that in Bloodborne enemies of passage have a habit of collecting the echoes with impunity. In that case, the only solution is to kill those who took them, and which is distinguished from others by the bright eyes. Also here: family, but not too much.

Returning to the lanterns, their implementation, however, raises a few concerns. Although the Dream can be transported to any lighted lantern, you can not do it by lantern lantern, which requires a pass too frankly avoidable. In the second instance, the fact that there is no way to restore the vials curative and bullets until after each death, and only if we can tap into the reserve where they are automatically stored all those excess means that sometimes you find yourself having “to farm” enemies to replenish stocks. It can happen for example when we are struggling with a particularly difficult boss. Fortunately, there is almost always at least one other way to go for not peg away at one point apparently insurmountable, a feature that allows us to move on to another aspect in which Bloodborne is definitely the center: the level design.

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