Bloodborne Previews
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Some journos have had the chance to witness a gameplay demo for From Software's Bloodborne at E3, and seem to have come away fairly impressed, though admittedly there are still a lot of unknowns at this point (the demo apparently didn't even have UI and was set to invicible mode for showcasing purposes).
Eurogamer:
The added emphasis on violence extends to a play style that's another departure from what's gone before. "In Demon's Souls, you were equipped with a sword and a shield, so you could seek out an area and take a passive approach," explains Miyazaki. "But we're going to switch that up from passive to not aggressive so much, but more pro-active."
As such there's no shield in Bloodborne - instead, you're dual-wielding weapons that themselves have dual purposes. In your right hand is a saw that doubles up as a cleaver, transforming from one form to another with a flick of the wrist. The act of transformation is an attack in itself, suggesting that the shotgun in your left hand acts not as a cheap ranged weapon but as a perfect flourish to pepper off a counter-attack. The emphasis might be on the offensive, but it's been complemented by a deepening of the strategic options at hand.
Enemies, too, have more nuance. The diseased villagers that patrol the city have broader behaviour patterns - a mob of them may converge in a town square, working together in a hunt, before the familiar ring of a town bell will send them back out again on their own individual paths. It makes for a more organic, more emergent place to explore - enemies no longer simply spawn, it seems, but rather patrol the city according to their own internal logic. There's tragedy to that logic too, their behaviour part of some ritual the citizens of Yharnam are unwittingly locked into.
Unravelling how exactly that ritual relates to Yharnham's own history is of course one of the core pleasure's built into Bloodborne, and like Drangleic and Lordran before it this is a location steeped in enigmas. There are other, more straightforward enigmas surrounding Bloodborne right now, too. At one point you chance across an NPC locked in combat, and aiding them will grant you a little assistance when you face off against the area's boss, a hulking hybrid of Pan and a werewolf dubbed the Cleric Beast. As to how exactly the process of fighting alongside other players will work, Miyazaki's coy. "The key concept, or phrase, that we have right now is it's an open explorative community," is all he'll give away.
Bloodborne features foggy, dingy, gothic cobblestone roads and stone structures amongst a dark color palette to help send the message home that you're in a truly awful place. Slowly slinking monsters can be viewed in the distance carrying torches. You can hear the sound of something something massive smashing at a gate. All of this sets the tone for fear fear of what's in front of you and fear of what isn't.
Along the short journey, the main character, shrouded in mystery, comes across a NPC character battling two sub-boss type monsters. Player choice comes into effect here, allowing the option to help in battle or leave them to fight to death. Should you save this NPC, the reward comes via support when you finally meet the horrid boss that you previously heard banging on the wooden gate. This greasy-haired boss had a bone-chilling shriek and could pick up the main character and repeatedly bash him into the cobblestone road below, kicking up piles of dust with every devastating smash. You'd soon find that the help was more than welcomed.
For a game meant to be ugly and strike fear into your heart, as well as only being at the end of Alpha phase, the game was quite stunning in the setting, the lighting and shadows, and the fluidity in the gameplay. Combat is from a third-person perspective, though, it's much faster than Demon's Souls and has much more interesting use of transformative weapons that are used to break and enemy's defenses or stun an enemy. Plus, a unique combination or short-range firearms and long-range melee weapons freshen up a traditionally stale formula.
The town in which the game is set in is called Yhaarnam, and is afflicted with an infection, one that is making the citizens paranoid and turning them rather belligerent. As before, there are different classes of enemies, each with an attack pattern to be identified and neutralised. That Souls combat is present and correct: it's all about controlling your momentum, while using your opponent's against them. Players may have a gun to use, a blunderbuss of sorts, but ammo is scarce and it's not as effective as it first appears.
It's a point that was hammered home in a boss battle against a large, bipedal demon which favoured leaping attacks and looked like a werewolf having a bad hair day. The gun did nothing, and it fell to the Soul Cleaver to take on the grunt work. A weapon that can transform from its original form into a longer, more sword-like instrument, it enables the player to make a choice between fast and weak strikes and slow and powerful ones.
Everything in the game world seems to be damp and pustulous, as if the very bricks and beams of the buildings were themselves as sickly as their inhabitants. Even the game's protagonist suffers from the same wet look, although in his case the liquid is most definitely not water. As he carves his way through Yharham's infected his cloak becomes splattered with blood, allowing even minor enemies to leave their mark.
There are many obvious comparisons with Dark Souls the huge city is filled with a similar line in unexpected shortcuts but as noted in the leaks your character is armed very differently to the noble knights of Lordran. Instead of swords and shields he dual wields weapons such as a primitive shotgun and a combination meat cleaver and saw.
As unlikely as the comparison may seem we're reminded of Devil May Cry, not in terms of the speed and athleticism of the combat but the very specific purpose behind each weapon. The shotgun doesn't have much range but it's very useful for knocking enemies back on their feet, while the cleaver is your workhouse melee weapon and the saw is used for close-up work.
The enemies in the game don't just hang around waiting for a fight, as in Dark Souls, but instead move about with apparent purpose responding to the ring of a church bell and forming into groups. There are mutated dogs and birds too, suggesting that all living things are succumbing to the same sickness.
Finally, GameSpot and PlayStation Universe have video impressions, though don't expect footage, so far it seems Sony is keeping a tight control on what gets released.
