Zadzooks: Bloodborne review

Horror meets insane survival within the macabre gaming masterpiece Bloodborne (Sony Computer Entertainment and From Software, Rated Mature, $59.99).

Exclusive to the PlayStation 4, the game features director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s special brand or virtual, role-playing sadism (he’s the fellow who birthed the ridiculously difficult franchise “Dark Souls”) as a player controls an agile hunter on a role-playing quest to smite all monsters.

Stuck roaming in, around and under the crumbling, cursed city of Yharman (think gothic set locations from the movie “Van Helsing” or any Hammer film), our warrior must battle against the forces of evil using a clearly underequipped arsenal of rusted blades, fire and old guns.

So the good news is, well, there really is no good news.

Violent creatures test the patience of even the most-seasoned gamer through their propensity to kill your recently created and customized character over and over again.

This occurs during a constant supply of battles against a variety of creatures and possessed townsfolk not limited to werewolves, witches, torch-wielding mobs, massive crows, giant rats, ogres, wheelchair-bound humans packing shotguns and my buddy, Rom the Vacuous Spider.

Grisly death comes within some incredibly beautiful, atmospheric terrain from those genuinely scary and gory beasts. Listening to a screeching musical score and a battery of sound effects (moaning, coughing, growls, screams of anguish, mad cackling and such) pulled from any well-designed haunted house helps to further make the skin crawl.

Forgive me if I am making “Bloodborne” sound impossible to conquer. It’s not, really, but surviving does require a certain tenacity born of patience and respect for an unrelenting enemy.  It helps to have a long-term strategy to enhance your hunter’s powers and that will mean constantly dying early on.

By the way, a player will have time to think through that strategy as every death ends in some excruciating load times with the game before returning to fight again.

Now, a respite from the death cycle occurs as a warrior returns to the Hunter’s Dream using one of the save lanterns (look for the dancing, emaciated souls of the damned popping out of the ground) that are stingily unlocked in locations.

Within this safe hub, he can spend his accumulated blood echoes (the dripping currency of the game) to replenish health, buy supplies, clothing and weapons. He can talk to an uber-creepy doll to power up attributes and visit the library to store resources and fortify weapons.

However, on the down side and take note, the moment a hunter returns to a previously cleansed location from the Dream, those darn creatures repopulate back to kill him.

It’s worth continuing to note that the learning curve very much favors your avatar dying. I spent more time being hunted than hunting, with enemies jumping out from behind walls, stalking me or waiting to strike as they hid in the distant shadows.

Take my sorry case of getting brutally mauled by a rabid werewolf about a dozen times before understanding how to arm myself with recently acquired weapons. It was a liberating feeling to actually take down an enemy using a massive ax.

While on the topic of weapons, they have some slick merit. Let’s ignore the fairly useless guns and focus on the transforming melee weapons. For example, a player can turn his Kirkhammer from a long sword into a more massive mallet sheathed upon a tombstone with the click of the shoulder button.

Playing the game online opens up some new possibilities and some extras as well.

Besides calling fellow hunters in to help slay particularly difficult monsters (the Darkbeast Paarl comes to mind), players can use coveted chalices to unlock a series of dungeons and, as a trio, work through a new set of diabolical horrors.

Players can also take notes in a journal and leave them scattered on the grounds to help fellow hunters that will appear in the environments.

A player can read the notes and rate each positively (if they help) to give the writer a bit of a health boost. This option was a real help to me during the action as in the case of being tipped off that a monster died quicker with fire than being struck.

More morbidly, recently deceased hunters’ ghosts appear in a red translucent glow when activated near gravestones to reveal more warnings of impending doom.

Despite constantly questioning my sanity while asking myself “am I really this big of a masochist,” “Bloodborne” has become a nightmarish addiction. And, be forewarned brave souls, once consumed by its depths, the game can become a life’s work.