The spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls shows off its gritty night environments and new gameplay mechanics.
From Software has released a new 6-minute gameplay video of Bloodbornethis week, in the wake of Gamescom 2014. The dungeon-crawling action-RPG is the latest project from director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is responsible for bringing us the modern cult classics Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. While Bloodbornecertainly has all of the makings of another great Soulsgame, there are just enough interesting changes to the proven formula this time around to keep seasoned players on their toes.
By and large, the gameplay of Bloodbornelooks fairly similar to its Soulspredecessors at first glance. The game implements the same sound effects, the same dungeon-crawling mentality, and even the same interface for the most part. However, there are a few key differences here that make Bloodbornean entirely different beast.
For starters, this latest Bloodbornedemo does away with the classic shield setup in melee combat, instead favoring a ranged firearm in place of that protection. This makes dodging in battle a much more crucial component to your survival, and there are plenty of ugly looking foes in the shadows that you’ll need to evade throughout the course of the game. And then there are the gorgeous exterior and interior environments of Yharnam, which give off a totally different vibe from any Soulsgame before it.
But perhaps the biggest change here in Bloodborneis the introduction of the new Regain system, which rewards players with health for performing successful counter attacks. And boy do those counter attacks look awesome in action, thanks in no small part to the game’s transformative weapons like the saw cleaver and heavy axe. These devastating weapons are also responsible for tons of glorious bloodshed as you fight your way through the shadows.
And for those who might be worried that Bloodbornewill lose some of that notorious difficulty in light of the Regain system, I’d like to kindly direct you to the Cleric Beast boss battle at the end of the demo to take those fears away (and to instill some entirely new fears in the process).
Bloodbornewill be released exclusively for PS4 in early 2015.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that's your thing!