Top 10 Hardest Bloodborne Bosses Part 2: No's 5-1

Now its time for the second part of my pick for the top 10 hardest bosses in the acclaimed action role play game, Bloodborne.

So without further ado let's get into it and see which brutal bosses made the top 5...

5. Rom, The Vacuous Spider

So, at No.5 is Rom, the Vacuous Spider, who has proven to be the thorn in the side of many a Bloodborne player and certainly was in mine during my first playthrough (not too bad in my second though but still tricky). Yep, Rom is a big female spider with a ghoulish looking head that can only be said to made of concrete by the looks of it and she plays a big part in the story of the game as alot of things will change as a result of you defeating her as the moon will change to blood red and you will be sent into one of the toughest areas in the game later as a result, the Unseen Village (aka hell in Yarnham!).

As for Rom herself, in the first phase she is very passive and doesn't fight back but instead get's her army of spiders to attack you, who are pretty aggressive and can deal out alot of damage and after damaging her so much, she will teleport away across the other side of the arena (which is basically a lake of sorts). In the second phase however this is where Rom will start fighting back as she will do a number of spells such as ice barrages that fall from the sky that can one-shot you if you aren't careful aswell as ones that emerge from the ground before she teleports again. Rom in the third phase will then reappear and this time physically attack you with a body slam aswell as carry out her usual magic attacks aswell as a melee explosion. Add onto that all the spiders trying to get you and it becomes quite a chore to take Rom down.

As for how to actually take her down...well I must say I really did struggle with Rom on my first playthrough as her spider minions can really deal out alot of damage and when Rom starts spamming her ice barrages then there is a strong chance you will get one-shotted by them. So, what I would suggest is either kill the spiders in the first phase to make life easier to attack Rom afterward and it would be best to use a thrust weapon such as the rifle spear to kill them off side on as their concrete heads are tough to attack.

Another better strategy for the remainder of the fight however is to just ignore the spiders and go right from Rom, get in a few hits and back off to evade the spiders and Rom's ice barrages. Also if you bring along a weapon such as the Tonitrus that deals out bolt damage or use bolt paper to buff your weapon with then this will also help make things go a little smoother as Rom is very vulnerable to this. I would also strongly suggest (for once) NOT summoning for this fight because the NPC summoms will most likely get killed trying to fight the spiders rather than attack Rom, so its best you do this solo as the summons will ultimately hinder as you will be taking on a stronger boss with more health.

So, for me Rom is a pretty tough boss in the main game and she can take some getting used to and I would say she has been the one boss that has consistently tripped me up so far in all my playthroughs. However despite that, I would say it is a pretty good fight overall and quite a challenging one to get to grips with and as such, Rom deserves her place at No.4.

4. Laurence, the Vicar 

At No.4 is a DLC boss, Laurence the Vicar, who can be a real tricky customer and is one of the many beast bosses in the game. However in the game, you don't actually fight Laurence first off when you encounter him as he is in an inert state and you instead need to get his skull and place it on him before the fight starts.

As for the fight itself, Laurence can be quite a pesky character to deal with as he deals out alot of potent fire damage as he tends to do a number of claw swipes that are pretty capable of one shotting you. Also he has three stages and in the second phase, he will develop new combos and become more aggressive (and squealy but hey that's Bloodborne!) and in his third phase he will be even more dangerous as he loses his legs and starts leaking lava behind him and he continues with some punishing combos. In fact I think its safe to say that Laurence's final phase is definitely the hardest given that his lava spills are almost impossible to avoid!

So as for how to deal with Laurence??? Summon! ;-) Yeah well to my shame I must admit I felt I had to summon to get him dealt with as he is pretty difficult and his combo attacks are pretty fierce. One thing I would strongly suggest is to put on an outfit with high fire defense such as the charred hunter outfit aswell as wear the Caryll rune, Fading lake, which offers fire damage resistance aswell.  Again I would strongly suggest using a hit and run approach here and get in a two or three hits max and then back way off before he performs another punishing attack on you and the same applies for his final phase where he crawls on the floor leaking lava everywhere, which is easily the toughest part of the fight.

So, yep Laurence, the first vicar is no joke and he deserves his place here on the list for sure as he can be quite a pesky beast to deal with and as such deserves his spot at No.4.


3. Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

So, at No.3 is Lady Maria, who is probably the coolest (and undoubtedly the best looking) boss in the entire game and appeared in the Old Hunter's DLC and boy is she a tough one and this boss was originally No.6 on the list but her difficulty has warranted a rehash of the list.

Lady Maria here is basically a walking corpse as she apparently had committed suicide, so when you first approach her, she appears dead but she suddenly grabs your hand and tells you "a corpse should be left well alone" as she then rises and produces what is arguably the coolest looking weapon in the game, the Rakuyo.

So, what follows is a pretty brutal fight as Lady Maria is very punishing and fast in her moveset as similar to Soul of Cinder in Dark Souls 3, she barely gives you any window to heal up as she just keeps charging at you, making her a real nightmare. And in her second phase she will stab herself with the Rakuyo, which buffs her weapon with blood attacks that have greater reach and more damage of course! In her third and final phase, Lady Maria will then deal out similar attacks but only now they have fire damage to go with it to make your life even more miserable!

As for how to deal with Lady Maria??? Summon lol! Yeah, summoning is a good option here as two against one will soon break her down alot faster but one on one is a different story altogether. For solo, I would strongly suggest using a fast weapon such as the blade of mercy or even a saw cleaver  so you pull off fast attacks. I would also suggest being on your dodge A-game here as she is mighty aggressive in her attacks and also quickstep to the left (her right) to avoid most of her furious combos. Parrying and visceral attacks are key here too and if you have high skill then you will be able to deal alot of damage to her with these attacks but its just a matter of getting your attack window just right.

UPDATE ON FIGHT:

Well, since I have written this initially, I finally managed to beat Lady Maria solo and by heck it was pretty tough going! I really found I was struggling alot with her BS in the 2nd and 3rd phases with her extended blood and fire attacks, which got pretty annoying. However...after many failed attempts, I read that its best to stay close to Maria in the 2nd and 3rd phases as she will punish you alot more if you back off given the big range her attacks have. So, instead I changed up my strategy and fought close to her and kept dodging left as much as possible to avoid her attacks and with my bloodtinge Chikage (the game's katana) build I was able to beat Maria FINALLY!

So for me, Lady Maria is definitely one of the hardest bosses not only in the DLC but also the game overall as her punishing attacks, quick speed and added blood and fire damage make her a formidable foe and she deserves her spot at No.3.

2. Ludwig the Accursed/Ludwig the Holy Blade

So, the runner-up is of course none other than the infamous Ludwig the Accursed/Holy Blade, who is often regarded as one of the most challenging bosses in the whole game and it would be hard to argue with that and infact he often tops many players most difficut lists but not quite on this one.

And Ludwig has been placed this high on the list for very good reason as he is an incredibly difficult challenge for any player and he really is a pretty imposing and rather grotesque figure given that he appears to be a mutated man/horse beast who can stampede all over you like a crazy horse that has had been zapped by a cattle prod!

As for the fight, the first phase is particularly brutal as Ludwig's form is so crazy and all over the place as he can slash at you with his hands, leap into the air (for several seconds and you can't even look up to see where he is all this time either!) and do a plunging attack on you aswell as spray you with a tide of water and just generally charge at you like a horse would! And all this time Ludwig screeches LOUDER than any other boss in the game! I mean for half the fight you would be extremely hard pressed to find a noisier guy than this!  

In the second phase however, Ludwig will find his beloved Holy Moonlight Sword (cue a pretty awesome cutscene where Ludwig wields it!) and proceed to stand up like a man and beat the ever loving crap out of you with it and this is where things get even harder as his sword can do tremendous arcane damage that acts pretty much as a one-shot. Thankfully however by then he's stopped sequling like a tortured pig and sounds more like a man as he twats you with his sacred holy sword.  

As for how to deal with Ludwig??? Summon, yep just summon lol! I have to say that Ludwig's reputation proceeded himself as he is a pretty brutal foe to take on one to one, so if you struggled just like I did then I would strongly suggest you go for the summons. There are actually a few summons available for this fight but the best one is Valtyr, who has that rather cool looking whirligig saw, which he can do some pretty nifty damage with and Valtyr also has a decent amount of blood vials to keep him going in the battle. I would also just do my best to try and evade his charge attacks and listen out for his scream for when he will do his bodyslam plunge attack on you. In the second phase basically stay WAY back when he does his AoE with the Holy Moonlight Sword as it will practically one-shot you. But yeah seriously if you do get stuck the summons is a valid way to go to help banish Ludwig (I really will need to have a better go at him one on one, so help me when I do lol!).

UPDATE 04.04.19

Well well well, I did put Ebrietas at No.2 thinking she was the tougher boss and boy was I wrong! This is simply because I had not truly faced Ludwig one to one but have since done so and by God he's brutal! But...I'm happy to say that I was able to beat him after maybe 40 or 50 goes and will share with you my thoughts and strategy more properly.

First off in the first phase you are best strafing to his right side (your left) as his movements are pretty wild and chaotic and try and get underneath his hind legs to get your attacks in and then quickly back off before he charges it at you again. As for his water attack, you are best trying to anticipate which way the water will spray, if he sprays it left then you go right and there is a good chance he will follow it up with another spray on the other side so just quickstep in other direction. And then we get his annoying as hell plunge attack as he leaps into the air for a few seconds before plunging down on you. To avoid this you are better to continually keep rolling in a straight line and fingers crossed you will miss him as he comes down! Its kind of pot luck but it does sort of work!

As for the second phase what I found was absolute key was when Ludwig starts whacking you with that sword of his, try your best to quickstep around to his side to avoid these attacks and start hitting his legs again whenever possible. As for his arcane attack with his sword, his frontal swipe attacks can easily be dodged side to side. However when Ludwig raises his sword into the air to launch a brutal one-shot magic attack, get close to him and try and get in some hits just before he launches that brutal AoE. But the main thing here is to keep quickstepping to his side and attack him whenever you can and try and get behind aswell to avoid his sword attacks and if you rinse and repeat this then he should eventually go down. 

I would also recommend using a weapon buffed with fire as I found using fire paper or arcane fire bloodgems to be quite effective in the fight. In fact I beat Ludwig using a fully upgraded Saw Cleaver (+10) with some fire damage bloodgems and I managed to get some pretty decent consistent damage with that setup and speed of the cleaver made it an ideal weapon to fight Ludwig with. Another recommendation would be to wear the Executioner's set as it offers excellent physical and arcane defences. In fact I would even go as far as to say that the Exceutioner's set is Bloodborne's answer to Havel's armour from Dark Souls!

Anyway if you follow this then hopefully this will be of good help.

So Ludwig definitely deserves his place on the list here at No.2 as he is an incredibly difficult foe to take on and despite his deeply annoying screeching in the first phase, he is still one of the best bosses in the game aswell as one of the most challenging.

So, that means the hardest boss in Bloodborne is...

1. Orphan of Kos

Yep, its not real suprise of course but for me the hardest boss in the game is without a doubt the Orphan of Kos, who is the final boss from the Old Hunters DLC and by God he is a total nightmare to deal with!

As for who the Orphan of Kos is, well he is the orphan of Kosm, who was a sea dwelling Great One who's corpse is found on the shore of the Fishing Hamlet (last level of the DLC) and the Orphan at the start emerges from it to stare at the water and the sun before he turns his attentions to you....

And as for the actual fight...yikes! Well this is where things get REALLY brutal as the Orphan's attacks consist of him charging at you and hitting you with his large placenta (yuck!!) that is attached to his hand and these attacks can also deal out large amounts of damage. These placenta attacks can consists of charged spinning attacks aswell as vertical and overhead attacks and they all do untold amounts of damage. As for his second phase his attacks get even more brutal as he will launch a couple of lightning attacks that consist of waves and projectiles and these are also one-shot material that will send a player a confident "YOU DIED" screen their merry way!

So, how do you deal with this barrage of brutality???  Well...do you want to know how I dealt with it? Summoned! Yep, a real surprise there lol! Yes, I was forced to summon to beat the hardest boss in the entire game because after 20 solo attempts, I was so pathetic at taking him on, I could not even get his health bar below 70% so I was never able to even get a glimpse at his second phase! In fact that is another reason this guy is so hard is because he has a MASSIVE health pool much like Slave Knight Gael's health bar in Dark Souls III! So, yep you can imagine taking this guy down is a real, brutal slog that demands alot of effort and patience.

And that brings up another issue I had with this fight as when I tried to summon for it, virtually NO ONE wanted to do it as I must have attempted to summon at least 20 or 30 times and no one responded! In the end however I did finally get lucky and managed to secure a summon after so many goes and the guy was terrific in the fight as he used his whirligig saw to take down the Orphan with great efficiency that I had almost stand back and watch in admiration as he did it while getting the odd hit in now and then! ;-) So, yep this is one boss fight I am yet to make a proper dent on myself and who knows I might just manage it solo myself one day after maybe 150 goes or so! ;-)

However there are a few things I did learn that are of use in this fight even when I took him on solo and that is for starters, draw the fight out into the water as you will have more space to move around him and allow you to back off easier than you would on the shore. I would also strongly suggest using a bolt weapon such as the tonitrus or a buff bolt weapon as he is pretty weak to bolt during the fight. And lastly his attacks can all be parried if you are able to time it right but since I am pretty crap at parrying in boss fights, I had very limited success when I tried this solo but if you are good at parrying it is a viable solution to taking him on.

UPDATE (AGAIN!): I have since managed to make a bit more progress with the Orphan as I finally managed to get him down to the 2nd phase but when you get there, its a total nightmare as goes ape and starts flying around like mad and sends waves of lightning etc. So, in this phase I've yet to make a proper dent on the Orphan although I was still able to get his health down to about 30% at best but this is still one that's beyond me solo!

FINAL UPDATE: I FINALLY BEAT THE ORPHAN OF KOS SOLO!!!

Yep, I finally did it and beat the hardest boss in Bloodborne solo! How did I manage it? Well you can read on below to find out...

Well, this was quite a brutal slog I tell you solo as it must have easily taken me over a 100 attempts to beat this guy one on one!

As for fight tactics, as I mentioned above already, its best to take the fight out into the water rather than on the shore because the Orphan can really go to town on you more on shore given his mother's corpse is there for you to dodge aswell as some trees and other stuff. So, I would strongly suggest fighting the Orphan within the middle area of the water and try your best NOT to get cornered by him because then you are basically done for! Try and also be mindful of some of the obstacles in the environment in the water as there are rocks either side and some small rocks in the water you can get stuck on if you don't watch out.

Combat wise as mad as it sounds, you really are best to fight the Orphan up close and keep hugging his right side (your left) to avoid his placenta attacks and get your attacks in after he has performed his own. You can also parry the Orphan in the first stage but I had mixed success with this but his parry windows are more generous in this phase. I would however strongly suggest NOT trying to parry his overhead smash attack as its pretty hard to do so and I never managed it and instead often took the brunt of his attack in the process!

So basically for the first phase, hug his right side, get your hits in between his own combo attacks, if he does his overhead smash or his running jump attack or does his placenta uppercut (he runs it across the ground but this can be parried easily) just back off to keep your distance. Also remember to do the same with his extended placenta range attack as he spins it 180 degrees and its range is unreal and can cause alot of damage aswell as his placenta balls that he thrusts into the ground or chucks at you.

As for the second phase, well this is where I REALLY struggled as the Orphan goes into aggressive overdrive and he two hands his placenta and bashes it around wildly while doing spinning attacks, chucking multiple placenta balls at you aswell as summoning waves of lightning on you! The best way to avoid his placenta spin attacks is to time it carefully as he charges at you and quickstep round to his right side again and its pretty difficult to achieve so it takes time to learn and when he stops, get your strikes in then.

As for his placenta ball attacks just back way off so you don't get caught by them or even use the Loch shield if you have to hand as that can negate alot of his placenta ball attacks aswell as his lightning, which I would strongly suggest just locking off the Orphan and running in between the waves before turning back to him but you need to watch out as he often will do a plunge attack on you at this point.

So, basically for the second phase, back off from the Orphan's placenta attacks, try to quickstep around his right side after he does his spin and bash attacks and then get your strikes in and basically rinse and repeat this process and he should eventually fall. And after about 100 or so attempts that is what FINALLY worked for me in defeating the Orphan of Kos solo!  

Weapons wise for this fight, I toyed with alot of different weapons such as the Whirligig saw (which I found myself to be too vulnerable to his attacks when using it) Blade of Mercy (too little damage) and the Rakuyo (which would have been a great choice but I didn't have enough chunks to get it past +6 by the time I got it!). I also tried using the Chikage on the Orphan too as I had some success in getting his health bar way down into the second phase when I had a Bloodtinge(ish) build but gave up before long in my latest plathrough as I felt the damage wasn't enough. I tried the Church Pick too but again its attack speed and power were sadly lacking. And lastly I also tried out Ludwig's Holy Blade but again I could only get it to +6 by the time I decided to give it a go (not enough chunks again!) and its slow pace put me off using it. 

So, in the end I finally used the Saw Cleaver +10 with physical attack gems and some bolt paper to get the job done but I strongly suggest using it in its untransformed phase as its attacks are much faster in this form. The only drawback however for the Saw Cleaver in this form is its a bit short ranged, so you need to ensure you are right up close to the Orphan when you use it.

And that's it for how I beat the Orphan of Kos solo!

So for all the above reasons, it is very safe to say that the Orphan of Kos unquestionably deserves to take the top spot as the hardest boss in Bloodborne as his bludgeoning brutal attacks (not helped by his high pitched squeals either!) and his large health pool make him one of the toughest tests in video gaming.

Right, so that's it for now and I hope you enjoyed this list and I will be back next month with more posts.

Till then its bye for now and may the good blood guide your way! :-)

Top 10 Hardest Bloodborne Bosses Part 1 - No's 10-6

OK, well since I have now played and finished Bloodborne twice now, I figured it was time that I did a couple of posts looking at my pick for the top 10 hardest bosses in the game.

Now there are 17 bosses in the main game and also 5 bosses in the DLC, however there are additional bosses to be found in the Chalice Dungeon areas of the game but I won't include them here and instead just keep it to the 22 bosses from the main game and DLC.

So, with that all said let's start the hunt to find who's the toughest of the tough in Bloodborne...

10. Blood Starved Beast 

So, at No.10 is this fella, the Blood Staved Beast, who is a quite a stern challenge to be found quite early on in the game in Old Yarnham and it is definitely that is been known to give many a player a headache.


The Blood Starved Beast itself is a pretty grotesque creature that has had the skin peeled off its back and it can deal out some pretty monstrous poison damage with its claws. Basically the BSB using a number of combo attacks throughout the fight but will also deal out some pretty potent poison damage that will cause you die from slow poisoning, which acts faster you would think when you heard the word slow! In the third phase, the beast will then spout poison fluid form its body during attacks and he can grab and bite you aswell. So, all in all he's not the most pleasant of fellas.

So, yep this boss did give me quite a few headaches in my first playthrough as I must have died about 15 times when even summoning the NPC, Alfred to help me along too. However the main thing to remember about the Blood Starved Beast is that he is very vulnerable to fire, so I would suggest if you have the arcane stat for it to bring along the flame sprayer and liberally spray it with fire to stagger him with fire and then attack him afterward.

And another key thing in this fight is to remember to bring along a stash of antidotes as there is a strong chance that BSB will poison during the battle and you will need the antidotes to cure the poison. You can also dodge most of his attacks by quickstepping to the left and what you can do again like with other bosses, get a few quick hits in and back off and rinse and repeat and pretty soon BSB will fall. Ironically however I waited a bit longer to take on BSB in my second playthrough when I was a bit more levelled up and I managed to beat him quite easily!

Anyway despite my easier second playthrough of the Blood Starved Beast, he is still a pretty difficult boss early on and if you are new to the game then you will be sure to struggle with him just like I did and for that he deserves his spot at No.8. 


9. Father Gascoigne

So at No.9 is none other than Father Gascoigne and is only the second boss in the game you will encounter but you can easily use this guy as a barometer for what to expect difficulty wise ahead in the game as he himself early doors, is no joke.

As for the good father himself, Gascoigne can be found hacking a dead beast's body in a graveyard where he will turn to face you and in the fight he will be mighty aggressive and carry out a series of combo attacks with his axe. Gascoigne also has a scattergun that has strong stagger potential, so you will need to watch out for when he uses it. And if that all wasn't bad enough, Gazza will transform into a beast as you get his health down to over 50% and he will then dish out some brutal frenzied attacks that can put you down permanently if you're not careful. So, yeah he can be a handful.

Strategy wise I found it was best to circle around the tombstones in the graveyard to give myself some cover and try and get a few quick hits in and back off and when I could, I would also parry him and follow with a visceral attack (which I'm not good at in boss fights!). Also when he reaches his beast phase you can also use a tiny music box (you get this from a little girl you speak to earlier in the game who is looking for her mother) to disorientate him to allow you to get more hits in but I must admit I haven't always founds this effective.  I would also make sure you use a fast weapon to take him down such as the saw cleaver as slower weapons might leave you more vulnerable. And if you are really stuck, well...just summon! ;-)

So, Father Gascoigne's reputation definitely proceeds himself here for sure and his placement so early in the game makes him quite a test to overcome before you can progress but rest assured there are plenty of sterner tests ahead. But there is no doubt that Father Gazza is one of the most memorable bosses in the game and definitely deserves his place on here at No.9.

8. Martyr Logarius 

At No.8 is one of my favourite bosses from the main game, Martyr Logarius, who is essentially a skeletal-esque wizard that can unleash a series of pretty brutal arcane attacks on you but is also pretty dangerous with his large staff as he can inflict some nasty physical damage with it.

As for how the boss goes down well as mentioned, his main attacks are arcane based and comprise of some explosive skull faced orbs that fire at you in different directions aswell as a potent buff attack that sends a large circluar projectile that can deal hefty damage. In the second phase however, he will resort to more physical attacks as he will beat you with his staff and slam his sword into the ground to to charge up his power to make him even more dangerous!  The sword will also release magic sword projectiles that will attack you from all sides that you need to watch out for.

As for how to beat him??? Summ...yeah OK, I didn't need to summon to actually beat Logarius (well I did summon but they were failed attempts as I beat him solo!) as I just had to basically "get good" to take this guy down. However, depending on how the fight goes I would probably suggest not summoning for Logarius and doing it solo. But as far how to fight him, well basically use the pillars in the area to block his skull orb attacks aswell as to prevent being hit by him but in the first phase it is easier to pin him against the wall and just wade right into him.

In the second phase things are much tougher because as previously mentioned, he becomes more aggressive and starts to beat you with his large staff aswell as slam a sword into the ground that acts as a buff for him and sends out loads of homing projectiles all over the place! So, the key to this stage is to break his sword, which will cancel out his buff and when you can get a parry on his ass and perform a visceral attack, do it. You will also however need to keep on your toes as Logarius will chase you around the rooftops and attack whenever you can especially with his aerial slam, so you need to time your rolls carefully to avoid him and get some hits in just after he lands as he takes a moment to recover. But if you bate his attacks, parry him and break his magic sword over and over, you will get him done.

So, for me Martyr Logarius definitely deserves his place on the list as he is pretty stern challenge in the main game and one of the more rewarding bosses to beat and he even reminds me a little of the Nameless King in his design too as Nameless was also a pretty scaly, skinny looking dude! And to top it off, Logarius is a fun and engaging boss fight that can be frustrating but also a big rush when you finally beat him and as such he deserves his place at No.8.

7. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

So, at No.7 we have this lovely boss...yep, Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos...oh boy! Infact I had originally put Ebrietas at No.2 but I have done some revision gameplay since then that has changed my mind.  However this doesn't make Ebrietas any the easier as she still remains for me the one of the hardest bosses in the main game.


As for Ebrietas herself, what is she??? Well, she is a rather lovely looking noodle faced creature that is what's called a Great One (and there are six Great One bosses in the main game) and she perform a number of pretty brutal attacks. For starters, Ebrietas can do a head and body slam that can pretty much one-shot you aswell as some tentacle swings that also deal out alot of damage. However that's not all as Ebrietas can also grab and bite you, which induces frenzy that will wipe out your health bar guaranteed, plus she can also fire blood spit too that causes frenzy aswell. She also has a rather annoying arcane missile attack that will definitely kill you if you get caught in it, so its best to keep on the move when that happens.

So as for strategies with Ebrietas???  Well, for starters do NOT summon for this fight because the summon available is pretty useless here and he will most likely die before you even get her to half health! So, what I would strongly suggest is to try and stay to her side and attack her either with a weapon that does bolt damage such as the Tonitrus or use bolt paper buffed with another weapon to do this. Some players have suggested attacking her head is the way to go, which is a vulnerable spot for sure with Ebrietas however I would not recommend myself as she can do too much damage to you face-on, so I think staying to her side is safer.

And the real challenge here is to TRY and keep to her side because Ebrietas will constantly writhe around and keep on the move to make your life difficult in this regard while she swipes her tentacles at you, launches arcane attacks or tries to spit frenzy inducing blood at you aswell. Also when she launches her arcane missle attack on you, make sure to run in a circle away from them so you don't get hit. But if you can stay to her side or even get behind her and keep whacking away with a bolt infused/buffed weapon then she will eventually go down and it took me quite a good few number of goes solo to beat her first time.

UPDATE: Well, here is the main reason I have moved Ebby further down the list and that reason is because the last time I faced her I made an Arcane build (40+ ARC) and used a saw cleaver +10 and infused it with a bolt bloodgem and by heck it made this fight a total pushover! Yep, with this setup I was able to demolish Ebrietas in maybe just a minute or so and it just shows that a bolt infused weapon can totally trivialise this fight. So with that all said I think its to safe she deserves to be a demoted a little bit here (sorry Ebby!).  

However all that aside, Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos definitely deserves her place on the list as she can be a real brutal slog (depending on your build I guess) especially as her attacks can be pretty varied that makes this fight all the more challenging.

6. Gehrman, the first hunter

So, at No.6 is the final boss (or second final boss depending on how you played the game) of the main game, Gehrman, the first hunter, who is an aged old fella who sits in a wheelchair for most of the game...well that is until you turn down his offer for him to kill you, then he get's up and beats the hell out you with a big-ass scythe!

Gehrman is certainly a very challenging boss as his aged demeanor betrays his abilities in combat where he literally speeds around the field in Hunter's Dream where you fight him and delivers a brutal ass-whoppin with that scythe (which is the Burial Blade and you can get it when you start new game plus). Its basically something you don't expect and begs you to ask him "do you really need that wheelchair???!". It reminded me of Yoda in Attack of the Clones where he takes on Count Dooku and abandons his walking stick and limp and starts jumping around like a whirling dervish in combat!

Gerhman's moveset is also pretty varied as it includes a scythe neck grab that allows him to perform a combo on you, he also uses a "quickening" effect, so he can move swiftly around the field aswell as use his blunderbuss shotgun to stagger the hell out of you, which will allow him to follow and do a visceral attack on you. Also in the second phase of his fight he will buff himself and also deal out two attacks one of which has a brutal AoE (area of effect) that can knock you back and the other is where he launches into the air and delivers a powerful wind gust that if you are in the wrong place, it can one-shot you!

So...how do you deal with Gerhman??? Well, I found it was best to sum...just kidding! ;-)

No, the best way to deal with Gerham is to basically try your best to find a window to parry him and do a visceral attack as early it is easy to do this but it becomes much harder as the fight progresses. I would also suggest trying to get in a few hard attacks and backing off just before your stamina bar runs out as he will retaliate in a big way if you don't. Also when he does his wind gust move, this can be pretty fatal, so I would strongly suggest trying to stay underneath, so you will avoid taking serious damage from this attack. As the fight progresses near the end, just bait his attacks and back off as much as possible as he becomes super fast with his quickening effect and again get your hits in when you can. I would also suggest using bolt or fire paper against him and I also found using beast pellets quite useful as it increase my damage to Gerhman.

So, Gerham definitely has earned his place on this list and I would have to say that it easily took me a good 15-20 goes to finally beat him on my first playthrough and maybe 10 or so on my second, so he is a tough customer and one that is a fitting end to the game and as such deserves his spot at No.6.

OK, so that's it for part one and I will be back hopefully before the end of March with the second part.

So, see you soon!

Bloodborne Review

OK, so time for another game review (a new one!) and this will be on a game I recently finished, which is the acclaimed action role play Dark Souls spin-off, Bloodborne that sees the Souls formula re-invented and moved to the Victorian times.

So, how does Bloodborne compare to the Dark Souls series? Is it just as good? Well, let's find out...

And the usual warning is coming up as I will mention a little about the story of the game, so...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So rather than try and pick through the plot from Wikipedia itself, I figured I might aswell quote the plot synopsis directly from Wikipedia below.


"Bloodborne takes place in Yharnam, a decrepit Gothic city known for its medical advances using blood as a primary tool. Over the years, many travelers journey to the city seeking the remedy to cure their afflictions; the player's character (an unnamed Hunter) journeys to Yharnam seeking something known as Paleblood for reasons unknown. Upon arriving in the city, however, it is discovered that Yharnam is plagued with an endemic illness that has transformed most of its citizens into bestial creatures. The player must navigate the streets of Yharnam during the night of The Hunt, and overcome its violently deranged inhabitants and horrifying monsters in order to stop the source of the plague and escape the nightmare"

THOUGHTS

Even though the game shares quite a few similarities to the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne is an excellent game in its own right and it has its own identity with a different setting to the Souls games, as the player will traverse through a gothic, Victoria-era town fighting a number of beasts and monsters.

The game also shares with Souls quite a high difficulty level as many of the areas in the game can be quite challenging and there also quite a few boss fights that will have you potentially tear your hair out! However just like the Souls series, Bloodborne's difficulty is also its reward as it gives the player a sense of satisfaction when you finally conquer it.

What the game however has more of than any of the Souls games up to this point is blood...lots and lots of it! Yep here the makers really have created a more gruesome bloody world where you will fight enemies and their blood will end up all over your face and clothes, so this game really does not pull punches when it comes to depicting violence. However to the game's credit, it still follows the Souls format of not showing hacked off limbs and heads etc, its not that kind of violence but instead you just get torrents of blood (well with the word "blood" in the title I guess we can expeect that!).

GAMEPLAY (Warning: this section is BIG!)

As for the gameplay, Bloodborne certainly has its similarities to Dark Souls in that it begins with you creating your character and you are given a number of different starting classes to choose from such as character that primarily focus on melee whereas others with rely more on firearms aswell as magic of sorts. Also similar to Souls games, you can specify your character's appearance, gender, build etc before you begin playing. 

GAME STATS

Moving onto the game's character stats they are very similar to Dark Souls but with a few differences that effect their abilities but also the same ones that perviously featured in Souls games such as vitality (your health), endurance and strength. However as for the new stats there is arcane, which enables a player to increase the damage of weapons that use elements such as fire and bolt. Another is Bloodtinge, which determines the power of weapons that deal blood damage such as firearms and certain melee waeapons (e.g. katanas). Then there is a skill, which upgrades your ability to use certain weapons that require nuancing to master and it also allows your character to increase their visceral attack damage (similar to the parry and riposte attacks in Dark Souls).     

COMBAT MECHANICS

As for the combat, Bloodborne is somewhat different from Dark Souls in that the combat is WAY faster as your character can move at quite a fast rate not in running and sprinting but also in attacks and dodging as you no longer roll to evade enemies but perform a quickstep or sidestep to avoid them. However what is similar is that, as mentioned above, you can perform visceral attacks, which are much the same as parries in the Souls games that involved firing your gun to stagger the enemy, which will allow a visceral attack to be performed, which can be face on or a backstab. The player will also be able to hold a weapon in their left and right hands, with usually a firearm on the left and a melee weapon on the right. Another new aspect to the combat is rallying, which involves the player performing successive strikes that will gradually restore their health and this can be very useful if you are able to pull off a chain attacks and are low on health. 

WEAPONS

As for the game's weapons, there are a selection of melee ones such as swords, hammers, spears, picks and canes. However what makes these melee weapons unique to most other games is that they are all trick weapons that offer a transform phase that either extends the range of the weapon or transforms it into another one.

So, for example a weapon such as the Kirk Hammer in the game in its initial stage is simply a sword with the hammer section attached to the player's back but in the transform mode, the player will insert the sword into the hammer head and transforms it into an actual hammer. And as an example of weapons with extended range there is the Hunter Axe, which in its initial phase is a standard axe but in its transform phase the handle extends out to give the weapon a greater range, which is very effective against crowds of foes. Some of the melee weapons can also have a unique design such as the Whirligig Saw (found in the Old Hunters DLC) that is a trick weapon that in its initial form is a large club but in its transform stage you can attach a circular buzz-saw that does alot of damage. There are also skill weapons too in the game that allow the player to perform a fast chain of attacks, such as the Blade of Mercy and again in its transform state changes from a single longer blade to two shorter ones. 

As for the firearms again there is a selection that includes pistols, shotguns, rifles and even canons all of which have different capabilities and offer varying levels of damage output. So as an example the standard Hunter Pistol offers a quickfire that can be useful to staggering enemies quickly but it may take more than one hit to do so given its firepower isn't as stronger as other weapons. Another example is Ludwig's rifle, which ironically deals out little damage but others very strong stagger potential to allow visceral attacks to be performed. Again these firearms can be upgraded throughout the game to maximise their damage potential.

BLOOD STONES 

Another key aspect of weapon upgrades are of course the materials needed to upgrade them in the first place and these are known as blood stones and they come in different forms and can fortify them up to +10. And the initial stones you get are the blood stone shards, which can upgrade your weapons up to +3. Then as the game progresses you will get twin blood stone shards that will upgarde your weapons to +6. After this you will then need to find blood stone chunks that will upgrade your weapons to +9 and finally you will need to find a blood rock to fully upgrade your weapon +10. The blood stones are usually dropped by certain enemies throughout the game but the blood rock is available in very limited fashion and can only be found in specific areas of the game.   

BLOOD GEMS

Next up are blood gems that can enhance the power of weapons and provide different types of damage such as increased physical attack, thrust damage, skill scaling and even elemental damage such as fire and bolt. There are many different blood gems throughout the game and they are also of different shapes, so not every gem will fit every weapon and this may require you to farm the gems from various enemies.   

BLOOD ECHOES

Again similar to the Souls games, Bloodborne makes use of an experience point system but instead of souls, here we get what are called blood echoes, which you can obtain from killing enemies and they allow you to level up your character's stats, buy new weapons and other items. Blood echoes also similar to the Souls games, will be lost when you die in the game but on respawning you can pick them up either at the point you died or in some cases you will need to kill an enemy who picked them up for themselves (these enemies eyes will glow as a hint as to who has them). However if you die before you are able to pick up those echoes, again just like the Souls games, you will lose them forever.

There is also another way of obtaining additional blood echoes and that is through consumable items called coldblood, which are similar to the soul items from the Souls series and these range in different quantities as they amass from 350 blood echoes up to 50000. Coldblood items can be found as pick-ups in various different areas in the game either just lying there or on the bodies of ex-hunters.    

BLOOD VIALS AND HEALING ITEMS

Next are the blood vials, which are of great importance in the game as they restore your health and can be found either as drops from fallen foes or you can purchase them from the messengers in Hunter's Dream. You can hold a maximum of 20 usually but with the help of additional runes (that go up to +5, so that's 25 vials) you can hold even more which can be a great help when you are getting walloped in boss fights. There are also other healing items that offer the same effect, which can be obtained from other NPCs such as Iosefka and Ariana, a lady of the night.     

CARYLL RUNES

Another important aspect of the game are the Caryll Runes, which are very similar to the rings in Dark Souls which will grant you certain abilities and upgrades aswell as resistances. As an example there are runes that can boost your health and stamina, increase your visceral attacks, grant you more blood echoes from enemies killed aswell as ones that reduce different types of damage such as physical, arcane and poison. These runes can also be stacked together to increase their effect, so e.g. you can stack e.g. the Moon runes (that boosts the amount of blood echoes from visceral attacks) to boost the outcome or Communion runs when stacked will boost the amount of blood vials you hold.

You can however only hold three runes at once plus there are runes (memory runes) that act as means to join certain covenants in the game but can also grant you special abilities too, such as the Beast's Embrace (that you obtain after killing the boss, Laurence, the first vicar) which when used turns you into an actual beast, which is cool but also rather freaky looking! Other memory runs allow you to join certain game covenants and can boost your blood vial health restore amount or boost your stamina regeneration.     

HUNTER'S DREAM

Hunter's dream next up is the central hub of the game much like Firelink Shrine in the Souls games where you can converse with two of the main characters in the game, the Doll, who can level up your stats and Gehrman, an aged veteran hunter, who sits in a wheelchair and imparts advice to you. In Hunter's Dream you can also repair and upgrade your weapons and infuse them with blood gems that enhance the damage your weapons can do and add various different effects such as poison, lightning or fire damage. Hunter's Dream will also allow you to travel between every other area in the game via the use of tombstones with different areas marked on them.  

INSIGHT

Another important aspect of the game is insight, which will give a player special knowledge to be able to let them summon in-game NPC's to help them fight against bosses aswell as other online players. Insight can be gained by collecting items called Madman's knowledge that can be found throughout the game aswell as from entering boss fights and then more again for defeating them. One insight will be used up each time you summon for a fight or in some cases there are enemies, such as brainsuckers that can drain Insight from you. Insight is also important for the Doll in the game as you will need to have at least one Insight to be able to bring her to life otherwise she will be an inanimate doll (you know like a real one!).

You can also use Insight to purchase items in Hunter's Dream as there is an additional messenger bath where you can spend insight to gain certain consumables such as fire & bolt paper, beast blood pellets and even later you can purchase blood shards but they do cost quite a bit more insight for the blood chunks and rocks. I have to actually admit I nearly missed this insight bath altogether in Hunter's Dream because it is tucked away in the corner and I NEVER NOTICED IT until my second playthrough lol!  Anyway this bath can be invaluable as it really can save you spending lots of blood echoes in the process for specific items that you would need to farm alot for.   

LAMPS

And this brings me onto the lamps, which are essentially the same as the bonfires from the Dark Souls games and allow you to travel to different locations. However in order for you to use a lamp you need to first of all light it and usually lamps will return you to Hunter's Dream where you can travel between other lamps as mentioned above. As the game progresss however, certain lamps will become unusable so you may need to travel to another closer to the location you want to get to.

MESSENGERS AND PURCHASBLE & ACCESSIBLE ITEMS

Another key aspect of the game in Hunter's Dream are the messengers, who are tiny little creatures that offer the player little notes of advice aswell as the ability to purchase specific items throughout the game. The player can buy these items from a small area called the messenger bath within Hunter's Dream and they can range from healing items such as blood vials to other items that can increase your resistance to certain types of damage such as poison or can even optimise your damage to enemies. These items however will raise in price as the game progresses, so you will need to ultimately farm for more blood echoes in order to purchase them. Some of these items however can be picked up for free from fallen enemies or can be found as pick-ups in different areas of the game. 

DAMAGE TYPES

The game also features different types of damage that can be inflicted by various enemies and there are three in the game that are bleed, poison and worst of all frenzy, which remove a large amount of a player's health. These types of damage can however be mitigated through the use of different items for e.g. frenzy can be treated via the use of sedatives that will calm a player's nerves (in the game not the actual player!) and antidotes will cure poison damage, which has two kinds, slow and rapid poisoning, which must be treated before the player succumbs to them. 

ENEMIES & BOSSES

Next up are of course one of the main asepcts of the game, the enemies and there are many different ones throughout the game that offer varying levels of difficulty to overcome. As an example of weaker enemies are the huntsman, who are infected with the bloodborne disease and attack you with torches, rifles and swords and strongers foes are giants, who posses great strength and take alot of damage. Then there are various different monsters in the game such as man-beasts, werewolves, serpent headed men (vermin hosts), gargoyles, witches and trolls all of which are pretty horrible overall I'd say!  As the game progresses of course these enemies can become stronger in difficulty and there are even revisions of weaker ones with more health and greater damage potential too.

And then we have the bosses, who provide the main challenges of the game and they also can vary from being pretty easy to brutally difficult! Again the bosses will vary in form as there are a number of beast-like bosses, who can all deal out vicious levels of damage but there are also some human bosses such as actual hunters that can pose quite a strong threat aswell.

Again some of the bosses can be quite straightforward such as the Witch of Hemwick, which involves you to simply kill a couple of witches that can summon ghoulish creatives to attack you but the witches vanish after you attack for a while. However there are also some punishingly difficult bosses such as Ludwig, the Accursed, who is a horse-like beast that can stampede you and later on attack with a holy moonlight sword and the Orphan of Kos, who is a grotesque bird-like man, who has placenta type weapon attachment to his hand (yuck!!) and can destroy you with it! So, suffice to say that Bloodborne has its share of challenging bosses that should keep you scratching your head and tearing out your hair!

CHALICE DUNGEONS

Next are the chalice dungeons, which are randomly generated dungeons that the player can access from Hunter's Dream with the use of specific holy ritual items. The dungeons also contain bosses and a number of enemies but these areas are more cramped in design than the open world area of Yarnham but they can also offer some more items and upgrades that will be of use.

The chalice dungeons themselves tend to get a bit of stick from the fans and I can see why as they are pretty repetitive in their design as they tend to just recycle the same bosses with marginal increases in difficulty until you go deeper into the dungeons. However, having played through the dungeons quite a bit myself I don't think they are too bad although I do see where the fans are coming from as their design is pretty samey and dull but the extra insight and items on offer still make them worth checking out.  

ONLINE PLAY

Another aspect of the game is the online play, which will allow you to summon other players to help you fight against the bosses or play in a co-op mode. However similar to the Dark Souls games, you can be invaded by players who will try and kill you and they are summoned through the use of an in-game enemy called a chime maiden, so you will need to kill the chime maidens in order to prevent being invaded.


NPC CHARACTERS (WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH HAS A BIG SPOILER!)

Next up are the actual NPC characters that can be found in the game and as I mentioned above, the two primary NPCs are the Doll, who upgrades your stats and the old (and first) hunter, Gehramn, who imparts you with advice occassionally in the game and (SPOILER!!!) is one of the final bosses in the game!

There of course plenty of other NPC's in the game such as Eileen the Crow, who is an assassin, who hunts other hunters that have been corrupted by thier lust for blood. Alfred, who is another hunter that offers you advice and key information that will let you progress through the game. Iosefka is another NPC, who is at the clinic where your character first undergoes their blood ministration process and she can be in two forms, friendly and hostile. And last of all is the Chapel Samaritan, who is ghoulish looking but a kind and genial elderly man, who wants to welcome people into Oedon chapel, which is a safe haven for people from the beasts or Yarnham (as the samaritan uses incense to ward them off).

NPC ENEMY HUNTERS 

And last of all are there enemy hunters, who can be found at different stages of the game and can often provide a very stiff challenge for players to take down successfully especially the hunters later in the game. And there is one specific hunter, who is unquestionably the hardest one in the game, the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, who can dish out brutal amounts of damage and must be defeated to fully complete another of the NPC hunter's questlines, Eileen the Crow. So, essentially these hunters are the same as the invaders from Dark Souls but I would definitely say the hunters are a big step up in challenge from the invaders in the Souls games.

GRAPHICS

So, finally moving onto the game's graphics, they are largely excellent as the game's environments are rich will detail and can also be fairly varied as you make your way through the streets of Yarnham and later other areas such as cathedrals, woods, villages and of course Hunter's Dream. The character models are also pretty good as your character's faces are fairly expressive and offer better detail than the previous Souls games even though again their lips don't move when they talk! ;-) However the graphics do have a fair amount of aliasing to them with plenty of jagged edges to characters, buildings and structures.  So, while the graphics do offer a rich visuals for the most part, it wouldn't hurt to see the game get a remaster in the near future aswell to help resolve those ragged edges it suffers from. 

MUSIC

As for the music of Bloodborne, well its a terrific score overall, which was composed by various different composers such as Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Cris Velasco and Yuka Kitamura. And the boss themes overall are of a very high quality that are just as equally as good as those from the Dark Souls series. And some of my favourites from the soundtrack include the Cleric Beast, Gerhman, Orphan of Kos, Laurence: The First Vicar, Father Gascgoine, Lady Maria and my personal fav, Ludwig, the Accursed. There are one or two themes that could be better of course and the one I disliked the most was Micolash, Host of the Nightmare, which got pretty annoying after a while, so I turned it down!

However overall, I would definitely say that Bloodborne's soundtrack is right up there with some of the best soundtracks in gaming today.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yep Bloodborne does have some worth a mention.

For starters, I think a criticism that is often levelled at the game is of course to do with the lack of weapons in the game especially in comparison to Dark Souls, as in all there are only 26 trick weapons and 11 firearms and one fist type knuckle duster weapon (Gratia). So, yeah this is quite limited in comparison to the Souls games but for the most part their quality and versatility do somewhat make up for this but at the same time more would have been better but to be fair the Old Hunters, DLC definitely provided some great extra content for the weapons.

Another issue I had was to do with the lamps and Hunter's dream as you are unable to travel between lamps like you would between bonfires in Dark Souls as instead you have to always go back to Hunter's Dream to travel to another area. And this can become a bit tedious after a while if you really want to get somewhere quickly then the whole idea of Hunter's Dream being the go-between every other area is a flawed one.

And this brings me onto an issue to do with the blood vials in the game as it does get to the stage where you need to keep farming to get more because its not like Dark Souls, where your Estus Flasks are replenished back to full capacity when you rest at a bonfire and instead here if you die and burn up your blood vials, you simply need to get more, which can be quite tedious. And I often found myself after dying in a boss fight having to go the same areas to farm to buy more and I would actually probably recommend farming a big stockpile, which automatically will go into storage, so you don't run out quickly. But I would have preferred it if you could restore your blood vials on respawning similar to Dark Souls and its estus flasks.

I also felt the idea of the NPC enemy hunters in the game was a bit overdone at times as there are moments in the game where you simply want to get from A to B but before you know it you are faced with having to take more hunters on! Also given the difficulty that these enemy hunters pose it can make your life difficult to progress past them unless of course you simply run away from them, which is still an option I guess.

Another issue I had with the game is that it does lack the humour and colourful characters that you have in the Souls games as there really isn't much of that in Bloodborne although there is still the odd character here and there that does fit this category. However it is worth mentioning that there is still a pretty funny moment in the game where Gehrman tells a dirty joke to your character as he says you can use anything you like in Hunter's Dream and he whispers furtively "Even the doll should it please you(!)". I also noticed that the Chalice dungeons had a spin-off version of Patches, the character from Dark Souls, who's head is on the body of a spider, so maybe that will provide some humour! But overall though, I have to say that the game does lack the same colourful characters that the Souls series has to offer.

Another problem in the game was to do with the lack of blood rocks, which will allow you to fully upgrade your weapons to +10 and there is only one in the entire main game! You can however obtain another blood rock during the Old Hunter's DLC but this means you can only fully upgrade two of your weapons throughout a single playthrough and this frankly sucks, especially as you had access to at least 7 or 8 Titanite Slabs in Dark Souls 2 & 3. So, the lack of being able to upgrade more than two weapons in the whole game really is a letdown and one of the more annoying aspects of the game.

It would also have been nice if you could purchase blood stone chunks in the game that would allow you to upgrade to +9 but unfortunately you can't do this either in the main game. So, instead you are forced to try and farm for them from certain enemies and while you can pick quite a few of them up throughout the later stages of the game it would have been nice if there was an option to purchase them later on too.

REVIEW UPDATE FOR THE BLOOD CHUNKS & ROCKS

I since have discovered that you can purchase blood rocks and chunks from the messengers insight bath as you need 20 insight for a single blood stone chunk and 60 for a single blood rock. However I do have to say the insight requirement for both is just a bit too high especially for blood rocks given you can probably only upgrade maybe 3 weapons max per game but on reflection that's not necessarily a bad thing as it makes you consider which primary weapons you want to use at their full ability rather than upgrade them all to +10.

However at the same time I do find the process of farming for blood chunks to be VERY frustrating in the game as you can get a rare occassional drop from certain enemies in the (e.g. the blue eyed werewolves in upper cathedral ward) but its quite a slog to get them. And just why they DIDN'T allow you to purchase blood chunks from the messenger bath just like you can with blood stone shards and twin blood ones is frankly beyond me! I mean there are a resaonable amount of blood stone chunks to be picked up during the game but once you get them all, it becomes alot more annoying to try and farm for them. So, I think the fact they left the chunks out of the messenger bath and force you to spend 20 insight for them from the insight bath is a big oversight especially as there isn't a great deal of insight in the entire game unless you farm the hell out of chalice dungeon bosses!

Another problem I have with the game is how it can at times force you to take on very difficult enemies to get good weapons. A lesser example of this is the church pick (which just so happens to be my favourite weapon in the whole game!) as you have to fight a fairly tough hunter, who you can release from a jail cell and kill him in order to get it but you can at least cheese him by baiting his attacks and then waiting for him to back off and then go in for a backstab and visceral attack after he walks away from you down the hallway. But before this, you also need to get a cell key to open the hunter's cell door and that in itself is pretty tricky as you need to fight past a bunch of annoying research hall patients and navigate your way to the key itself!

However a bigger challenge is trying to get Lady Maria's weapon, the Rakuyo, which is a pretty cool looking hybrid katana that splits into two smaller swords but the main problem here is in order to get it you need to fight two of THE most brutal enemies in the game, shark giants. These big guys clobber the hell out of you with great ease and if you get too close they will also perform a grab attack where they will proceed to eat you! 

However there is a cheese strategy to obtain the Rakuyo without getting hammered by the shark giants but it does involve baiting them into action and killing off the annoying winter lanterns underground, who inflict frenzy damage on you and if they grab you, its one shot material! After this, you can kill off the giants standing on a ledge overlooking the pit they roam around but you still need to watch out for them as they can still hit you! I recommend also using a weapon such as the Boom Hammer as its firey weapon buff can deliver pretty effective damage and once you have killed off both giants you can then obtain the Rakuyo. 

However despite this it all begs the question: why not simply have the player buy the Rakuyo from the messenger bath once you defeated Lady Maria rather than fight these two big ass enemies?! I mean they could easily just have you pay say 100,000 blood echoes or something like that rather than fight these two giant knobheads, which make your life a misery! But nope, From Software are clearly a bunch of sadists, who want you to suffer for the great things in the game! Gits lol!  

I also had an issue that was to do with the online player system as I found the idea a bit flawed in some ways particularly the summoning system, where you use a beckoning bell to summon online players to help you fight bosses. However, on using this system its a bit hit and miss as there were times where I tried to summon other players and nothing happened and was kept waiting and waiting and ultimately I gave up and went on to try and take on the boss myself. So, it can be quite a frustrating system to deal with and not always reliable to use as you may end up having to take on the boss yourself.

And this brings me onto an issue with the AI of the summons, which can be really lacking in intelligence at times as there are certain summons that when they appear will just charge into fighting standard enemies and not follow you into a boss fight! As an example for the Vicar Amelia fight there is a summon named Henriett available but if you summon her she will just go ahead and try to kill EVERY enemy around her even the big giant guys with the large axes! So, this forces you with no option but to help her and she most likely will die in the process whether you help her ot not!

So, this is where things can get pretty frustrating as I wish From Software introduced a can of signal system to tell the summon to follow you rather than start a fight! I guess that's another drawback of your playable character being mute and not being able to say a word (well not orally anyway as they do speak through text to other characters).  

Also on a story note I feel the plot is somewhat confusing and hard to follow at times and it begs the question: is at all really just a dream??? And the reason I say this is because there are many moments in the game where different characters say they will wake up form their dream when they die, which suggests that they are currently in a dream state within Yarnham. So, when they wake up you have to ask yourself: do they wake somewhere else? Do they go to some sort of afterlife? I mean what really happens? Its definitely all a bit vague if you ask me but if I dig a bit more into the lore of the game then maybe there will be some answers there.

And last of all is one big question...why the hell are the bosses in this game so damn NOISY???! Yep, the bosses in Bloodborne are far from subtle especially the beast bosses, who like to squeal like hyenas and it can get pretty annoying rather quickly. As an example of this noisage there are Vicar Amelia, who squeals like a hyena, Laurence, the first Vicar, who also squeals like a hyena and last of all we have Ludwig, the Accursed, who guess what??? Yep, he also squeals like a hyena, actually no its more like a tortured horse being endlessly zapped with a cattle prod!  Now to be fair I do appreciate that a number of the bosses in this game are beasts, who by nature probably would squeal and roar anyway but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

And further to this point, I will take Ludwig (who is often regarded as one of the best bosses in the game) who has two phases and in the first he stampedes around like a wild mutated horse and squeals from the top of his beast/horsey lungs. However in the second phase, Ludwig suddenly man's up, finds his Holy Moonlight Sword and he picks it up and stands also like a man and starts to knock the crap out of you with it! Now, I would have to ask: why didn't they just have Ludwig sound like he did in his second phase from the start, which was alot more bearable! So, at some point he had to go from a wild horse into a wild horse-man but its a pretty strange transformation if you ask me and one that would have been better if they kept his voice consistent (with the second phase ideally!).

Anyway that's it for the flaws. 

SUM UP

So to sum up, Bloodborne is an excellent game that stands up just as well next to the Dark Souls games and it is unique enough in its own right in terms of what it can offer. The game's combat and boss battles are also for the most part very satisfying and the fast-paced nature of the combat is also a refreshing change from the slower pace of the Souls games. The game also features a terrific soundtrack and the graphics while not perfect are for the most part excellent and feature plenty of rich detail but at the same time a remaster of the game wouldn't go a miss, FromSoftware! ;-)

And sure there are some issues to do with the online play, some game features are a bit fiddly and the plot at times doesn't make a great deal of sense but that aside, Bloodborne is definitely well worth checking out and it offers a great challenge for any player and if you like the Souls game you will almost certainly like this.

Right, so that's it for my exhaustive review of Bloodborne and I will be back with another review of sorts soon.

Till then its ciao for now, and as they say in the game, may the good blood guide your way! ;-)  

Dark Souls Remastered Review (Revisited)

Well, in this post I figured I would do yet another revisitation of a previous one but this time it will be of a game review I did for the original Dark Souls game and the reason for re-doing it is so I can expand on any areas I might have missed having played the game many times over since my original review! ;-)

So, with that all said let's take another look at the classic action role play game that is Dark Souls.

And the usual is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! 

STORY

Well, the story itself is fairly minimal and I will for a change quote the plot from Wikipedia (just to save a bit of time!).

"The world was once shrouded by grey fog and ruled by dragons. In this time period, Gwyn happens upon the First Flame and finds a Lord Soul. He and his allies use their power to defeat the dragons, beginning the Age of Fire. Over time, the flames begin to fade with the rise of humans, and Gwyn sacrifices himself and his soul to prolong the Age of Fire. With the flame artificially rekindled, the undead curse begins to plague humanity, causing certain humans to continually resurrect upon death.

The player character is a cursed undead, locked away in an undead asylum. After escaping the asylum, the player travels to Lordran to ring the Bells of Awakening. The bells awaken Kingseeker Frampt, who tells the player to ascend to Anor Londo. In Anor Londo, Gwynevere instructs the player to succeed Lord Gwyn and fulfill the prophecy. To accomplish this, the Lord Souls must be acquired from Gwyn's primordial allies and returned to the flame".

THOUGHTS

So having played this game over and over many times (no kidding!) I cna safely say that Dark Souls remains a true classic as it is a gripping, intense and enjoyable experience. It is also a pretty difficult game aswell and on first coming to the Souls series, it was a real eye opener for me having played so many games where there is an "easy" mode or tutorials onscreen to guide your hand, well not here! No, Dark Souls doesn't so much hold your hand through the game it kind of more chops it off and throws you in at the deep end!

However, despite the difficulty level of the game being at times very frustrating, its also part of what makes the game feel quite rewarding as once you pass the tests of one boss, you feel have really accomplished something with the game. And that is certainly one of the things that Dark Souls has going for it, its a challenge but its one that's worth taking on.

GAMEPLAY 
 
The gameplay section will be split into sub-sections below just so you know as there is quite alot to cover!

GAME FORMAT 
 
As for the actual gameplay, it takes on a very non-linear open world format with the playable character being one of the cursed undead (not a zombie however!) who does not have a name and you can basically traverse from area to area without any loading screens (well until later on that is!). The character you play is also shown in a third person perspective so you can see them and before you begin the game you can customise how your character will look and what class of character they will be.   

HUMANITY, HOLLOW AND NPCs

The character can take on two different forms, human and hollow and in order to become human, the character has to collect items called "humanity" which will restore them, however if the character is killed, then they will revert to hollow form.

And being human in the game gives the playable character some advantages such as they can receive help form other NPC's (non-playable characters) when taking on boss fights, however it has its downside too as you can encounter other hostile NPC's called invaders, who want to kill you and take your humanity for themselves. There are also certain NPC's throughout the game that will turn hollow themselves and lose their minds and attack you on sight. 

There are also other NPCs that will trade with you for different items such as weapons, armour, consumables or accessories as well as two blacksmiths that will upgrade your armour and weapons for you. In addition to this there is another NPC, Oswald of Carim, who can absolve you of your sins (by paying a large number of souls to him) should you kill off any NPC characters or intentionally or unintentionally aggro NPCs that you have met and would like to later trade or deal with. 

SOULS, SOUL FARMING & BONFIRES 

And one of the key aspects of the game itself are the souls you collect from foes you have killed, as the smaller enemies give you a smaller amount whereas the bosses will give you a larger amount of souls. The souls can then be used to upgrade your stats such as vitality, endurance and strength among other attributes that are key to the game. If however you are killed at any point in the game, your soul count will go back to zero but you can still retrieve your lost souls from the point where you died last, which will be marked by a bloodstain. However if you are unable to retrieve your souls a second time and are killed again then you lose those souls forever (unless you have a special ring that will negate this).

And this brings me onto one of the most important aspects of the game, which are the bonfires that you use throughout as checkpoints to save your progress but they allow you to do much more than just that alone. The bonfires also allow a player to rest, level up their stats by using the amount of souls they have gained from fallen enemies and even also repair and reinforce their weapons and armour if they have the proper tools aswell as store items. Resting at the bonfire will also allow you to replenish your estus flask amount, your health and cure any poison or toxic effects you may encounter. The one big caveat however about the bonfires is that they also respawn all the enemies in any area you are at when you rest at one, so that's the only downside to using them.

WEAPONS & COMBAT 

As for the game's combat system is pretty straightforward with the character having access to a large variety of melee weapons such as swords, axes, daggers, spears, halberds aswell as bows and arrows all of which can be upgraded as you progress. The character will also have access to armour and helmets of which these can also be upgraded as the game progresses via the use of materials known as titanite shards, which you can get in different varieties and will upgrade your items up to different levels starting with +1 all the way up to +15. However different weapons and armour will have their own set limit on the upgrade level they can reach so only some weapons, sheilds and armour can go to +5 and +10 whereas there are specific weapons that can be full upgraded all the way to +15. These weapons can also infused with different elements such as magic, fire and lightning, which can all have varying effectiveness on different enemies.

The character can carry out a number of moves such as typical forward attacks or backstabs aswell as dodge manoeveurs to avoid enemy attacks. There is also another special attack, a parry which requires careful timing where your character will deflect an enemy's weapon with their shield and follow it up with a riposte (or stab attack) to finish them off or deal out heavy damage. 

CHARACTER CLASSES AND STATS

In the game you will also have the choice of choosing between different starting classes of characters that include a warrior, sorcerer, pyromancer and a cleric and all these classes will have varying attributes and different strengths aswell as abilities.

As an example if you are a playing as a warrior you will play through the game primarily by using weapons such as swords, clubs, spears or axes and take on primarily a melee approach to the game. If you are playing as a sorcerer then you may use a mixture of magic spells and melee weapons to help you fight through the game and you can also buff your weapons with certain spells to add on magic damage. Or if you are playing as a pyromancer you will have access to some powerful pyromancy spells that can do considerable fire damage but also using melee weapons for this class is recommended. And if you are a cleric again you will require a mixture of elemental spells known as miracles that can offer healing abilities aswell as perform attacks that involve lightning. These are just some of the options available of course as there are more playable characters to choose from.  

As for your characters stats there are set number of attributes that can be upgraded throughout and each class with start with different levels for each stat and these stats include vitality, strength, endurance, intelligence, dexterity and faith.  However I would say overall that vitality and endurance are important to every class as vitality boosts your character's health and endurance their stamina.

So as an example of the other stats, intelligence may apply primarily to sorcerers as it is a stat that can be upgraded throughout the game so they can perform more powerful spells.  As for other examples, a cleric will want to upgrade their faith, which is used to perform miracles and the powerful miracles will require higher faith that can either offer healing or offensive capabilities. And lastly, a warrior may focus more primarily on their strength and endurance as strength will allow them to hold more powerful weapons and endurance will also help them to boost their equipment load and what they can carry aswell their stamina when running and during combat.

RINGS 

The game also makes use of various different rings that will enable the player to gain different abilities aswell as offer levels of protection and resistance to physical or elemental damage. As an example there are rings such as the Cloranthy Ring, which will allow your player's endurance bar to regenerate quicker. Other rings also include the Havel's Ring, which boosts your equipment load to allow you to carry a heavier items such as weapons or armour. Then there are rings that boost your resistance to elemental damage such as lightning, fire (the lightning and red stoneplate rings) aswell as reducing bleed and poison damage and even resistance to curse effects. The player however can only wear two rings at one time and there are certain rings that will break and become unusable if they are removed, so you do need to be careful about which rings you select to use.   

ENEMIES 

Moving onto the enemies, this is where Dark Souls is at its most diverse as there are a huge number of enemies for the player to take on all of which vary in terms of their challenge and difficulty. The standard enemies feature hollows, who come with and without armour and can carry a number of weapons such as knives, spears, swords and even use torches and while they are easy to kill, in numbers they can be a threat. There are also other enemies such as numerous skeletons, demons and giants all of which can be made of stone, flesh or indeed bone and have varying levels of difficulty of which plenty of them can leave you chucking your console controller out the window! 

BOSSES

And of the key aspects of the game is of course the bosses as they themselves can tend to provide a big challenge for players to overcome although they can vary in difficulty throughout the game and believe me there are some pretty tough bosses to be found here! And this game has some of the most memorable boss fights in gaming history that include the legendary duo of Ornstein (a knight in dragon slayer armour) and Smough (an exceutioner who is a big fat guy with a small head and also carries a huge hammer!).

Most of the bosses for the most part are actually quite manageable but O&S are definitely one of the hardest battles however the game's DLC does provide three pretty hard bosses such as Knight Artorius, a tortured knight corrupted by the abyss, a brutal demon named Manus and a ferocious dragon named Kalameet. These guys are pretty much the main challenge of the game and will take some effort to overcome but they are also pretty rewarding to defeat. So the games's bosses are definitely the game's main highlights. 

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, the game looks stunning in its remastered version on the PS4, as the environments are rich and detailed, not to mention very varied in their design as your character can traverse to castles, fortresses, sewers, aswell as open lands.  The character models however remain a weakness in the visuals here as they do look dated by today's standards and the models features actually look a bit too soft and undefined. However that aside, the graphics look mightily impressive in their PS4 remaster and its definitely for the most part a treat to look at.


MUSIC 

And regarding the music, it was composed by Motoi Sakuraba and it is a very good score overall with some very impressive orchestrations and its a rich mixture of drama and suspense. And the game's score has quite a few highlights that include the theme for Artorius, Ornstein & Smough. However the main highlight here is the theme for the final boss, Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, which is a very poignant beautiful piece played solely on piano that has got to rank as one of the most memorable themes in video game history that also really packs an emotional punch.

So overall the music score is pretty impressive here however its a testament to the quality of the music in the Souls series that the music in the sequels would be even better.   


FLAWS

As for flaws...yes...Dark Souls does have some worth mentioning.

And to kick off there is the whole thing with the bonfires, which are a pretty good concept and act as  a decent checkpoint, but at the same time they often are few and far between different areas and it can be frustrating that you can't save your progress as you go.  This is especially a real pain if you are nearing a boss fight, you can just save the point before you are about to face them. However, if you are having to trek from one point to another and get killed enroute, you are forced to go back to square one, which can become a pain in the ass real quick!

Another is to do with alot of big enemies in the game having MASSIVE weapons that have unreal reach that can cause them to put the smackdown on your character with great ease! This also becomes mega frustrating very quickly, especially as there are times where you try to roll to avoid them but you still end up getting caught in the line of their weapon. However this is something is pretty rife throughout the Souls series, so in the end you just have to accept it and to be fair as you progress, you will have access to some bigger weapons too.   

I also find it quite bizarre the large number of pick-ups that the player can pick up during the game, don't ever overload their inventory, as they end up with a massive amount of items and weapons, that would realistically be impossible to carry! Its also a pity that you can't sell these items aswell to any of the traders in the game for souls although you can later "feed" items to the serpent, Frampt who will give you a small number of souls for each one. However you do get access to an endless box, which let's you store as many items as you like, so you can lighten your inventory, which is a good idea and makes it easier for weapon/armour selection. 

There are also some other aspects of the game that can be annoying to deal with also such as when a player becomes cursed and they lose half of their health in the process and they then need to find a way to break that curse. This can be achieved usually by either purchasing a purging stone, which will break the curse, or by obtaining a cursebite ring, which will provide the player with a stronger resistance to curses. The second method would of course be the most effective one but its one that is not easy to get a hold of, as it involves the player having to go into another area (New Londo Ruins) where you need to fight off some ghosts and to do this you need another item called a transient curse, so you can attack them.  So, basically you have to yet again do one tough thing to resolve another one but hey that's how it is in Dark Souls!

Then there is an issue to do with the Estus flasks where if you accidentally press the square button (on your PS4 or PS3 that is) and you are already at full health, you will still use up another flask, yet in most other games if you are at full health, the game stops you from wasting another health item, but not here!  And this can especially annoying as you might end up doing it with only a couple of flasks left, while at full health and you might be in dire need of what you have left! This could however be a deliberate choice on the game creators behalf as they may want you to use your items carefully and sparingly. 

Another gripe I have with the game is the action of the player drinking from their Estus flasks, which is a bit on the slow side. And this is particularly the case when you are fighting against a standard enemy or boss, as their reactions tend to be pretty fast. So, by the time you have finished swigging from your Estus flask, the boss may already have beat you down and then will close in for the kill, so it would be better if the action of this was quicker, so it didn't disrupt the flow to the combat of the game, plus you just might not end up getting killed so often!!! 

However, further to this point and on re-playing the game to be entirely fair to the original Dark Souls, the Estus flask drinking speed in this game really isn't that bad and is fairly quick in comparison to Dark Souls II where the action speed is just RIDICULOUSLY SLOW!!! So, I have to be a bit fairer here to the original game as its really not too bad in comparison to the piss poor speed of the Estus flask drinking in Dark Souls II.  

I also found the upgrading process for your weapons and armour in this game to be a bit complicated in comparison to the sequels as you had to keep getting different types of shards to do this which you still had to do of course in the sequels but they did a better job to simplify the process in Dark Souls II and III. Also if you wanted to infuse your weapons with different elements such as fire, lightning or magic you would need special titanite shards, which would mean downgrading a weapon to a specific level (usually its +5 I think!) before you can infuse and upgrade it again. However in the sequels all you needed was the proper stone or gem to infuse with the weapon and that weapon could keep its current upgrade level whether it be +2 or +8 but in the original Dark Souls this whole process is a real pain.

And last of all is the issue to do with having to rekindle every new bonfire you go to take max out your Estus Flask amount whether it be to 10 (or later 15 or 20) and this is done by using humanities and you have to be in human form to kindle the flame in the first place. Now, this really does become quite time consuming and tiresome after a while especially considering in the sequels you had to locate Estus Shards to maximise the usage of your flask but once you got them, you're flask was at a consistent number for the rest of the game and this is something I much prefered in the sequels.

And further to this point I think the amount of bonfires you can travel to once you have the ability warp between them is also a bit too limited as there is usually more than just one bonfire to be found in certain areas but you tend to just warp to a single one in a bigger area, which can be a pain. Again in the sequels they afforded players more freedom by allowing you to travel between every available bonfire in the game rather than just selective ones like you do here. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws (for now!).

SUM UP

So to sum it all up, Dark Souls is without a doubt one of the greatest action role play video games of all time, which is truly epic with its open world environments, which are vast and expansive. The game is also packed with a large variety of enemies, who become MUCH tougher as the game progresses and its certainly one of the toughest and most challenging games I have played. However, its challenge is also part of its reward in that it is great to get a game that does push and challenge your abilities as a gamer, rather than hand hold you like alot of games tend to do in this day and age.

And if you haven't tried Dark Souls yet, then I would certainly recommend giving it a go, as it really is an extremely challenging, engrossing, gripping, tense and at times creepy experience that is well worth any gamer's time.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back sometime with another post.

Till then once again its bye fer now!

Resident Evil 2 Review

OK, its time for a new post on here and with NEW content and it will be on the recently released remake of the classic survival horror action video game, Resident Evil 2.

So, how does the remake stand up against the original classic from over 20 years ago??? Well, let's take a look!

Oh and I will mention a little about the plot so the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD (BUT HARDLY ANY REALLY!).

STORY

So, the story is set in 1998 in Racoon city where most of the population has been turned into zombies by the T-Virus (developed by the Umbrella corporation). And the two main protagonists of the game are Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop who is starting a new job there and Claire Redfield, a college student who is looking for her brother, Chris. When the two of them encounter a horde of zombies on the city streets they make for the police station where there are even more zombies and other monsters awaiting them. Depending on who you play of course, Leon and Claire will have different scenarios to play out but ultimately they will both try and unravel who is behind the virus outbreak aswell as try and fight off the pesky and unstoppable Mr X, a new Tyrant, who has been sent in by the Umbrella corporation to kill any survivors.

And its from here that Leon and Claire will have to fight real hard for their own survival...

THOUGHTS

As a remake, Resident Evil 2 does an excellent job and it perfectly recreates the same sense of dread and tension from the original with updated graphics, movement and combat, its a reimaging of a classic game done very well. The game also has its fair share of thrills, danger and fun and it never actually takes itself too seriously either as the characters in the game are mostly quite engaging and you can find yourself rooting for them easily (well the good ones that is!). The game also makes great use of darkened corridors and low-light rooms to create a real sense of unease in the player as a zombie or other monster could be just lurking round the corner. It also succeeds in recreating the characters and producing an involving story with well acted cutscenes that keep the viewer interested. So, as a remake my first thoughts are its very impressive.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, its not entirely disimilar to the original game only of course the movement is far more fluid as you are playing in a more 3D immersive world than the 2D original. The player will use the same third person perspective in the original games but with an over the shoulder look just like in Resident Evil 4. The game's difficulty is also noteworthy in that you will have three modes to choose from assisted (easy), standard and hardcore with the last mode replacing the unlimited save system by collecting a certain number of ink ribbons to save your progress.

As for the combat, weapons will vary depending on who you play as with Leon using a handgun, shotgun, magnum and a flamethrower as his primary weapons. However Claire will have access to handguns, grenade launchers, sub machine guns and an electric shock gun that fires out high voltage charges. Both characters will have the same secondary melee weapons such as explosive/flash grandes and combat knives that they can use when they are grabbed by enemies.

In the game, your characters will also have access to healing items such as first aid sprays as well as coloured herbs that have different effects, such as green ones that restore your health and blue ones that will cure poison and the red ones when combined with green will restore your health entirely and these herbs can all be combined in different ways.

The game has various different puzzles throughout also (just like the rest of the Rezzie series!) for the player to work out, which ultimately will lead to unlocking doors and gaining new items. Some of the puzzles can take a bit of working out and be a bit challenging but for the most part they are fairly manageable in the game.

And lastly there are of course the enemies in the game that feature your standard zombies who based on the difficulty level you are playing, can be quite tough to kill off even if you play in standard mode you will take about 10 bullets to finally finish one off! And this of course applies to the other enemies in the game aswell such as infected dogs, lickers (lizard like creatures with lacerating tongues that climb the walls!) and of course Mr X, the huge and intimidating Tyrant that stalks the police station searching for you like some sort of Terminator!  There also a few boss fights in the game, which can prove to be very challenging depending on the difficulty level you play at but you can of course lower the difficulty level if you are struggling.

There are also in addition to the game's standard two scenarios involving Leon and Claire (Scenario A and B, as they both have two different playthroughs) there are also optional extras and mini-games and missions for players to have a go at aswell and additional DLC content. 

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics they are excellent and the original classic here get's a great visual overhaul as we now get detailed environments that look great and the whole game's visuals ooze with a dark and dank atmosphere that really is quite creepy. As for the character models they are also excellent with the two lead characters of Leon and Claire both nicely brough up to date (especially Claire! ;-) and the same goes for the supporting characters in the game such as Ada Wong and the Birkins (William, Anette and Sherry). So overall, the graphics are a great upgrade here in the remake and certainly play their part in the game's uneasy atmosphere.

MUSIC 

As for the music there is a fine score by Shusaku Uchiyama and Zhenlan Kang which is pretty dark and atmospheric and is also quite subtle and subdued for the most part as it hangs back in the dark itself and suddenly leaps out in the jump scare moments. The music score from the original game can also be accessed from the menu, which in itself is a great one to listen to and if you are familiar with the game it will certainly get you feeling all nostalgic for the PS1 RE2.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may refer to one or two spoilers!)

As for the flaws... yes Resident Evil 2 remake has some worth pointing out.

For starters it has to be said there are some issues with the movement in the game in particular the running as your character is restricted to just a liberal jog rather than a full-on sprint option when you are trying to outrun your enemies, which can be frustrating. Another issue further to this is that there is no option to dodge or roll away from enemies either instead you just have to outrun them or use your melee weapons if they get too close, which isn't always effective either.

Another issue is to do with the lack of healing herbs in the game (well on higher difficulty levels anyway) as you go on they are few and far between but earlier on you have a reasonable supply of them but not towards the end! And I have to say in my first playthrough as Leon, I found myself really struggling towards the end as I kept getting anything BUT a green herb for my health! In fact if I was lucky I went into the final boss with just one first aid spray and that was it, so suffice to say I was compelled to start the game all over again!

This brings me onto a further issue with the game in the section where you play as Ada and use an electromagnetic device to manipulate the electrical current of certain devices in the area, so she can make her way through it. Now this in itself is kind of OK even though the whole EMF thing did get a bit annoying after a while as you have to keep tracking with it to find the power supply to certain devices while fending off zombies at the same time!

However my main problem with this section is to do with that fact that Ada starts it off with NO healing items and NO secondary weapon either and just NINE bullets! So, if you are playing this one on standard or hardcore modes then you are again pretty much fecked if you mess up no thanks to the game makers and their daft decisions to leave you without health or back-up weapons! I do of course appreciate the game is supposed to be challenging but I still think they were taking the mick when they did this.

Then there are of course some issues to do with the timelines of Leon and Claire's scenarios as there are definitely incidents where one may have completed a task already before you have got to it but in the other scenario it kind of reverses itself. Its kind of hard to explain this one without getting back into the game again as I've not played it for a week or so but I think it is safe to say that the scenario timelines so overlap and no in an effective way.

And last of all is an issue to do with the darkness of the graphics as there are some areas where the graphics are just a bit TOO dark as you wander around darkened areas carrying just a flashlight, which isn't anywhere near enough to sufficiently light your surroundings to properly see where you are going. So, it is pretty easy to wander through certain areas of this game and get lost easily although to be fair you get access to maps which will help you out if you do get lost but I would still have to say that they could have done a better job with the lighting for darker areas.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Resident Evil 2 remake is an excellent update of one of the great classic PS1 games and it perfectly captures the creepy, intense atmosphere of the original and with the updated graphics the game now looks great and adds on plenty more gruesome detail. The game also features some fine voice acting from its cast and a good story that is quite involving and I found I enjoyed Claire's campaign even more than Leon's thanks to her intriguing storyline with Sherry (Annette and William Birkin's daughter).

And yeah there are some minor issues with the game here and there but overall this is a really solid remake and one that has really impressed me and if you are a fan of the series, you will definitely want to check this one out.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post of sorts.

Till then its bye for now!