Bloodborne Character Creation Video, Preview

As part of its “IGN First” coverage of Bloodborne, IGN has released a video showcasing the game’s character creation editor. If you have played any of the Souls title you’ll more or less know what to expect, though there are a number of additional options and tweaks that mark it as a step up from the editors of Dark Souls and its sequel:

IGN has also published a preview detailing the first sections of the game. Here’s a snippet:

My first two hours in the world of Bloodborne pointed towards an angrier, more aggressive game than From Software’s previous action-RPGs. The methodical (sword-and-board) playstyle of Dark Souls 1 and 2 has been injected with a treacherous dose of energy in a handful of ways. Enemies in Bloodborne seem to come in at a much higher volume than before, and I oftentimes found a horde of beasts continued to follow me long after I thought I’d lost them. Lucky for me, I quickly adapted to the new style of combat, so I rarely elected to try to run past any enemies.

You’re not going to survive by being passive in Bloodborne. You can’t pop in, draw a single enemy back, and take your sweet time with them. Instead, prepare to dive head-first into an encounter and get a bit messy. The same flow of (observe, dodge, react) exists here, but the cycle rolls much faster than before. You have to soak in all the details of an encounter at a moment’s notice, and decide on how to use your arsenal almost instantly. When an enemy is winding up for a strong attack, pull out your gun for a quick stagger. If you see that you only have a short window to strike, perform a quick slice with your blade before rolling out of the way. If a group of enemies is advancing on you, transform your weapon into a larger, slower, but much wider-ranged instrument of death, and do a bit of crowd control.

The amount of verbs that exist in Bloodborne’s combat, even in the earliest hours of the game, were mighty impressive. Juggling weapon transformations, a limited amount of ammunition, and your stamina meter make for a challenging but rewarding battle economy. Couple this with the game’s new Regain system a risk/reward mechanic where you can take back a bit of your health if you strike back in the dangerous period immediately after being damaged and each skirmish in Bloodborne is rife with strategy.