Gamescom’s Bloodborne showing has produced quite a lot of coverage for From Software’s Victorian-themed action-RPG, and based on what I’m reading, the game got a significant combat overhaul compared to Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls.
The official PlayStation blog talks about combat mechanics:
At E3 we introduced Bloodborne’s evolved combat style, which requires more pro-active and offensive tactics. The weapons, like the transforming saw cleaver and blunderbuss shotgun, lend themselves to this different combat style, as does the quicker movement and dodging. Enemies in Bloodborne are quicker and more aggressive as well, and you’ll be facing more enemies at once than in the past. There are situations where if you sit back and wait for an opening, you’ll get overwhelmed. At times, you have to be on the offensive. But this is not a hack-and-slash game. Rest assured, Bloodborne is still an action RPG at its core, and combat is still very much about strategy and tactics.
The new, more offensive combat actually goes much deeper, by way of our brand new Regain System, which rewards players for taking more risks and being more decisive and strategic. The Regain System allows players to recover health lost after taking damage by striking back at enemies within a short time period with a bladed weapon. Basically, The Regain system allows players a way to channel that negative energy they feel from taking a hit, and direct it back at the enemy to get revenge and steal back the health they lost.
The amount of health you can recover will be shown in yellow in the HP gauge, and it will get shorter over time if you hesitate to strike. You will still have to be smart and strategic with your strikes, as attacking indiscriminately could lead to taking more damage at the hands of the enemy. Now, the strategy and skill come into play in your offensive and counter-attack tactics, rather than waiting and timing defensive tactics just right.
Destructoid dedicated a series of articles to the game, one on the HUD, one on the Regain system, and a full-blown preview from which I’m going to quote a couple of snippets:
Wanting players to be more aggressive, From Software created a more agility focused combat system to put them on the offense. Shields and heavy armor are almost non-existent, so opting for a turtle fighting style is not really an option. When locking-on to an enemy, your dodge roll will turn into a dash maneuver, allowing you weave in and out of the fray with ease. If an enemy is about to attack, and you time your dash right, your character will evade directly to the side or even behind the opponent, leaving him open to devastating damage.
The left-handed items now offer more usefulness during combat, and some of which can be used effectively in tandem with your melee attacks. The firearms play a large focus in combat, and while it may seem like they can make situations easy for players who want to stay at range, know that ammo is limited and scarce, which forces players to make smart use of their guns. If you have the blunderbuss equipped, you can bunch enemies together with your melee attacks and finish them off with a close-range shot. Pistols have greater range than the blunderbuss, but greatly lack the attack power.
Moreover, firearms can stun enemies and open up their defenses. Called the Counter-shot, when you shoot an enemy about to attack, you’ll stun them and leave open to a devastating counter-attack. Think of this as Bloodborne’s take on the parry, but it’s way more brutal and satisfying to pull off.
To accommodate the more action oriented style, the controls have been altered slightly. The triangle button is now a dedicated healing button, which uses Blood Vials found throughout the city. Pressing L1 activates the weapon transformation, which alters the style of your right-handed weapon. For the Saw Blade, the blade extends out, giving you greater reach but slower attack speed and more stamina drain. For the Axe, the handle extends and changes the Axe into a Polearm weapon with greater reach. While one style is definitely more useful than the other, I found myself switching between the two in order to conserve stamina and maintain speed.
GamesBeat:
Seeing the firearms in the initial reveal gave the impression Bloodborne would be a completely different kind of game than Dark Souls, where your ranged weapons consist of bows, knifes, and magic. Upon closer inspection, these firearms perform like 19th century versions of mage spells. Bloodborne’s true potential in standing out relies on a number of new combat strategies. Counter Shot rewards the risk-takers who can pull off a shot the split second before a foe lands a hit. The downed opponent is now open to an even more powerful blow. Backstrike applies a similar one-two attack, though this move relies on your ability to sneak up on your targets from behind.
This sampling of Bloodborne’s overall level design hints at a return to the appealing multipath layout of the first Dark Souls, an element that some sorely missed in the sequel. A gate locked on one side implies a future shortcut, provided you manage to open that barrier. One path can lead you down a route of a couple manageable hostiles while another could pit you against a monster equipped with torches. Based on my two playthroughs, From Software makes no assurances that the wide reach of an ax attack or the potency of a Molotov cocktail will have the same effectiveness one would find in other action-RPGs.
IGN’s writers cover the combat system and describe their hands-on time with it:
What I enjoyed most was the interplay between my blade and my rifle. Pressing R1 allowed my character to slash with his saw; hitting R2 unleashed a slower, more powerful attack. Utilizing my blunderbuss at close range with L2, I was able to deter small groups of aggressive enemies from drawing near as I cut them up as best I could. My firearm didn’t do a lot of damage, either at range or close-up, but it did stun foes, acting as a useful tool in an expansive arsenal, one that promises to grow throughout the adventure. Unfortunately, I ran into one enemy protecting himself with a makeshift wooden shield who was impervious to my grapeshot. He had to be dealt with the old-fashioned way.
Like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, progressing carefully is the name of the game. As you may expect, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with enemies, thugs who practice little by way of self-preservation and who have only one thing on their decaying minds: obliterating you. I found myself running around, up and down stairs, to and fro through corridors, trying to drag enemies out one at a time. I was especially nervous when I snuck around enemies lying in wait, doing my best to ensure that they didn’t see me or otherwise catch wind of my presence. It didn’t matter if it was human, undead, bird, or dog — all enemies I ran into at one point or another — I was scared. I have to applaud Bloodborne for its tenseness, and how much it ups its atmosphere. It’s truly frightening to play, not because it’s a survival horror game, but because it never stops coming up with new and unexpected ways to kill you. But again, this is something Demon’s and Dark Souls fans already know.
IGN also coves a statement from producer Masaaki Yamagiwa that will no doubt anger many when taken out of context:
Giving a presentation at Gamescom today, producer Masaaki Yamagiwa said, (You died a lot in the previous games, and you have to persevere. One of our main goals with this game is that sense of punishment we don’t really want to focus on punishing the player.
(We want to deliver a game that gamer’s love, so if the gamer likes the game they will definitely like it enough to have that bit of perseverance. But in the way we in which we’re making the game the sense of punishment is much less.)
To be clear, Bloodborne isn’t being made easier but a new mechanic referred to as the ‘˜Regain System’ aims to alter how players perceive failure and pain.
…
(In terms of who the game is aimed at, and who we want to capture in terms of the audience, of course we can’t betray or disappoint the fans out there. They’ll be the main ambassadors of the game.” But he acknowledge Bloodborne as an opportunity to grow the audience further. “We want more people to share in this experience. So one of the things we can’t talk about right now but we feel the new online concept and experience we’ve got for this game we hope that will capture a wider audience.”
GamesRadar:
Like its predecessors, one mistake or moment of foolhardy cockiness will get you killed in Bloodborne. Death usually comes at the hands of creepy, diseased-looking townsfolk (known as the Forsaken Patients); other times its the mouth of a werewolf, the beak of a giant raven, or the blunt end of a deformed brute’s giant cinderblock. But none of these enemies are quite as terrifying or hideous as the end boss: the same hulking, skull-headed beast seen in the Gamescom 2014 trailer (which I think is named the Celtic Beast–I’m honestly too scared and intimidated to properly do my job as I stare up at the monstrosity).
Squaring off against this behemoth is a rush, plain and simple. My plan: lob molotov cocktails from a safe distance, then charge in for a few quick hits. The reality: The wolf-creature instantly lunges at me and slams me to the ground as I squeal in survival-instinct terror. In an enthralled panic, I dodge his next combo and scurry to heal in a not-safe-for-long corner of the bridge we’re fighting on. Time for plan B: blast the ugly ghoul’s head with my blunderbuss just as he’s about to connect with an attack, setting up a split-second counterattack opportunity. It works like a charm–but as I’m hacking away at the hairy abomination, it occurs to me that I’m out of bullets. Nothing left to do but whittle away the last of its health with a few well-timed dodges followed by slashes from my bitchin’ axe and–yessssssssss. With a blood-curdling thud, the beast falls to the ground. But my heart rate doesn’t; the sense of adrenaline-fueled excitement and hard-earned accomplishment is intoxicating. If every Bloodborne boss fight is this intense, Souls fans–and action RPG gamers in general–are going to be in heaven.
GameSpot has a write-up and a video:
Alongside your item selections and ammo count are your health and stamina bars, and it’s here where From Software has made another tweak, in order to encourage a more aggressive, less defensive style of play. That tweak is called the regain system. As you receive damage from enemies, your health goes down. If you played defensively and backed off, that health would be lost forever. But in Bloodborne, you can actually claw that health back by launching a well-timed counter attack. A yellow bar that appears beside an enemy after the land a hit works as a timer: get in a counter attack before it disappears and your health is restored.
The system doesn’t really make counterattacks any easier to perform, but simply gives you far more of an incentive to perform them. There is one concession to accessibility some players might not like, though, in that you don’t necessarily have to attack the same enemy that hit you. Land an attack on any enemy before the yellow bar runs down and you regain your lost health. Still, From Software is adamant that despite encouraging a more aggressive playing style, the combat is “still about strategy” and not about transforming the game into an “exaggerated hack ‘n’ slash.”
To demonstrate, I was shown another area of the game, this time set in a creepy graveyard. The enemies inside were fast and vicious, attacking with swift sword swipes and fast dashes. In a large group, I could easily seem them overwhelming a player. But they, like all enemies in Bloodborne, have a weakness; the challenge is to find it. In this case, the enemies were ghastly old ladies, and old ladies don’t tend to have the strongest of bones. So, by rolling into them first, they would stumble, leaving an opening for attack.
Finally, Rev3Games has a video preview, while Nexplay.de has recorded some shakycam footage of the game from Gamescom:
