Bloodborne is an action-RPG with Gothic horror and cosmic horror elements developed by Japanese game studio FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as an exclusive game for the PS4 on 24 March, 2015. FromSoftware, most famously known for the Souls series (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3) took their renowned combat system and level design and applied them to a new setting with a Gothic Victorian aesthetic. Due to its similarities with the other games, Bloodborne is also considered part of the Souls series (or the Soulsborne series as most gamers have taken to call it).

The game begins with the player character waking up in a dilapidated clinic in the city of Yharnam, receiving a “blood ministration” – a medical procedure that Yharnam is famous for. Shortly after, the player character is plagues by visions of werewolves and small grey creatures known as “messengers” before blacking out once again. When they finally regain consciousness, the player finally gains control over the character. Stepping out of the clinic room, the player is shortly unceremoniously killed by a werewolf, but instead of dying, they “wake up” in the Hunter’s Dream, a location that would serve as a base for the player throughout the course of the game, allowing them to level up and upgrade their weapons.

Welcome home, good hunter. Tonight, you shall join the hunt.

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

Bloodborne’s mechanics are very similar to FromSoftware’s previous titles (such as those mentioned earlier) and its controls are designed for the Dualshock 4 controller (since Bloodborne is a PlayStation exclusive title). Movement-wise, it controls very similarly to most third-person action RPGs, with the ability to dodge and to lock onto enemy targets. The combat system revolves around the health and stamina bars of the player. Stamina is required to perform attacks, cast spells, to dodge and to sprint. Careful management of stamina is they key to surviving the nightmares of Yharnam.

Health is also an important resource, as losing all your health will cause the player to drop all accumulated currency (known as “Blood Echoes”) at their location of death, which can be retrieved. They will also be sent back to the previous checkpoint and most slain enemies will be revived. Healing items are also limited and have to be managed. One interesting mechanic is the “rally” system. Whenever the player takes some damage, a portion of the lost health can be recovered through attacking enemies, essentially taking back the life you lost, encouraging a more aggressive, fast-paced playstyle compared to previous FromSoftware titles.

Different weapons also have different rates at which health is regained through attacking. On the topic weapons, all weapons in Bloodborne have an alternate form, which can be some sort of weapon buff or change the shape (and therefore moves) of a weapon completely, allowing for a wide variety of playstyles and replayability.

Story

The story of Bloodborne is told indirectly through cryptic dialogue with NPCs and item descriptions. There are rarely, if any, direct explanations of the events in the game. Each item, even simple tools used by the player such as a Molotov cocktail, has an item description that depicts the lore behind it, and some items are crucial to deciphering the overarching story. This adds to the mystery in the game and at the same time allows players who interested in the story to come up with their own interpretations. It should come as no surprise that there are many YouTube videos explaining the lore and story in Bloodborne.

Aesthetics

Bloodborne’s aesthetic is very striking. The dark environments give an oppressive and foreboding feeling wherever the player goes, constantly putting the player on edge. However, the environments are very varied, including, but not limited to, city streets in Yharnam, the interiors of a cathedral, a dark forest and a few different nightmare realms. Somehow, despite the relatively constant dark colour palettes, the different areas of Bloodborne feel distinct from each other, each having its own flair or flavour. The level design in Bloodborne, where shortcuts can be opened to link older and newer areas, also help make the world feel more interconnected and real and is a signature aspect of FromSoftware’s level design.

The Gothic Victorian aesthetic makes a big first impression and can be seen in both the character’s clothes and equipment, and the surrounding architecture, with towering spires and spiked fences everywhere in the city. The blood and gore in Bloodborne further add to the oppressive atmosphere and players often find their characters drenched in blood after a battle. Aside from the visual aesthetics in the game, Bloodborne also features top-notch voice acting and music, further bringing the world to life.

Technology

Bloodborne was developed in an in-house game engine and does not feature any pre-rendered cutscenes. All cutscenes are rendered in real-time. The load of the game on the PS4 was noticeable in some locations, but for most parts of the game, it ran quite smoothly at 30 frames per second. I think that the graphics of Bloodborne is very good especially for its time, with dramatic lighting and clothing physics that bring the world to life and gives the player a sense of the speed at which their character moves respectively. If this game had been brought to PC however, I feel that it could be even more graphically stunning (not that it needs to be).

#38: The Lens of Challenge

The Soulsborne series is known for being very challenging, and Bloodborne is no exception. The main challenge in Bloodborne comes from the brutal combat. Enemies can kill the player very quickly, especially a new character. Normal enemies also tend to swarm the player, with both melee and ranged attacks. Bosses generally fight the player 1-on-1, but have even stronger, more varied attacks that must be memorised, so that the player can dodge them and fit in some attacks. In addition to just avoiding attacks, players also need fight opportunities to attack, lest the boss fight last forever. The limited amount of healing resources and the time needed to use them also pose a challenge, as players would need to decide when to heal and generally avoid damage to not run out of healing items. While the game is indeed hard, I think the challenge is appropriate and the feeling of triumph that comes with defeating a difficult boss is well worth the effort. It also forces the player to gain mastery over the game mechanics in order to win, which brings me to my next point.

#34: The Lens of Skill

The game, being so challenging, requires many different skills from the player, which are developed over the course of the game. What I like about Bloodborne is that most fights are determined by player skill with low amounts of randomness (except for a certain boss fight near the end of the game). Being able to read and react to enemy movements, having good spatial awareness and being aware of opportunities to attack or to heal are all essential skills required to beat the game. With practice, I feel that most players would be able to improve their skills and eventually beat the game. The game is hard and demanding, but not unfair. Since the game focuses on PvE content, improving these skills is a reward in and of itself, allowing players to clear content with more ease and derive more fun.

#84: The Lens of the World

Bloodborne’s world, while grim and dark, is at the same time beautiful and intriguing. Exploring the different nooks and crannies of the game world fills my head with myriad questions about the nature of this world. Through NPC interactions and hidden side quests, we can also witness change in our environment and the characters around us, making it feel like a horrific but nevertheless living world.

#85: The Lens of the Avatar

As the player character is created by the player and is not set by the game itself, it allows players to project their ideals onto their character. This can be in the form of the weapons and armour they choose, or in how they develop their character as it levels up. By allowing players such freedom of choice, the game allows us to create an ideal beast-slaying badass that best fit our own imagination, making for an unforgettable experience.

Conclusion

Bloodborne is an amazing game with a well-developed combat system and an enigmatic world. The visual style stands out and the music complements the different bosses in the game. While I’ve stopped playing it regularly (since I had already beaten it multiple times), it would forever be one of my top video games and I hope for a sequel. Alas, I had to leave out many parts of the game lest this review go on even longer. Nevertheless, I hope I had given you, the reader, a good initial idea of the game. Maybe you’ll even give it a try, if you own a PS4/5.

Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.

Description

Spiritfarer is a peaceful management game about dying. The game was a finalist in Seumas McNally Grand Prize during 2021’s Independent Games Festival (IGF). In the game, you play as Stella, who is the master of a boat for the spirits of the deceased. It is a platforming game that mainly takes place on said boat. The boat may be upgraded as you explore the world and befriend new spirits. The goal is to spend time with the spirit passengers, create memories with them and ultimately say goodbye to them and release them into the afterlife.

Game website

Steam link

Elemental tetrad

Mechanics

• The game is somewhat about resource-gathering, town management, and crafting, like many other games. Yet, it is very unique.
• Core mechanics are very simple and the real emphasis is on simplicity.
  • For example, there is no need to maximize efficiency, grind, or hurry. Instead, the game offers a peaceful, relaxing, and feel-good experience.
• The game is very linear in its progression.
• You interact and progress in the game through text-based interactions with the spirit companions.
• One unique mechanic is that you can give every character in the game a hug, something that fortifies the emphasis on wholesomeness and feel-good.

Story

• The game is very linearly story-driven.
• You explore the world, upgrade and rearrange a boat filled with spirits who ask you to perform quests for them.
• You are never forced to do a quest, and you can prioritize which of the spirit’s quest lines to perform next.

Aesthetics

• It tackles the very heavy topic of death, but it does so with colourful graphics and hugs that make you feel good.
• Beautifully hand-painted illustrations and animations.
• The soundscape of the game is one of the best I have experienced in a long time. The whimsical soundtracks that play make the player settle in a good mood. The ambient sounds are peaceful and relaxing. The soundscape is just enough, not too little sound nor too much, and the quality manages to create a peaceful experience.

Technology

• Although the game has astonishing 2D graphics, the requirements to run are not too high.
• Available for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.

Lenses

Lens #1: The Lens of Emotion

This game is about caring for other people, and then letting them go. This can lead to some parts of the game getting very emotional. Even though you do not spend a lot of time with the spirits, you can make deep connections with them, and parting ways with them and releasing them to the next realm can get very sad.

This is something that I think was very much intentional by the creators of the game. The game creators have a completely unique take on death, and prioritises feeling good and staying positive even when faced with such an emotional topic.

Lens #20: The Lens of Pleasure

When applying the Lens of Pleasure to Spiritfarer, there are some attributes (from LeBlanc’s Taxonomy of Game Pleasures) that have been emphasised by the game creators.

• Sensation. The game is very much about using your senses, seeing beautiful illustrations, and hearing calming music that appeals to the pleasures of sensation.
• Fantasy. There is pleasure in imagining a fantasy world and embodying a character that you are not. In this game, you play as Stella, and make very real connections, even though it is just in a fantasy world, which is very pleasurable.

Lens #21: The Lens of Flow

The game does not have a predefined, communicated goal. You play at your own pace, without any need to hurry up and you do what you enjoy. The overarching goal is to say goodbye to every spirit that you have made connections with after fulfilling their requests. The game only has one set ending so the long-term goal is the same for all players. But this is not a game played for completion. Actually, it more often than not invites the player to get distracted from the goals. Instead, the player may do what they desire, take how long they want, and prioritize to their own liking.

Since the game is not oriented towards completion or challenges, the goals are not designed to be challenging. The quests get a bit more complex over time, but there is no real way to fail with the tasks. This definitely requires a certain type of player, and a player in a certain mood to play this game. For the game to be enjoyable, the player must be willing to explore and experience, else it will just be a very straightforward and non-challenging game that does not bring much joy.

Lens #79: The Lens of Freedom

When first playing the game, I thought it followed a very clear predefined route with little to no choice or branching available to the player. For example, the dialogues are text-based with no interaction. Additionally, for the first three spirits that you connect with, they are pretty much along a path determined for all players. I thought this was very constraining which was not what I desired with the game.

After that, there are more degrees of freedom and the linearity of the game gets less apparent. It is important to realise that you should not feel any stress when playing this game. Since it is not about completion, it is about the player’s experience. When you zone out of the tasks and play at your own pace, the game gets so much better.

Far Cry is a series of first-person shooter games. The first game was developed by Crytek Studios and published by Ubisoft in March 2004 for Microsoft Windows. Since then, Ubisoft started to take care also of the development of the game, using Dunia Engine, a software fork of the CryEngine, used to develop the first episode of the series. 

Six main games have been developed in the series, all of them share a theme of placing the player in a wilderness setting where he must help fight against one or more despots that control the region as well as surviving against wild animals that roam the open spaces.

The main point of strength of these games is the single-player mode, which features awesome narrations and stories, as well as magistrally designed maps and landscapes.

Lens 2: The Lens of Surprise

Far Cry plots are full of surprises and twists that make these titles enjoyable even when played for the third time. Most of the games of the series include different possible ways of ending the game. For example, in Far Cry 5 there are two possible endings for the storyline, depending on whether the player decides to arrest the main antagonist of the plot, Joseph Seed, or to ignore him and let him continue his practice of terrorism on behalf of the extremist religious terrorist cult organization “Project at Eden’s Gate”.

When first experiencing this, the player is surprised by the possibility of not arresting the enemy and just walking away and he feels like having the ability of shaping his own storyline for the game. By allowing this, players are also encouraged to play the game again and try out how different choices can influence the plot. 

Lens 4: The Lens of Curiosity

In Far Cry games curiosity plays a core role in the process of keeping players stuck to the screen. Players have at their disposal an entire environment to explore and tons of challenges to face, as well as a wonderful story to discover.

At any time during the gameplay the player is bombarded with dialogues with AI characters and interactions with the environment that stimulate his curiosity and aim to always offer him new things to do in the game. The game is designed to push him to explore and to go further the main storyline by rewarding him with special weapons or additional resources.

Lens 5: The Lens of Endogenous Value

In every Far Cry game, hunting represents a core mechanic: by opening the map the player can understand the place to go in order to hunt a specific species of animal. Once there, it’s possible that he has to wait for some in-game hours in outposts before being able to see the animal he is looking for. Players can also kill an inoffensive animal to use as a bait to lure a predator, such as a bear, a tiger or a leopard. Hunting rewards the player with animals’ skin or other items which can be used to upgrade items or to craft new ones. This mechanic also tend to reward more “fair” ways of fighting an animal, like using a bow or bear fists, instead of weapons and explosives.

By doing this, the player is encouraged to exploit the maximum amount of resources from fights with animals, trying to fight them in the most difficult way. Hunting represents a great example of how Far Cry puts endogenous value in side-challenges through its open world. 

Lens 7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Technology:

The first Far Cry was developed using the CryEngine game engine, designed by Crytek. Thereafter, all the other titles of the series were developed using Dunia Engine, which is a software fork of the original CryEngine, containing some modifications made by Ubisoft Montreal to include destructible environments and a more realistic physics engine. The last version of Dunia Engine, Dunia 2, includes features such as ray tracing support on the PC version and support for AMD’s FidelityFX. The series has been distributed on PC, Playstation and Xbox.

Mechanics:

Far Cry features some mechanics in common with every other FPS, such as fights using rifles and explosives, or healing the player using medications. However, it introduces tons of innovative mechanics like vehicles or animals riding, animal companions, hunting, fishing, powering up equipment using different collectibles, applying beautiful skins to weapons.

Story:

Each Far Cry game has its own self contained story. However all the titles of the series share a theme of fighting against one or more despots that control a region, collaborating with the local population. Moreover some characters, particularly appreciated by the community, appear in more than one title. One example is Pagan Min, an autocratic self-proclaimed king of the kingdom of Kyrat and the main antagonist of Far Cry 4, who has been recently announced to appear also in a DLC of the latest Far Cry 6.

Aesthetics:

The series is set in different locations: Himalaya mountains, Montana countryside, Caribbean islands, etc. All of them are transposed in beautiful in-game landscapes and detailed maps. Also the characters are extremely detailed and curated, not only in their aspect, but also in their attitude and behavior. One aspect I’ve always truly appreciated about the aesthetics of Far Cry is the outstanding appearance of animals. I think that 3d models and animations of Far Cry animals are the best among all the other AAA titles.

Lens 15: The Lens of the Toy

Like every respectable open-world game, Far Cry isn’t just the main campaign. When a player enters the game, it’s attention is drawn by tons of things to do other than just completing missions. Hunting, fishing, side-missions, mini-challenges, clearing outposts are just some of the infinite possibilities that a player has to enjoy the game even when the main campaign is finished. In my opinion this is critical not only to keep players playing the game even after the end of the storyline, but also to complete the main plot with tons of side aspects that can be known only if the player spends time taking on these side activities.

In the latest titles Ubisoft also introduced some DLCs to feed players with some wonderful challenges and mini-stories, so that they can continue enjoying the title even months after it has been released.

Conclusion

Thanks to this analysis I learnt to appreciate one of my favourite games from different points of view. I also really understood the deep reasons behind the success of Far Cry, and how developers are continuously trying to improve the features of this series by listening to the community of players. I think I won’t look at a AAA game like Far Cry with the same eyes as before, after having realized the incredible work behind it.

https://www.ubisoft.com/it-it/game/far-cry/far-cry-6

Total War: Warhammer II is a turn-based strategy war game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Similar to other Total War series, the game involves conquering or engaging in diplomacy with other parties (either AI or other players) in the world map as well as small-scale battles where players format and control troops.  Players choose a race and a lord to start with where each race has its own unique characteristics and each lord has his/her own strong spots. Total War: Warhammer II is different from other Total War series where the background of the game is set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe instead of real historical background.

Link to Total War: Warhammer 2 Website: https://www.totalwar.com/games/warhammer-ii/

Lens 1 : Essential Experience

Just as the name suggests, the main experience of the game is to experience the elements of war. The game provides two types of game modes, campaign, and customized battles. In the campaign mode, a player gets to see the more holistic picture of war where players have to decide resource allocation, research tree directions, diplomacy with other players, etc. in order to achieve victory. This game mode is challenging as there will be many unforeseen circumstances that might happen due to the unpredictable environments and other players’ actions which in turn makes it more satisfying and accomplishing for players to successfully conquer. However, if one simply wants to enjoy being the commander in real-time battles, the game also provides a customized battle game mode for players to format and control troops.

Lens 4 : Curiosity

As the game is set in Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe, a player gets to play unique races such as Lizardmen, High Elves, Dark Elves, and Skaven and their respective lords, buildings, technology, and troops. These are things we don’t usually hear/see in our normal life, therefore making it attractive for players like me to try out all combinations to find out how are they like and what they do. Furthermore, there are different objectives and background stories tied to different races and lords which make me want to delve deep into the game and explore more.

Lens 6 :  Problem Solving

As a strategic game, during each turn, the player has to make careful considerations and even calculations before making a move. Often time the player is required to balance between economy and military, plan on troops placements/destinations, decide the track of research tree, etc. in order to out-perform enemies or to merely survive in the game. 

Lens 7 : Element Tetrad

Mechanics

 Diverse but brain-draining game mechanics in a campaign mode:

• Troops recruitment
• Constructions of buildings
• Research Tree
• Lord’s ability
• Troops movements on the map
• Diplomacy with other players

  Exciting but intense game mechanics in the real-time battle:

• Troops formation
• Troops movements on the battlefield
• Lord’s ability (for eg. magic, warcry, etc.)
• Troops ability (for eg. wall of shields)

Stories

The game tells the tensions/background information about races/lords through the use of text and an in-game narrator. However, given how complex and massive the Warhammer fantasy universe is, often time these stories told in the game are generally insufficient for players to understand the whole picture. The developers do put all the detailed background information on their own wiki page, however, it would require additional efforts for players to read up before understanding the full story of the game.

Aesthetics

Character/unit modeling as well as their dialogs/voices are fantastic where it fits my imagination and expectation of fantasy creatures. The battlefield is immersive with impressive styling of the environment.

Technology

The game is powered by TW Engine 3, the third engine created and used by The Creative Assembly for the development of the Total War series. The engine uses Warscape, a graphics engine developed by The Creative Assembly. Although it does provide high-quality graphics, the time taken to render is considered too long for me, especially for real-time battles which could take 2-3 minutes before I can start making actions.

Conclusion:

Total War: War Hammer 2 meets all my expectations about how a turn-based strategy game should be. Its next series Total War: War Hammer 3 will be out on Feb 17, 2022 and I looked forward to better performance and more enriching storylines in this next series.