Bloodborne

Phenomenal. My new favorite Souls game - I don't know what took me so long to get to this. Absolutely love the mechanic of gaining back life if you damage an enemy within a certain timeframe, as it really affects how one approaches and plays the game. Fantastic character and monster design, stunning environments, the whole nine yards... and it even has arguably the best DLC I have ever played. Loved, loved, loved it.

The gameplay is just as clunky and dated as the other Souls, but again there is something addictive about it that just motivates you to keep dying over and over again until you have mastered each area and learned the moveset of each boss. While the previous Souls games asked you to proceed carefully and keep your guard high, "Bloodborne" invites you to risk everything and take an offensive approach with the enemies. If you take damage, you are given a short time frame to take your health back by simply landing more hits on the enemy. You still have to carefully plan each move and be precise, as rushing usually results in an instant game over. Extremely satisfying "visceral attacks" become available when successfully parrying a move with your firearm, but I found the R2 button not as responsive as it should be.

Unlike "Demon's Souls", the campaign is perfectly doable and satisfying in single-player, even though some bosses might take a dozen tries. The "Old Hunters" DLC offers more demanding challenges, but if that's still not enough for you, there are also optional dungeons with even harder challenges and extreme conditions.

The plot is as cryptic as usual, but after all, we are talking about one of those games where it's all about the gameplay and the detailed world-building. Still, I was hoping for more satisfying and elaborated endings after all the sweat and tears. The graphics look a little dated for a PS4 exclusive, but the art direction offers a remarkably unique take on gothic aesthetics and Lovecraftian horror, as well as a level of detail that you will hardly find on similar games.

The only serious problems I encountered are the lock-on system and camera (sometimes harder to handle than the boss itself), and the fact that enemies can still stab you from behind a door, a pillar, or even a wall in 2015!! Even indie games can get that right nowadays!! It looks like there have been severe framerate problems on PS4, but needless to say, the game works almost perfectly on PS5.