Y'know, I'd love to give my opinions of this game...
If Sony would fucking send me the alpha.
Oh man, i feel sincerely sorry, thought you were in!
Y'know, I'd love to give my opinions of this game...
If Sony would fucking send me the alpha.
Love the impressions so far, but does anyone know(unless it was already answer)Can you costumize your character like in the souls games?
Well, there's always the beta. I'm sure that will be open.Y'know, I'd love to give my opinions of this game...
If Sony would fucking send me the alpha.
Nice! I was worry about that. Thanks for the infoCustomization is still in just like the Souls games. They just have you select preset characters for demos/alphas/betas.
Wow, no wonder so many people have problems with the Soul series. This guy swings wildly at every enemy he encounters.
The game looks good but they really need to fix the goddamn framerate but since the other Souls games also struggled to run at 30FPS i wouldn't hold my breath.
But then again this is a alpha build so we'll see.
Hey, played it just yesterday and loved every minute of it. But I forgot to test the "Foul Pill" or how it was called. Anyone knows what that item does? If not I will try it tomorrow.
It seemed to be the faster stamina recovery consumable (with the usual sound effect and a green aura).
Is the framerate capped at 30 or is it unlocked like DS2?
This game.
Played every class in the alpha and thought the first two (scythe/blunderbuss and hunter axe/pistol) were the best suited for me; the other two felt incredible in their own right, but also felt like they take more skill to be played perfectly.
This truly feels like more of a Demon's Souls successor than a Dark Souls one despite similarities. You still double tap circle to backdodge or jump while running, you use items with square and every attack button is located on the shoulder buttons. The world feels very 'Castlevania'-ish with the amount of doors and such I've encountered. I was shocked when I saw another player just on the street fighting; I've helped him and thought it was a NPC at first, but soon realized that he was seamlessly integrated into my game world which felt very natural. I was confused by the small inventory and how 'different' the game felt to actually control, but the more you play the more you realized that this is a fantastically streamlined version of the souls games.
Having a heal function mapped on the triangle button is so much better than having to scroll though the item submenu, especially during combat. Being able to transform your weapon with one button outside or even during combat is a bless and opens up the possibility to do fast and stylish combo chain attacks that have not been seen in any of the previous Souls games. The interface consists of way less elements and feels less cluttered than the other ones and doesn't interfer with the beautiful presentation.
The realization of the setting they chose is astounding; yes, there are crazy framerate drops during some segments and not every texture is sharp as a knife, but seeing this in motion with the horsepower of the PS4 behind it is something else. The use of decent motion blur during movements, the reflection of moody light sources in water puddles scattered on the street, the cape physics and the unbelievable sense of scope that puts Anor Londo to shame create an ominous yet exciting atmosphere that many games wished to come close to. The amount of assets is levels above anything you've seen in the previous Souls games: the inside of houses look way more detailed, the streets are filled with abandoned carriages, coffins, boxes, barrels, statues with facial expressions you can recognize and walls and railings and roofs and doors and architectures that are filled with crinkum-crankum.. and then there are this perfect moments during combat where you dodge and you witness the interplay of lighting, bloody coats, motion blur and think "Holy shit". This game is a looker to me.
The truly best part of it that made me giggle over and over again is the combat, and I have no idea how I should enjoy Dark Souls 2's combat ever again since I have some DLCs to finish. Bloodborne is fast. Bloodborne is brutal. You fight completely different than in previous Souls games because instead of choosing between two actions - attack and block - you have to make more decisions and button presses. Blocking always meant that you were safe to a certain extent, and that's gone now. You have no real safe options during combat surrouned by enemies; you can't just raise a shield and look for a wall behind you. You have to zig-zag dash your way between multiple enemies, keep your eye on stamina, choose the right moment to either melee attack or to shoot (which allows you to stun enemies if timed right before an enemy attack), than dodge back and then dash right back into the crowd while targeting the best target. I didn't manage to beat the Cleric Beast, but this was the first time I had a blast to fight a Souls boss again (especially since there is no dumb MaxHP-penality anymore lol). You dash around enemies, shoot them, slash them and transform your weapon to have a wider range and slash the enemies surrounding you, then you dodge a bullet and try to dash towards its shooter while being followed by mutliple enemies and then try to slash another enemy on your way because you've been hit before and the regain system makes you gamble if you want to win health back or not and and and. This has potential to be something really special because it feels soooo fresh.
This is not "I keep my finger on the shield button and walk into the room and if a enemy attacks me there is a slight chance that his attack will fall into the shield radius and be blocked". This is "I walk through open areas and if a enemy attacks I better dodge quickly into a direction where he doesn't hit me". This is "I can't stand still in a level because there are actual patrols who attack me instantly". This creates a new exciting dynamic scenario in which you never feel quite safe if you haven't killed all the enemies. And I loved it.
There were some typical Souls engine symptons though: enemies do the weird "skip animations if too far away" thing, they don't follow you all the way and sometimes have pathfinding issues. There were some other technical issues, but hey: this is an alpha, this is mostly normal. I believe the final product will be better in some areas.
All in all, I know what I'll be playing February. This is a true PS4 killer app and you will love this. Miyazaki and his team have done it again, and I can't wait to get my hands on it the next time.
Seriously i can't stress it enough, a solid framerate (at least 30FPS) is sooo important especially for a game where you can die so fast.
I really really hope From Software gets it and listens to fan feedback because i'm pretty sure this will be the main complain about the alpha.
Wait, so multiplayer is kinda like Journey / Destiny ? People get into your game without you having to summon them ?
Nibel, what happened to your cute avatar?!
Seriously i can't stress it enough, a solid framerate (at least 30FPS) is sooo important especially for a game where you can die so fast.
I really really hope From Software gets it and listens to fan feedback because i'm pretty sure this will be the main complain about the alpha.
Is there any inventory, gear or stats ? I could not find them in the Alpha.
And no character creation, I guess it's because it's an Alpha...
Seriously i can't stress it enough, a solid framerate (at least 30FPS) is sooo important especially for a game where you can die so fast.
I really really hope From Software gets it and listens to fan feedback because i'm pretty sure this will be the main complain about the alpha.
I don't like to say it, but I can genuinely see a visual downgrade to fix the FPS. The frame issues in DS2's network test weren't half as bad as this, and that game got a huge downgrade. I think From are just incompetent on a technical level.Seriously i can't stress it enough, a solid framerate (at least 30FPS) is sooo important especially for a game where you can die so fast.
I really really hope From Software gets it and listens to fan feedback because i'm pretty sure this will be the main complain about the alpha.
No shield, l2dodge.
I don't like to say it, but I can genuinely see a visual downgrade to fix the FPS. The frame issues in DS2's network test weren't half as bad as this, and that game got a huge downgrade. I think From are just incompetent on a technical level.
I don't like to say it, but I can genuinely see a visual downgrade to fix the FPS. The frame issues in DS2's network test weren't half as bad as this, and that game got a huge downgrade. I think From are just incompetent on a technical level.
Maybe people who didn't get into the alpha and are really mad. Or people who don't have a PS4 and are jelly. I dunno.
You still have to summon people but when I did it there was no notification that they had joined my game. I rang the summoning bell and a minute or so later I saw someone ahead of me taking on a group of enemies.Wait, so multiplayer is kinda like Journey / Destiny ? People get into your game without you having to summon them ?
Wait, so multiplayer is kinda like Journey / Destiny ? People get into your game without you having to summon them ?
if people complain about it they obv arent meant to be playing the alpha.
all this is is a server stress test. your not meant to be playing it to go damn the framerates iffy. holy shit where the aa etc.
This is From though, they have a history of shocking framerate issues. I think it's understandable that people are concerned the framerate won't be much better in the final release.
Aren't we supposed to not talk about this?
Aren't we supposed to not talk about this?
Aren't we supposed to not talk about this?
Can someone that has played it tell me if this game would be suitable for non-souls fans? I really liked Demon's Souls but stopped playing after a few hours in 2010. Have not been able to get back into it.
This thread is getting me hyped for this game though
Here's a perfect run with twin warped blades. The guys is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN9c1kMTWk#t=57
I just love the Gothic setting. February can't come soon enough.
I must have played a different Alpha or different Souls games because I have a hard time understanding sentiments like Souls combat is fun again or I could never play DS2 again, as expressed by several posters here. The lack of shields does make a difference but it is not that different that you could enjoy one but not the other (and if you're a good Souls player you know that dodging is much better than blocking anyway, only casuals use their shield all the time. Havel's set, heavy shield always raised, that's how you recognize a filthy Souls casual. ). This game might as well be called Blood Souls, it's a Souls game through and through and feels way too similar to really justify a different name imo. I also didn't notice any increased speed in the gameplay. I played a few minutes of DS2 after reading the Alpha impressions last night to see if I misremembered my time with that game but no, DS2 even felt a little faster, especially running and dodging. That is probably due to my light character build, but still Bloodborne didn't feel any faster to me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm only commenting on the comparisons to the Souls games. I loved what I played, it feels fresh (though not that much) and familiar at the same time, they struck a good balance, and it's a lot of fun.
As for the difficulty: after getting used to having no shield and to the weapon transformations, I found the game was a bit easier than the Souls games, mostly because damaging enemies heals you and the blood vials, this game's estus flasks, had a fairly high drop rate. The gameplay itself is still fairly challenging. Again, they struck a good balance here.
The area where I wish the game didn't feel like Souls is the frame rate. I played mostly Wii U games lately, most of which are 60fps, and going from that to sub 30fps with drops takes some getting used to. It was not very pleasant to my eyes. You'd think that with a much more powerful system you could expect games to have at least half the framerate and be stable. The game is not fast paced, it's not an over top action game with huge set pieces, it's on fairly powerful hardware, its exclusive, which should make optimization easier, so it's not that unreasonable to expect stable 30 fps. I didn't expect any better from DS2 because of the ancient hardware, but this is on the PS4. Come on, From, try a little harder.
I have some more minor complaints like the color palette, it wouldn't hurt to have a few more shades of color there. It was sometimes hard to see the grey enemies in front of the grey backgrounds.
Enemy AI seems a bit simple at times, aggro range is quite small.
The camera needs some work, it was my biggest enemy during the boss fight.
I also think I might miss magic a bit in the final release, for game that is almost 100% combat I'd like to have more options than just melee weapons to give me more variety in how I fight enemies. I always liked switching between magic and melee in Souls, so I hope I won't get bored of only having one of those options here. Call it alchemy and it would fit in the game world just fine with the medieval feel and the plague masks.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed it. Gameplay, atmosphere, music, art direction, graphics are all great. I'm sure the game will be amazing and I'm looking forward to playing it again. My only big gripe is the frame rate, I really hope they fix that. The rest are just minor nitpicks.
I must have played a different Alpha or different Souls games because I have a hard time understanding sentiments like Souls combat is fun again or I could never play DS2 again, as expressed by several posters here. The lack of shields does make a difference but it is not that different that you could enjoy one but not the other (and if you're a good Souls player you know that dodging is much better than blocking anyway, only casuals use their shield all the time. Havel's set, heavy shield always raised, that's how you recognize a filthy Souls casual. ). This game might as well be called Blood Souls, it's a Souls game through and through and feels way too similar to really justify a different name imo. I also didn't notice any increased speed in the gameplay. I played a few minutes of DS2 after reading the Alpha impressions last night to see if I misremembered my time with that game but no, DS2 even felt a little faster, especially running and dodging. That is probably due to my light character build, but still Bloodborne didn't feel any faster to me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm only commenting on the comparisons to the Souls games. I loved what I played, it feels fresh (though not that much) and familiar at the same time, they struck a good balance, and it's a lot of fun.
As for the difficulty: after getting used to having no shield and to the weapon transformations, I found the game was a bit easier than the Souls games, mostly because damaging enemies heals you and the blood vials, this game's estus flasks, had a fairly high drop rate. The gameplay itself is still fairly challenging. Again, they struck a good balance here.
The area where I wish the game didn't feel like Souls is the frame rate. I played mostly Wii U games lately, most of which are 60fps, and going from that to sub 30fps with drops takes some getting used to. It was not very pleasant to my eyes. You'd think that with a much more powerful system you could expect games to have at least half the framerate and be stable. The game is not fast paced, it's not an over top action game with huge set pieces, it's on fairly powerful hardware, its exclusive, which should make optimization easier, so it's not that unreasonable to expect stable 30 fps. I didn't expect any better from DS2 because of the ancient hardware, but this is on the PS4. Come on, From, try a little harder.
I have some more minor complaints like the color palette, it wouldn't hurt to have a few more shades of color there. It was sometimes hard to see the grey enemies in front of the grey backgrounds.
Enemy AI seems a bit simple at times, aggro range is quite small.
The camera needs some work, it was my biggest enemy during the boss fight.
I also think I might miss magic a bit in the final release, for game that is almost 100% combat I'd like to have more options than just melee weapons to give me more variety in how I fight enemies. I always liked switching between magic and melee in Souls, so I hope I won't get bored of only having one of those options here. Call it alchemy and it would fit in the game world just fine with the medieval feel and the plague masks.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed it. Gameplay, atmosphere, music, art direction, graphics are all great. I'm sure the game will be amazing and I'm looking forward to playing it again. My only big gripe is the frame rate, I really hope they fix that. The rest are just minor nitpicks.
Here's a perfect run with twin warped blades. The guys is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN9c1kMTWk#t=57
I just love the Gothic setting. February can't come soon enough.