Recently there has been talk of some games being too short and lacking features that were expected by many gamers. However quality games also can have their share of issues for certain segments of the gaming population. For example, Bloodborne has been a well-received title with both critics and the gaming public.
That being said, many people have also commented on the difficulty of the game, as you can see numerous how to survive lists and other tips for the game frequently populating many gaming sites.
As anyone who has played the Dark Souls series will tell you, death is a frequent occurrence in game and you just have to learn from your mistakes, except that death will happen often, and move on. For many this approach also works with Bloodborne but it has made me wonder if perhaps the game is too difficult and as a result, to frustrating for many gamers. Prior to being released, many people said that Bloodborne was not a game for the mass-market as its gameplay type and challenges definitely will not appeal to the who need to be able to set the difficulty levels, and play through game in 6 to 12 hours. I have witnessed people struggle for over an hour just in the early stages of the game as they attempt to figure out the best course of action to complete challenges and survive.
To me this is the mark of great game design in that they make you earn your accomplishments. I remember how I found the first two Dead Space games visually appealing, deeply engrossing, but at times, highly frustrating. With that being said, I also remember the euphoric feeling I had when I finally did overcome a challenge and completed the games. I had a sense that I had truly accomplished something and that I had earned the victory rather than simply putting in a required amount of time and doing just enough to make it to the end.
Bloodborne is the game that proudly challenges gamers to step up and accept the challenge and in doing so, earn a well-deserved pat on the back upon deletion of the game.
Alien Isolation is another example of a very good game that too many was considered too difficult. The developers eventually added a nightmare setting to go with the novice setting to make the game more approachable for the novice gamers or to give those who become frustrated with numerous deaths another option to help mitigate their continued frustration and failures.
I appreciate the fact that developers have crafted a game that many ways is the gamer’s game and that you better come prepared and determined in order to have success. I also like the fact that the reputation for game is being challenging is going to entice people looking for a challenge who otherwise wouldn’t play a game of this type. My only concern is that you may see legions of frustrated folks rage quitting but due to the quality the game, they’re going to regroup and come back because it would only motivate them for.
So in the end if people asked me if Bloodborne is too hard, I say to them it is what it is, a highly challenging game, with amazing graphics and gameplay mechanics that will challenge you at every turn but in doing so make you a better gamer. So if that is too hard then perhaps this game simply is for you but everyone who owns a PS4 should at least step up to the plate and take a shot as it is truly one of the more challenging games you’ll find.
Ehm, does the word ‘editing’ mean nothing to this site? Yep, that was a question! They require question marks (like your heading). Don’t even get me started on the article…
Sorry we are not Emily Post here. I would note that CNN, IGN, MSN.com and sites who employ high paid editors always have issues themselves. We elect not to have punctuation in the titles as many of them do. Article was written with voice dictation software and had a basic edit, sometimes stuff slips through. Sorry we cannot get them all.
No but seriously, this isn’t a few typos slipping by. It’s a mess.
It was some formatting caused by using voice software to write, it was an easy fix. Good thing as two newspapers just picked it up.
I don’t think the problem is that the game is too hard. I’ve beaten everything from Civilization at maximum difficulty to placing among the top 100 people globally in Resogun. What sucks about games like Bloodborne is the emphasis on plain trial and error. Try, fail, try, fail, repeat. To me, this is sloppy and uninteresting game design.
A similar example to this is Rayman Legends on PS4, where it is basically guaranteed you will die frequently until you’ve memorized the correct way to do the levels at which point they’re easy. Contrast this with the old Mario or Metroid games, where it was about skill and reflexes rather than simply memorization.
At the end of the day, Bloodborne and Rayman (same type of game, different graphics) are simply the single player version of the World of Warcraft or any other MMO’s game style: grind grind grind grind.
The person who is the best is not the person with the best strategy or the best reflexes.It’s simply the person who has the most time to grind away.
Bloodborne isn’t really 100% trial and error though. The reason why you died is your own fault. When I die, I don’t blame the game, I blame myself. In theory, a highly skilled gamer could go through the whole thing without dying on his first try (except areas where you’re supposed to die that is). If Bloodborne was actually cheap and unfair, there’s no way I’d bother to play it.
That’s why Bloodborne is good. It’s NOT cheap, it’s just HARD, and that’s exactly how the better older games were designed: hard but fair. We’ve now lost that philosophy and have moved to this ultra-casual age where video games reward you just for pressing a button. The Souls games and Bloodborne comprise of true retro-gaming philosophy extrapolated to 2015, with some nifty innovations thrown in along the way. You actually feel yourself improve as a player and that’s what makes it so rewarding.
I really can’t praise FromSoftware enough for having the balls to make games like these for us in this day and age, especially with Bloodborne. They could have easily casualised and dumbed the game down, selling two times as much as a result, but they didn’t and made a truly worthwhile sequel to Dark Souls. You gotta respect that. Hats off to them.
Thank you for a very well crafted response. Not toning down the game was a bold move as while it may alienate some gamers, others would want to step up to the challenge.