From Software's work has often featured strong horror elements, with the Dark Souls series having all kinds of grotesque monsters and disturbing imagery for players to contend with. However, From Software's Bloodborne fully embraces the horror genre, giving fans of the studio's games a blood-drenched horror action-adventure game to play this Halloween season.
Bloodborne delivers the trademark From Software-style of gameplay that fans of the company have come to love, with an ultra-tough difficulty, challenging boss battles, and unique level design. Where Bloodborne differs from other From Software titles is through its focus on aggressive combat. In Dark Souls, the best strategy is often to dodge attacks, and in Sekiro, parrying enemy strikes is paramount to success. Conversely, Bloodborne rewards players for playing aggressively, and it makes for an even more action-packed adventure than usual.
Gameplay-wise, Bloodborne doesn't seem like it would necessarily fit in the "horror" genre, but horror elements come into play with its story, game world, and characters. Bloodborne is full of horrific creatures that players have to fight, all the while exploring a Gothic world that feels like it was ripped straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. The storyline is also quite disturbing, with most of the characters in the game's world having succumbed to a mysterious blood-borne disease.
Bloodborne may not necessarily be worried about startling players with jump scares, but it's aesthetic still makes it a perfect choice to play this Halloween. But beyond that, Bloodborne gives players significant bang for their buck. As many Bloodborne reviews pointed out at the time, Bloodborne has Chalice Dungeons that extend the game's replay value significantly, and when players have had their fill of those, they can also check out The Old Hunters expansion as well.
Thanks to its wealth of content and other achievements, Bloodborne is widely considered to be one of the best eighth generation video games released. Many fans have kept their fingers crossed that From Software will develop Bloodborne 2, and while nothing has been announced, one has to imagine that the success of the first game means that a sequel is in the cards.
While most of the games listed in Game Rant's Countdown to Halloween have been multiplatform titles, Bloodborne is a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Bloodborne PC and PS5 ports are rumored to be in the works, but nothing has actually been announced so far. In any case, horror fans who want to play Bloodborne will either need to do so on their PS4 or PS5, as the game has been confirmed to be part of the new system's backward compatibility program.
Bloodborne is out now, exclusively on PS4.