The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review

"I'm Geralt of Rivia, I'm a Witcher"

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the third title in the Witcher series by CD Projekt RED. An action RPG where you play as the Witcher called Geralt. The story of the Witcher is based on the highly popular Polish novels of the same name by author Andrzej Sapkowski.

Setting

Story

The story takes place after the events of the Witcher 2. Geralt is no longer being used as a political subordinate but rather is on his own journey. You start off in White Orchard, a decently sized region, for where your adventure begins. You are given a letter by the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg saying that you are to meet her to discuss something very important. After you're done adventuring and discovering the region of White Orchard you meet with Yennefer and ride to Vizima to speak to the emperor of Nilfgaard, Emhyr var Emreis who tells you that his daughter Cirilla has returned. Geralt takes this to heart as Cirilla was somewhat of a daughter to him as he trained her from a young age to become a Witcher. Geralt also learns that Ciri is being pursued by the Wild Hunt because of the Elder Blood that runs through her veins. This only complicates things making Geralt immediately partake in locating Ciri to make sure her in heritant power from the Blood doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

World

The world of the Witcher 3 is a high fantasy world filled with magic and monsters but also an extremely well developed world with politics, racism mixed with social and cultural diversity.

White Orchard is the first landmass the player is given to explore and you are immediately given access to a horse as you know you'll be using that horse to traverse across the large landscape. White Orchard is where your story starts and is a good introduction for the player as after you venture out of White Orchard you are placed in a much larger region.

Once you advance to the second part of the game you'll be given a much larger landmass to explore. Although confusing at first, both of these regions are joined together seamlessly. Both of the regions of Velen and Novigrad have a host of activities and quests for you to do giving you hours of content in just these two regions alone.

Velen is a large swamp land that hosts a large amount of monsters. Though swampy, it also has large thickets of forest but Novigrad is where the landscape truly shines. The city of Novigrad is an extremely large bustling city full of NPCs. It'll take you a few minutes to run across the whole city so thankfully there are shortcuts.

Further south in the ocean is a cluster of large islands named the Skellige Isles. Although the island landmasses in Skellige are much smaller, the Witcher 3 gives the player the ability to explore underwater as there are treasure to be found in the large ocean regions that separate the larger islands.

The world you are presented with is believable in its own way. The world is living and conflicts feel real. It completely immerses you in because of the detail that goes into every town and piece of landscape as well as the detail of story and character that goes into the side quests.

Gameplay

Combat/Skills

In the Witcher 3 sword fighting is the main form of combat. Geralt is given two swords and a crossbow as well as being armed with a few spells known as Witcher signs. The reason for wielding two swords is that one sword is a steel sword used to kill humans and non-humans, the other, a silver sword used to kill monsters.

In your arsenal of weapons you are also given a crossbow of which can be used to pick off targets from afar but its main purpose is to shoot flying monsters out of the sky. A well placed shot can knock your target out of the sky and stun them allowing you to have a few shots at them. There are also bombs at your disposal. Crafted through the alchemy tab the bombs provide different effects of which must be quick swapped to suit the enemy you are fighting.

Alchemy is also an important part of the game as well as being a Witcher. Because you are a Witcher, you can drink potions to enhance your abilities. To craft potions you first must find the respective alchemy diagram of which can be bought from merchants or found throughout the game. Crafting potions through crafting materials you find out in the wild or from monsters you've slain can greatly benefit your fighting prowess. Some potions are applied to your weapons so you can deal more damage towards specific kinds of enemies.

Hunting monsters is what being a Witcher is all about and along with the name comes your Witcher senses. These senses allow you to see tracks or details that normally a human wouldn't be able to see. You use these senses throughout the game especially in quests. Quests require you to use your senses to find bloodstains or claw marks left by monsters. Sometimes you follow these bloodstains or sometimes you follow a scent from a monsters fur but ultimately it'll always lead to a monster for you to kill. The Witcher sense is a nice addition to give the player a detective feel as they track the monster down.

Knowing the weaknesses of your enemies can greatly benefit you in a fight. Every time you kill a monster of read a specific book your bestiary gets updated with information regarding the monsters weaknesses. Using this is important as wrongly equipping yourself for a fight can lead to your death.

Enemies can do a lot of damage to you so looting up on food and drink is the best way to heal through damage. Food and drink you find out in the world that you've looted will automatically replenish themselves in your quickslot and allows for you to gain a short few seconds of health regeneration in a fight. It's extremely useful and needs to be handled or else when you run out in a big fight it'll spell trouble for you.

The sword play in the Witcher 3 works well enough. You can do two types of attacks; a light attack and a heavy attack. A light attack is fast but does less damage, a heavy attack slow but deals more damage. You can parry attacks which uses up stamina but you can also counter-attack, though it's generally better to counter-attack an enemy, getting the timing right can be difficult.

You can also dodge roll and side step dodge. Dodge rolling puts distance between you and the enemy and should be used to escape large attacks. The dodge step is your main source of damage mitigation as you can easily side step and enemy and take the advantage. Sometimes you dodge step in the wrong direction, not sure if it is a game fault or my controller's fault.

The Witcher signs Geralt has are extremely useful in combat as they provide a nice source of alternate damage or self buffs as well as being useful against certain foes.

There are 5 signs that you can use:

Yrden - Sets a magical trap that slows enemies in it

Quen - Creates a magical barrier that blocks attacks

Igni - A fire spell

Axii - Used to enchant enemies

Aard - A telekinetic blast

Throughout the game you gain levels and each level gives you a skill point in which you can invest in upgrading either one of your combat abilities, sign abilities, alchemy and general skills such as more vitality or an armor increase.

Investing in certain skill trees will grant you more abilities as well as strengthening their original skills through percentage increases. In the diamond slots you can equip a mutagen, items you get from enemies, that enhance your abilities the more of a certain type of skill you have attached to them. You unlock a new slot each time you gain 2 levels meaning you unlock them all at level 30. This means you can only have a total of 12 active skills that, when combined with a similarly colored mutagen, will grant extra stats for that mutagen. This also means you have to decide carefully what skills you wish to level up as well as what skills you wish to keep active.

Equipment/Items

Throughout your adventures you'll come across many different kinds armor and weapons. The items you find all have a rating to them, a rating you'll feel quite at home with if you enjoy RPGs. They start off common and go to a blue rare and a green magic and finally leading to a reddish-orange relic. These relic items are unique items that are named and generally come in the form of swords.

There are four equipment slots; chest armor, gloves/gauntlets, trousers and boots. Sadly there is no option for a helmet but why would you need one, you want to show off that amazing haircut you just got. There are three armor ratings of which are light, medium and heavy. They provide different alterations on your general armor as well as stamina regeneration but I found myself gearing up mainly light armor because I liked fast stamina regeneration.

After killing a monster that is somewhat unique you can gut them and obtain a trophy of which can give different stats like; bonus gold or extra exp per kill, When equipped the trophy of the monster will be clearly displayed on your horse for you to see.

You'll find ample amounts of equipment to keep you upgrading every level and gives the player a nice choice of either keeping a weapon with good alternate stats or upgrading for the extra damage. If you're sick of scavenging for a new upgrade, you can craft one. Just go to a blacksmith or armorer and have them craft you an item, granted you have the necessary materials. To craft these you would need diagrams, similar to that of alchemy.

Movement

Movement needed a category of its own as its by far the biggest flaw in the game. Geralt feels heavy and moves awkwardly, especially in tight places. The turn rate is far too wide and doing spins on the spot can be difficult. Jumping in the game is a nice addition compared to the Witcher 2 but it's far from perfect. Jumping feels weighted and feels, again, awkward to use. Swimming is, at first, difficult to manage but after a couple of swims in the water you learn to handle the awkwardness and try to limit it. Movement in general could do with an upgrade, it's not unresponsive, just inaccurate.

Another thing to note, even if Geralt falls 3 feet, he'll take a substantial amount of damage.

Content

There are plenty of things in the game for you to do. Disregarding the main questline, which is a fantastic experience in itself, there are plenty of sidequests. There are main sidequests which are generally a chain of quests with a story to them, Witcher Contracts which give you a small storyline and a final boss for you to kill and Treasure Hunts.

Quests are scattered throughout the map. Some quests can be obtained from the notice board whilst others can just be stumbled upon when exploring. There are also points of interest scattered across the map. There are also Signposts which is the game's fast travelling system. Every time you near a signpost it'll unlock itself allowing for you to fast travel there given that you're at another signpost.

The greatest thing about all these extra missions in the Witcher 3 is that all these missions have a substantial amount of story and content tied to them. Each quest will have you making choices that can sometimes alter the outcome of the quest. They are also all very detailed in that they all have a story to tell.

There are plenty of contracts for you to partake in. Each contract always having a unique boss at the end. The Witcher 3 features a host of unique monsters for you to kill. There are a plentiful amount of variety in monsters you face and are all placed according to their natural habitat. Wolves in forests and clearings, drowners, aptly named, in swamps and nearly water sources. There are sirens that are half human half fish flying bird thing and can be found in oceanic regions. Harpies can be found in hilly mountainous regions and so on so forth. Even after completing a lot of contracts I still found myself wondering what kind of monster I'll be facing up next.

The content aside from the main story alone can keep you occupied for many hours. I finished the game after 45 hours and even then I still did a few side quests in my playthrough meaning that there is a lot more hours for me to play in order to finish all those points of interest.

Graphics

The Witcher 3 is by far one of the best looking games to date. It's absolutely gorgeous. There is a lot of variety within the assets used so nothing ever feels repetitive. The only negative a can say is that there is noticeable pop in in the game world as well as in cutscenes sometimes. There are also inconsistencies with textures but aren't as noticeable unless the cutscnes show it. Other than that the character models are extremely high res, the monsters are high res, the armors and even the weapons are high res. Words don't really do the game justice so I just post a few pictures.

Music/Sound

The music in this game is amazing as well. It fits so well with the atmosphere of the game and I can't honestly describe it. Best I can do is supply a video clip of one of my favourite tracks.

Along with the music there is also great sound design. Sword swings hitting flesh sounds real. Stepping through water, wood, grass, dirt etc. all sound and respond perfectly. The voice acting is superb in this from main characters even to side quest characters they all sound really well done. The accent of the game is consistent and no one ever really sounds like they are out of place.

Only downside to all this is that sometimes the mastering of the sound in cutscenes can be a bit weird. Some sounds might player louder than others and sometimes not at all. Sound does sometimes cut out but rarely.

Replayability

The Witcher 3 itself boasts 36 different kinds of endings. Not only will the multiple endings make you replay the game in a different way, choosing different dialogue options to see how things pan out but you'll need to spend a couple of hours just clearing all the extra content already present in the game. Sidequests are a plenty and points of interests will keep you going for hours on end. The lack of randomized missions, especially contracts, can limit the true end game but how long will it take to reach the end game, probably a few hundred hours, and also the fact that the prospect of expansions coming soon will keep players playing until the next big thing comes.

I've taken 42 hours to beat the main storyline but I've barely explored the lands, I have done only a few points of interests and only a handful of quests. I've still a lot more to do.

Conclusion

The Witcher 3 is the best game to come out in recent times and might I daresay, the best game since Skyrim. I've always waited for another big RPG to take Skyrim's crown and now I believe I've found that game. The Witcher 3 features of plethora of content for the player to enjoy from just hunting monsters to doing intricately detailed side quests to just wandering the landscape. If you're a fan of RPG games then the Witcher 3 is definitely the game for you and it'll keep you going for a long time, long enough until the next big RPG game comes to take its crown.

Note: There are a few bugs and glitches in the game. Namely some quest breaking bugs can occur during your time playing and some of these quests have been noticed to be bugged and CD Projekt RED are working on fixing them. One big problem was my ending was set in stone due to the fact that I never received the quest that would alter the outcome for some reason. I went through the dialogue of setting up the quest but never got the invite to actually initiate the quest. Although there are bugs it doesn't really detract from the whole experience as these can fixed in time.

9/10

Update: After 50 hours with the game I come to the realisation that the game isn't as expansive as you might think. People all over the internet are hyping the experience saying there's hours upon hours of meaningful content. Even at 45 hours I've found myself starved of quests. The last large batch of quests I had were all around level 38-32 and now that I'm level 35 I can't find a single quest in the Velen/Novigrad region. I've starved the game of all of its monster contracts all of which were short with good writing but extremely bland objectives. The only redeeming factor of any of these contracts was the final monster fight which was occasionally difficult but nothing that made me have to restart a fight.

The question marks scoured across the map might make it seem that the map is full of 'rich' content for the player to explore but it's more so just ticking small menial task off a checklist. To a point those question marks begin to feel nothing more than an eye sore as only a minimal amount of them actually have anything meaningful attached to the location. Most of them are monster nests easily cleared in less than 1 minute and guarded treasures which can be cleared in the same amount of time. Caves with a boss in the end and because of no scaling content, most the time the boss is extremely underleveled if you didn't do these question marks alongside the story.

Basically what I'm trying to express is that the game hasn't been fun since I finished the main storyline, all the monster contracts and mostly, I believe 95% of major quests in the game. I'm left with treasure hunts that are bugged out, Witcher armor and weapon hunts which are all too low level for me to care about and Gwent missions. The developers said there would be over 100 hours of content and I can see that, but I can only envision this 100 hours of more content if someone is bothered to do those meaningless question marks.

I can't bring myself to replay the game because it's so focused upon story. The choices you make across the game don't influence the world as much as people say. The biggest choice you have in most cases is usually at the very beginning or at the end. Questlines/storylines don't branch, they only split off into a few points, like a double sided prong. Replaying missions just so I could get a negative response instead of a positive one isn't really an initiative to replay the game.

Bloodborne Review

Bloodborne - "Welcome home, good hunter."

Bloodborne is the newest IP from Japanese developer From Software along with the help of SCE Japan Studio in development and publishing. From Software is infamously known for creating some of the most hardcore action RPG titles and Bloodborne is not exception. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki brings a whole new style of combat unseen in previous 'Souls' titles in an attempt to change the way players act and react and they do a spectacular job at that.

World

The world of Bloodborne is set in a town called Yharnam.

"Yharnam.

Hidden amongst the furthest reaches of the treacherous eastern mountains, this city lies in seclusion.
Forgotten.
Cursed.
An affliction has cursed the city for countless ages, an endemic nightmare known only as the Scourge of the Beast. Those afflicted by this sickness lose all sense of reason, transforming into what can only be described as Beasts. Night after night, Hunters rise to cleanse the streets of these horrors."

"A cursed city, dark and abhorrent . . .
Stories told of the mysterious city of Yharnam are both vague and abstract. But while descriptions of the city itself are lacking, details of the epidemic known as the Scourge of the Beast have been around longer than anyone can recall. Many sick travelers have made their way to Yharnam's gates to seek a certain mysterious procedure, despite its puzzling and sacrilegious nature. However, details of the city are scarce because very few travelers have ever returned from Yharnam's gates again. The town's true nature is at once refined and beautiful, and also macabre and horrific. More so than even the rumors could ever describe.

- extract from the Collector's Edition Art Book

And you are one of the travelers heading to Yharnam's gates in order to find this mysterious medical remedy. Upon arrival you realise that Yharnam has been infected by the plague and that most if not all of its inhabitant have transformed into Beasts.

"Yharnam is the home of Blood Ministration. You need only unravel its mystery. But where is an outsider like yourself to begin? Easy, with a bit of Yharnam Blood of your own. Whatever happens, you may think it all a mere bad dream.
The blood makes us human, makes us more than human, makes us human no more.
Our thirst for blood satiates us, soothes our fears, but beware the frailty of men."

Are the first words you hear from a mysterious man injecting you with Yharnam blood in a clinic. You start hallucinating..or is this really happening?

You then get control of your character and are given the task of discovering the secrets or Yharnam and its inhabitants.

The character creator in Bloodborne is somewhat detailed with a plethora of sliders to help you adjust your character the way you want. From Software have not been well known for having a great character creator as you can skew the dimensions of your face so far out of proportion that you could be playing a Beast whilst also playing a human. But if you put the time and effort into your character you can honestly make something amazing.

Gameplay

Overview

"The Hunter's Dream" is your main hub. It's the location that lets you travel to Lamps which function like checkpoints and is also the place to purchase items, upgrade items and level up all with the use of 'Blood Echoes'. You receive Blood Echoes every time you kill an enemy, they are the bread and butter of the game and having them allows you to do all the above. Conserving Blood Echoes for use is a must but every time you die you lose all your Blood Echoes and must go back and either pick them up from where you died or kill the enemy that killed you to retrieve them and they can be easily distinguished from the crowd because their eyes will have a blue glow to them.

You'll have to have farmed enough Blood Echoes to level up in Bloodborne. You then talk to the Plain Doll to level up and choose to invest in one of six stats of which all apply a different upgrade when leveled up. Each skill has a hardcap so there is a limit to how much you can level each skill but there is no hardcap on the total level of the player.

Vitality - Increases HP

Endurance - Increases Stamina

Strength - Increases damage on STR based weapons

Skill - Increases damage on SKL based weapons

Bloodtinge - Increases damage on guns and Bloodtinge scaling weapons
Arcane - Increases damage on Arcane weapons and increases item Discovery

At the beginning of the game you'll get to choose which build you'd like to go for and depending on what you choose at the beginning will ultimately determine the way you play through the rest of the game. I recommended staying on one style of gameplay to ensure maximum potential gain from stat increasing.

Enemies/Bosses

Bloodborne has a host of freakishly large and dangerous bosses along with a bunch of unique gothic horror enemies. In your journey through Yharnam you'll encounter many enemies from infected humans to werewolves to ghosts and even dwarves. The game hosts a bunch of unique enemies all of which you must learn each and every one of their attack patterns in order to successfully kill them.

The enemies in Bloodborne are fast and dangerous, sometimes a simple mistake can cost you your whole health bar and or multiple 'Blood Vials' of which is the health potion in Bloodborne. Enemies can have long or short range attacks depending on what they are and properly equipping yourself to deal with these fights as well as fighting well is the key to winning.

Bosses on the other hand are a lot more challenging than your typical enemies obviously. They are sometimes large or they can be smaller, but all of them are fast and strong. Mistiming an attack or being too greedy can be the death of you. Always dodge and ensure you learn the boss's attacks to take of advantage of them. Bloodborne features a lot of main bosses but also a lot of optional bosses.

Locations

There are a lot of locations for you to explore across the city of Yharnam. There's the main city of Yharnam, of course,  which is the place you start off in. There are other locations other than the main city such as the Forbidden Woods, Cainhurst Castle, an optional location in a castle covered by snow, there are swamps, churches and even a twisted zone floating in space that has some of the worst enemies and gothic castles galore.

Bloodborne doesn't only feature the city of Yharnam but all the locations on it's outskirts. Each place subsequently getting weirder and more twisted with each step through the game.

Combat

If you've played a 'Souls' game in the past then Bloodborne's combat style will be no stranger to you. Although a bit difficult to grasp at first with the low stamina cost and the fast pace action, the combat can be easily learnt but hard to master.

Bloodborne employs a extremely fast action based combat style which heavily punishes mistakes but greatly rewards success. The game features a dodging system of rolling but when locked on to your target you can initiate a quick side/back/front step that could easily close the gap or widen the gap between foes. The side stepping can be used to gain the advantage but use of this dodge can expend stamina which should be managed properly to ensure you don't run out or you'll be cut/smashed down.

Contrary to what the 'Souls' series had Bloodborne does not employ a weight system nor does it heavily rely on the use of shields to block attacks. The game features of a total of one shield which is in my opinion is bad and barely anyone uses it. Instead of blocking all day and waiting for an opportune moment to strike, unlike the 'Souls' games, Bloodborne encourages you to use the side stepping and dodging to gain the positional advantage on your enemies and because of the lack of differing styles of armour, all your armour is light and swift allowing for quick chaining of dodges to attacks,

The way you attack is all dependent on the weapon you use and the style in which you use it. Bloodborne features a unique style of weapon called 'Trick Weapons'. These weapons in most cases have two forms of which can be switched between in or out of combat. You have your normal attacks [R1] and heavy attacks [R2] and this is for both the two styles of trick weapons along with the secondary trick style having a special attack [L2] if it's two-handed. 

Eg. the Hunter's Axe is a one handed axe that does high damage at a short range. The swings are average, not too fast not too slow. Changing the weapon into its second form makes it extend into a two handed axe which has slower movement but higher damage and longer range. Switching the weapon type whilst in the middle of a combo can initiate a mid-combo weapon swap attack that damages the enemy as you switch the weapon style adding more strategy to the way you approach enemies.

In the off-hand, the Hunter can wield a firearm or a torch, whichever you choose. The guns in Bloodborne aren't designed to do heavy damage but instead are used for parrying and riposting enemies. Timing the shot right on an enemy in mid swing can cause them to get stunned. The game clearly lets you know that the enemy is successfully stunned by a loud "ZING". When the enemy is stunned you have a very short window to close in on them and perform a 'Visceral Attack' which ripostes the enemy and does a large amount of damage. Being able to master this parry and riposte system can sometimes win you the most hardest of fights.

Even though Bloodborne features less weapons that previous titles from From Software, each weapon is so unique and well done that it would be hard to continuously swap weapons. Each weapon is easy to learn but hard to master. Unlike Dark Souls 2, each weapon in Bloodborne is extremely powerful if used right. There is no need to change or upgrade the weapon to a different weapon as they are all similarly equal in the end, it just all depends on how you use it that matters the most.

Items

Along with your main weapons you also have to manage your 'Blood Vials' and your 'Quicksilver Bullets' that are used each time you fire a round from your gun. Sometimes you run out of these two extremely valuable resources and are tasked with the objective of farming them again.

There are also many other items in the game that help you along your journey through Yharnam. You may need to acquire 'Antidotes' to stop the slow burn of poison effects or you may need 'Sedatives' to cure you of the new effect called 'Frenzy'.

Managing and applying these items as necessary can win fights and/or lose them if you use them at the wrong time during an enemy's wind up attack.

'Arcane' abilities are placed in your item slots as well. Although you don't find many Arcane skills early on in the game, some weapons do scale with Arcane so if you're invested in that path, continue through it as it may come in handy later on in the game.

Bloodborne features a few unique spells or Arcane abilities. One of them allows you to seemingly disappear whilst dodging, another may enchant your weapon with Arcane damage. These Arcane skills are devastating if they land but require patience and dedication in order to get them and use them efficiently as Arcane abilities expend Quicksilver Bullets.

There is plenty of armour in Bloodborne. Although there isn't armour styles such as heavy armour of light armour because Bloodborne is so reliant on quick action that all armour in the game won't have a weight on them meaning you can mix and match to your heart's desire. Each piece of armour supplies you with physical defence and arcane defence from Fire and Bolt attacks. They also supply resistance to certain effects such as Poison and Frenzy. Properly equipping the right armour for the location or situation you're in can help with the battle.

Bloodborne also features some not so useful fashion items. You can acquire a dress in the game and be that fabulously dressed male hunter or you can wear the Plain Doll's outfit in the game.

Workshop

Like previous games from From Software, Bloodborne features an upgrade system and repairing system.

Using a weapon too much can cause its durability to deteriorate slowly and every so often you must head back to the Hunter's Dream and repair your weapon.

You can also upgrade your weapons with upgrade materials called 'Blood Stone Shards', 

Twin Blood Stone Shard', 'Blood Stone Chunk' and the extremely rare and limited 'Blood Rock'. Each weapon can be upgraded granted you have the right amount of materials to do so. Each weapon upgrades once from basic to +1, +2.....all the way to +10 and each upgrade adds more damage and scales accordingly with your stats.

Along with upgrading, you can also fortify your weapon with 'Blood Gems'. These are gemstones you find out in the world that can be placed into your weapon to give it extra stats such as higher damage percentage or increasing fire damage or adding poison damage. Correctly choosing which gem to add to what weapon can help you secure a victory if the Blood Gem compliments the way you fight.

There is also a Caryll Rune workshop which functions similarly to how Rings functioned in the 'Souls' games. There are 4 slots for these Caryll Runes of which you can apply a Rune which can give you an effect. Some examples of these runes are Health +5% or Stamina +10%, more Blood Echoes from slain enemies, Visceral Attacks heal HP or physical damage reduction +4%. Correctly swapping out these runes to suit the situation can help you conquer a boss much easier if you slot your runes to counter the enemies of if you'd rather have utility runes such as higher health then that could definitely save you from a enemy that can do a ton of damage.

Graphics/Presentation

From Software have done a fantastic job with the presentation of the game. The graphics are great although honestly not that high in resolution but Bloodborne makes up for it in its setting. The world that From has created feels real and the design of the world really brings it to life. The moon shining through the clouds of the smoke rising from the fires definitely bring out the gothic horror of the game. The buildings are well designed, the enemies are freakishly messed up. The blood splatters with every hit of your weapon and it all just feels so satisfyingly well done.

Everything about the presentation is top notch and I don't have much to complain about in that sense. But, the performance and loading times can be a problem for some.

Bloodborne sometimes drops frames during fights with multiple enemies. There is pop in from time to time and not only distance pop in but close up pop in of buildings and structures. Although this rarely happens, it still can get annoying.

The loading times can take sometimes from 10 seconds which is fair to a whopping 1 minute or more. If you don't die a lot the loading times won't be much of an issue but if you do die a lot, the loading screen will definitely get on your nerves. I didn't die to many normal enemies but when I died to bosses, I had to wait nearly 1 minute each time before I run back to it and die again only to repeat the process.

From Software have said that they are going to patch these issues in the coming weeks but for now you'll have to live with the loading times.

Music/Sound

Each enemy in Bloodborne can be distinguished by the sound they make whether it's a growl or a moan or a scream. Bloodborne does an excellent job of portraying its setting through the world of sound.

The music is eerie and haunting and boss fights are always accompanied by epic music which can hype you up or make you feel downright depressed from losing so bad.

The weapon swings and the gun sounds are all amazing. Each swing sounds devastating on the enemy and each gun shot sounds powerful.

The 'ZING' from a Visceral Attack is always extremely satisfying as you grab them and rip their guts out (not really, just a lot of blood).

The atmosphere is enhanced by having no music play except the sounds of the region around whether it be fires burning, enemy growls, wind howling through the trees or the distant screams and cries. As you progress further into the game the more insane you'll become as the atmosphere just gets more depressing and freaky.

Ultimately, Bloodborne's sound design is superb and the sound of the crying baby is scary as hell.

Replayability

Bloodborne features NG+ or New Game Plus which means once you finish the first playthrough you are thrown into the second playthrough in which all enemies are stronger and have more HP. This makes Bloodborne an even more challenging game than the first time but ultimately more rewarding as the rewards are better and you get more Blood Echoes allowing you to level efficiently in the second playthrough or each sub sequential playthrough after NG+ into NG++ and so on.

Bloodborne also features a new dungeon system called Chalice Dungeons. Upon creating a dungeon, the labyrinth is procedurally generated with enemies and loot and a boss. These dungeons early on only stretch up to 3 layers but the higher level dungeon you create the stronger the enemies as well the more layers you get. I've only managed to currently create a dungeon up to the 4th layer but I'm definitely going to keep going until I find the secret boss in the strongest dungeon.

For those that enjoy PVP or helping others during their playthrough then you can do so. Bloodborne features a PVP system in which you can invade another player's game world and be tasked with the job of hunting them down whilst the other player tries to vanquish you. If you're feeling a bit helpful then you can employ your services to help another player in need to assistance with a boss or a strong enemy.

You can coop through the single-player world or you can join together to take down a boss in the normal world or in a Chalice Dungeon. The coop system is currently a bit of a mess as joining someones game can take quite a while and there will be a disparity between friends who coop in Chalice Dungeons as the game only saves the hosts progression through the dungeon. If you wish to both complete the dungeon and both get rewards, you'll have to do the dungeons twice.

I honestly will be doing PVP quite a bit as I joined a PVP Covenant and I plan on supplying my Queen with the necessary tools for her rule.

Conclusion

I finished Bloodborne in around 35 hours which is seemingly short compared to previous 'Souls' titles reaching up to around 60 hours or more just for the first playthrough. Although Bloodborne is shorter than most From Software games it doesn't take away from the sheer factor of fun and thrill I got when fighting the bosses or the other Hunters going for my life.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first playthrough of the game and I'm going to keep going for that Platinum trophy.

The game would've been perfect for me if it weren't for the long loading times and the lag of which From Software can fix through patches and also the short length of the game. Other than that, Bloodborne is coming out to be one of the best games on PS4 and maybe one of the best games of 2015.

UPDATE 26/4/15 - The new loading time patch from From Software has reduced loading times. The average rate of about 10-20 seconds is a welcome change and loading from scene to scene isn't as tedious as before because they have also implemented item descriptions into the loading screen to give players something to read or do when waiting for the game to load. There is still FPS issues throughout the game but not as frequently and as devastating as before. There is lag but the spikes in frame rate seemed to have reduced to only occur during moments with a lot of enemies. 80 hours in, in NG+4 and still loving the game. Got the Platinum trophy a while ago.

9.5/10

Dragon Age Inquisition Review

Dragon Age Inquisition is the newest game from RPG games developer Bioware. Dragon Age Inquisition is the third game based on the Dragon Age franchise created by Bioware. DAI is an action-RPG with a couple elements of strategy but ultimately it's a semi-open world RPG that places you into a dark fantasy world.

Setting
Dragon Age Inquisition is set after the 2nd game in the series with recurring characters from the previous title as well as the first. The world is constant and it places you into the continent of Thedas of which you can explore from one side of the continent to the other. Now don't confuse this as a complete open world game because it isn't, DAI features a semi-open world experience meaning that you can travel to large pieces of land through a world map system but you can't traverse from one side of the map to the other without loading inbetween. Even though the world isn't open world, the land masses you can explore in each region is large enough to give you a few hours of content.

The lore of Dragon Age Inquisition isn't as clear to a first timer as it is to a veteran of the series. The game fails to particularly entice you into the world of DA as interesting or believable. What DA does do right is steer away from the general bad guys vs good guys and instead pits different kinds of factions, per se, against each other as well as against the main enemy of demons. The world of Dragon Age is unique in its own right but it isn't something we haven't seen before. Elves, dwarves, humans, mages and demons, all the types of characters you'd expect from a generic high fantasy world. All the factions are ultimately fighting against demons but the way they handle the problem is what divides the groups from each other. There are Templars and Mages of which continuously are at war against each other.

The world of Dragon Age, to me, felt generic and slightly boring. It wasn't interesting enough to get me to go to wikipedia sites and read more about the lore but instead sort of pushed me away from it because nothing ever came up that sounded interesting enough to find out more about. The only thing I searched up and read about was the recurring characters of which are Varric and Leliana and a few others I'm not going to mention for spoilers sake.

Story/Story
The story of DAI is as generic as you can get. You are the lone hero among a group of similar minded people wanting to get rid of the blight of demons that threatens the land of Thedas. You and your band of merry men and women venture across the lands of intrigue and politics in order to defeat the ultimate boss of which all this debacle started from.

What does separate the story a bit from the general heroes fighting demons is that early on in the game you decide whether to befriend the Mages or Templars of which are at war against each other. This adds a little bit more to the table of political conflict as not only do these two factions go at each other, there are actual political figures within the game that play a role in the overall story.

The story in general has a few holes in it that they don't necessarily explain. As I said before, it is your typical hero save world story so don't expect a lot of sacrifices to be made along your journey. The story was fine in its simple state but it definitely left me with more to desire from the whole experience as it felt a bit dry and gave me that feeling of,
"What? That's it?".

Story/Characters
Even though the story felt a bit shallow, the characters you can interact with was probably the reason that the story was so unbearably normal. All the characters that you can interact with in the story or on a personal level all have their own personal stories to tell, the backstory, the future plans and the reason why they joined your group in the first place. If you so wish to continue to find out more about a certain character, all you need to do is talk to them after every main mission or so and they'll spill their heart out to you. Some might do it on a romantic level but the main point is that each character has a few quests you can embark on to discover more about them.

These quests and character interactions is what kept me interested in the characters of the generic story. Their stories were well thought out and well written and each character had an interesting quest line to follow up their stories.

Gameplay
DAI has your typical RPG elements of leveling up. You can spec your skills, change your weapons, armour and accessories. You can also adjust the levels of aggression or the way your teammates use potions as you wish. The leveling is short with a max soft cap of 20 which took me around 14-15 hours to reach on my first play through. You traverse through lands in Thedas ranging from deserts to snow covered landscapes and even into swamps. All these locations have different kinds of enemies for you to fight and many quests for you to partake in and the map objectives are clearly laid out well enough for you to complete a whole map ins 1-3 hours depending on your general playing speed.

One thing I found extremely disappointing was the amount of loot you could acquire from fights or from chests. The loot table was minimal and I found myself using the same weapons for long periods of time because I couldn't craft or find anything better. This was one of the biggest downfalls for me in the game. The inability to upgrade my armour because the game couldn't create any for me or I couldn't create any for myself.

Even though there are many quests to do in the game, only a handful of them are any interesting. Most of the quests have you running around collecting, finding or killing stuff and returning for a reward. The fetch quests felt boring and uninspiring but because 100% a single map was easy to do and the quests were easy enough to finish quickly, I was somewhat obliged to do it for the 100% completion of the map along with a crap reward and a few points of EXP.

Combat
The combat is action based somewhat similar to action MMOs with your skills you can use based on a stamina system. Similar to mana but not called mana, that replenishes with each regular hit. The combat in general was fun and simple enough to master quite quickly. You'll find yourself spamming the same skills or spells over and over again, sometimes in an order to achieve maximum efficiency but nothing so bad as to stop you from playing.

There is a tactical mode that pauses the camera for you to survey the battlefield and line up skills while the game is frozen. This dynamic isn't really needed until boss fights or dragon fights.

Of all the fights you encounter in this game, boss fights would rank second in difficulty and fun with fighting dragons as the main highlight of the game. Dragon fights are tough and enjoyable the first few times but you'll soon realise that all Dragons have the same attack types and you easily counter them. But knowing the combat mechanics of the dragons didn't put me off as much as it sounds like I'm saying as the fights were really nice and epic.

Overall,
DAI is a good game, probably the best game to come out of 2014 of which was a pretty bad year for gaming. For me, it felt like the only game really worth playing in the year and I definitely enjoyed my time with the game. I know Bioware are known for being one of the best at making RPG games but in my opinion DAI had many flaws as I was playing through it that I wish hadn't existed. I don't know if you'll get the same problems as I did but I do believe that Dragon Age Inquisition is definitely an RPG worth checking out, even if it's your first Dragon Age game. Through all its flaws and small problems, it does come out as a great game.

8/10

Assassin's Creed Unity Review

Assassin's Creed Unity is the seventh entry into the Assassin's Creed franchise by developer and publisher Ubisoft (if you count Rogue as the seventh release as well). Unity was the Assassin's Creed game that touted next gen graphics and AI and everyone always mentioned that Arno was the deadliest assassin yet....but is Unity the best in the series or does it fall short?

Assassin's Creed Unity places you in the around the time of the French Revolution in which you play a Frenchman by the name of Arno Dorian. The backdrop to this new Assassin's Creed is definitely a welcome back to form of when climbing and parkour was fun in Assassin's Creed. Though the map isn't gigantic like Black Flag or as expansive as Assassin's Creed 2, the map in Unity is large enough with the 1:1 scale in which the developers stuck to makes Paris feel like a gigantic bustling city. Buildings are tall and joined wall to wall or by cables on the roof to allow you the ability to go from one point of the map to the other by just running along the rooftops, reminiscent of the classic, and in my opinion the best Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2.

The story starts off with you playing as Arno when he was a child accompanying is father on a business venture. It is at the business meeting where Arno meets Elise De LaSerre of whom becomes your game long companion/lover. During the event of meeting Elise you find that your father had been assassinated and Monsieur De LaSerre, being the gentleman he is, adopts you into his family.

As the story progresses through the first two sequences you find out that your father was an Assassin and after the quick death of Monsieur De LaSerre you find, to your surprise, that he was Templar also painting Elise as a Templar. The theme of a Templar being in the midst of Assassins or somehow being connected personally in the first few sequences has sort of become a trend across the last few games in the series.

Ultimately, you on a journey to find out who murdered De LaSerre because Arno thought of him as a father above a Templar as his reasoning. The whole story is completely focused on Arno even though this time around you are invited into the Assassin's Order far earlier. The game also introduces to you a bunch of characters such as Bellec, of whom invites you into the Assassin Order, and the four Grandmasters of which barely make a noticeably important appearance other than to tell you what to do or hinder your progression. The story is completely focused on Arno and his relationship with Elise more than it is about Assassins or Templar.

The story missions are straight forward BUT they are also some of the best designed missions in any Assassin's Creed to date. The objectives are clear but the way you can approach each mission can always be different. The unique events that can trigger if you perform certain actions is definitely a nice change of pace to the usual go to point A and kill Target A. The developers have done a great job in designed interiors in the game as well as exteriors to castles and cathedrals and such that it makes it feel like you're actually as Assassin at times, sneaking through rooms trying to avoid detection and taking out the target without raising an alarm. The bonus objectives in this game are a lot better and easier to perform compared to Black Flag which makes it fun to 100% each sequence mission.

The gameplay of Unity is improved slightly from Black Flag. Although Black Flag mastered climbing UP, Unity made it easier to also climb DOWN with the ability to free run down walls making it a cinch to get from rooftop to ground floor. The combat sees the return of health bars which was a much requested feature to return. The health bar makes combat harder as it forces you to upgrade your equipment so you can tackle the enemies without being completely destroyed by their superior damage and defense. The combat is easy to learn but hard to master because the delays inbetween attacks really make the game feel sluggish and unresponsive. You press the button to parry the attacks but Arno stumbles and gets stabbed all because the animations and inputs don't flow in combat as well as they should.

There is a lot more end game content in this game compared to previous titles. There are plenty of chests and collectible as usual but there are also side missions. Some missions involve solving a murder case and others involve joining a cult to eliminate the enemies within. All in all, the extra side missions definitely extend the replay value of the game much better than the previous titles. Note though that not all chests can be unlocked, some chests require to you play the Initiates Program which doesn't even work yet and the mobile companion app which is slow and boring to say the least. Basically if you want to 100% the game, you're going to have to 100% your time to Unity.

One of the greatest features of the game is the return to form of customization of equipment. You can choose from a range of weapons from swords to maces to spears and heavy two handed axes and even pistols and rifles. Each weapon fits a certain playstyle and the addition of such an array of weapons is a great feature from the developers.

You have the ability to switch between pieces of clothing that all provide different kinds of stats that are melee, health, ranged and stealth. These provide different kinds of playstyles as the reasons these exist also is because you can take your customized Arno into multiplayer so you can be part of a 2 man or 4 man brotherhood, or sisterhood, or assassinhood. You can edit your head (hood), top, bottom, arms, and boots. The amount of customization is great and you can also change the color of your Assassin from royal blue to hot pink to piss yellow.

Skills is a system first introduced in Unity allowing you to raise your assassination abilities such as unlocking double assassinations or longer eagle vision because eagle vision actually comes in handy in Unity compared to the other titles.

All these skills and customization abilities all tie into the multiplayer/coop aspect of the game which was one of the most requested features to be in an Assassin's Creed game, I know I wanted it. Although the system is not perfect, it does provide a rather exciting experience of being able to voice chat and properly plan out your assassination attempts or going head in and aggroing all the enemies and dying. The coop is definitely fun but it's without its bugs. I believe the coop games run on servers because there was no reason to why any of the people I played with were lagging. We all had a chance to be the leader of the group but it all came out with the same results of lag and delayed inputs. These problems can be patched later but releasing a game with a semi broken coop mode should not be tolerated in this day and age.

This brings me to the bugs in the game. I haven't experience any of the floating eyeballs, no face bugs but I have experience clipping into buildings, camera angles messing up and all sorts of mass crowd AI issues such as pop ins, disappearing AI and in general AI being stupid and walking into walls or on random objects. This has the be the buggiest Assassin's Creed to date and I was lucky enough for the bugs to not directly affect my gameplay too much but it was annoying to see.

Overall, Assassin's Creed Unity does some elements correctly such as the bigger and better parkour/free-run systems and the ability to customize the character again but it falls short in the story mode, the issues with bugs and glitches and sometimes the combat. If there was no performance issues or bugs or glitches, this would honestly be one of the best Assassin's Creed games. Sadly, though, I finished the story in 12 hours of which extended across 12 sequences which feels very short for an Assassin's Creed game. AC2, AC3 and AC4 all had, atleast, 20 hour stories but Unity makes up for it with side missions.

7/10 - Unless you're a big Assassin's Creed fan, I suggest you skip this one until the fix the issues plaguing all the systems. If you have friends you should get it for the coop because it is fun but if you're looking for a story experience, skip it. Other than that, this is a somewhat solid entry into the franchise. Here's to hoping Ubisoft fix all the issues this game has and hopefully through quality control make the next Assassin's Creed even better.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Review

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is a bold step for Acitivision and Sledgehamme games by doing a unique setting of the possible future and it's definitely a step they should've taken.

Single Player (Spoiler Free)
The single player experience of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (CoDAW) is still the generic linear shooter you can expect from CoD games. Though it is linear, the CoD games have always created great cinematic moments ingame and in the loading cinematics.

AW is no different but its story telling is far better than the few previous CoD games that have come out in recent time especially Ghosts, which is one of the worst in the series.

The story focuses on your character called Jack Mitchell (Troy Baker) who starts off enlisted in the Marines who are going to Seoul to push back the North Korean invasion. In the mission, your best friend, Will Irons, gets killed at the end of the mission and you're arm gets severed by metal debris. After these events, you attend Will's funeral only to find out that Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey) was Will's father and he insists that you join Atlas, his private non-government military, and promises to give you a prosthetic limb to replace your 'armless' arm. In Atlas you meet an English man by the name of Gideon (Gideon Emery), whom is a bit of a throwback to CoD games always having a hard English man in the team which was great.

Your time in Atlas is spent fighting the main enemy force of the KVA controlled by a man named Hades. The missions span you across the continent from Thailand to Antarctica and San Francisco. The diversity in AW mission settings is great. Showing off iconic locations in some cases but in general just getting the feel of the location correct in terms of atmosphere and design.

Every mission starts with a short video of what type of EXO suit you will be using during the mission. The abilities you have are mainly boost jump, overdrive (which slows down time for accurate shots) and riot shields just to name a few.

At the end of every mission, your performance is calculated into an exp type system that goes towards unlocking a skill point in which you can use to increase attributes such as reload speed or aim down sight speed, grenade count, armour and so forth.

The addition of these type of upgrades is a nice change from going mission to mission with no change but it would've been nice to be able to change what weapons you want to bring into the field to allow for more variety in weapon usage so you can learn the ins and outs of each. Regardless of this, the game has a lot of weapons in every single mission of which can be picked off enemy corpses.

The single player itself spans across 15 missions which can take up to 7 hours to finish depending on how well you can do. Every mission is packed with action sequences so you won't find yourself missing out on action throughout the whole experience which is great.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer this time around has improved significantly from general gameplay to movement. The ability to jump boost and dash dodge adds a whole new way of playing CoD. The maps are specifically designed for you to incorporate these skills and it changes the pace of the game from a horizontal shooter to a vertical shooter most of the time.

AW spans across 13 maps inspired from the campaign and a multitude of gamemodes but most people only play TDM and/or sometimes Domination.

The stats of multiplayer: 26 primary weapons each with 17 attachments, 8 secondary weapons, 15 perks, 8 EXO abilities, 9 thrown equipment (grenades) and 12 killstreaks.

These numbers, obviously, don't even begin to explain the amount of customisation AW has instore for you. The game's pick 13 system allows you to pick 13 items to use in each of your classes.

You can customise your loadout to the way you want to play, allowing you to choose whether you want an extra perk or not perk at all. You can adjust the killstreaks and their special ability, that takes up extra points to achieve, or just adjust your weapons to have either 2 standard attachments or an extra third attachment. Same with the secondary weapon but instead allowing 1 attachment with an optional 2. The wildcards at the bottom of the screen allow you to equip extra perks or attachments if you have the right wildcard equipped and note that these wildcards to contribute to the 13 count.

The gameplay of AW is as you would know from many CoD games before it. The movement is buttery smooth from one object to another and the weapon handling feels better than the last few CoD games. With the added ability of boost jumping and boost dodging, multiplayer can play differently to what you're used to which is a good thing as you learn the ins and outs of movement as you play.

The weapons don't kill instantly compared to Ghosts or even maybe Black Ops 2 but it does feel correct in the way that you have to get a few consecutive shots in order to get a kill and sometimes boost dodging can change the outcome of some fights.

Here's a video to show how the gameplay is.

Conclusion

9/10 - Overall, AW is the CoD gamers have been waiting for. For me personally, it's the most innovative since Modern Warfare 2 and the most fun since Modern Warfare 3. The EXO abilities add a whole new level of gameplay which takes time to get used to.

The single player experience brings you back into the groove of saving the world along with a bit of battlefield bromance reminiscent of the days with Captain Price, Soap, Ghost and Gaz.

There are some balance issues but nothing that can't be fixed with patches.

If you're a fan of CoD then this is going to be the best one for you to play considering the lackluster years that preceded it.