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| Dive Into The Darkest Secrets of Yharnam. |
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Version(s): Exclusively for PS4
Price: $19.99
Release: November 24th, 2015
When I reviewed Bloodborne a few months ago I had very little negative to say about it. The only major criticism that I could muster was that the load times were pretty bad and even then an update released about a month after launch fixed that problem. But after months of playing and getting more familiar with From Software's other works I do have a few more. While I do favor Bloodborne's focus on fewer and more distinct weapons than Dark Souls many, indistinct weapons there still weren't enough to really make the most out of certain character builds. The randomly generated chalice dungeons were also an interesting concept that was undermined by the constant farming you had to do for materials to make them and the rather lackluster loot you got from these them often didn't even feel they were worth the time and effort to get them. Bloodborne also has the least developed multiplayer component out of all of their recent games. Does Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, the one and only major expansion planned for Bloodborne, address all of these issues. Let's find out.
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| The Gatling Gun is one of many new sidearms that can be found within the new areas of The Old Hunters. |
Bloodborne: The Old Hunters takes place primarily within a new location called The Hunter's Nightmare, a terrible dreamscape where all of Yharnam's oldest hunters are trapped forever engaged in an endless hunt. Within this new location are three massive new areas to explore each with their own horrors you must endure and defeat. One of the best thing about The Old Hunters is that it takes familiar enemies from other areas of the game and gives them all new move sets that you have to learn if you are to properly fight them. The number of NPC hunter battles has also increased considerably commonly putting you on equal ground with your enemies making for some very interesting fights. There are brand new enemies as well as new bosses, but I wouldn't dare spoil them because they are some of the most enjoyable encounters I have had in quite a while.
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| Brador, The Healing Church Assassin is one of the new characters introduced in The Old Hunters. You should be very afraid when you hear that bell he's ringing. |
The real stars of The Old Hunters however are the large amount of new weapons that you find in The Hunter's Nightmare. There are eleven new trick weapons, five new sidearms, and four new hunter tools that you can now find to beef up your arsenal. My favorite new weapon has to be the Whiligig Saw with is basically a mace that can be transformed into a buzzsaw hammer. My favorite new sidearm is the Loch Shield which grants a great deal of defense against magic attacks. My favorite new hunter tool is the Blacksky Eye which can shoot a meteor at distant enemies. The best thing about all of these new weapons and tools is that you don't have to jump through hoops to get most of them you can just find them laying around and then use them as long as you met the attribute requirements. You don't have to find badges that unlocked them at the shop and then grind for Blood Echos to actually buy them like in the base game.
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| The Holy Moonlight Sword. A staple of almost all From Software RPGs returns with heavy story significance in The Old Hunters. |
Another awesome feature in The Old Hunters is the ability to finally transform into beasts which is something I'm baffled wasn't in the game at launch. The process for unlocking this ability requires that you fight an incredibly difficult boss but it is well worth it. In beast form all of your attacks fill the beasthood meter that you get when you use a Beast Blood Pellet and if you use the Beast Claw weapons when in beast form you get a vastly expanded moveset. There is also another transformation you can unlock, but again I don't want to spoil it because it's pretty awesome.
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| The Beast's Embrace rune allows players to finally transform into beast themselves and unlocks the true power of the Beast Claw weapon. |
Another great thing of The Old Hunters is that not all of it's content is exclusive to those that buy the expansion. A free patch to the main game added a new covenant called The League for all players which encourages players to cooperate with each other to rank up within the covenant. You can join The League by talking to a new NPC named Valtr in the in the Forbidden Woods. It is a great addition as one of Bloodborne few flaws was the lack of incentive to actually help other players. Another major addition that all players can enjoy is the improvements made to the Chalice Dungeon. Rather then having to struggle to do anything multiplayer related in the Chalice Dungeon, the premade Chalice Dungeons now are shared by all players as if it were an area from the main game. Materials needed to make randomized Chalice Dungeons are also much easier to obtain since they are now available at the shops in the Hunter's Dream on New Game Plus.
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| Yamamura, The Wanderer is one of the new character you can summon for help if you are a member of The League. |
In conclusion, The Old Hunters is everything an expansion should be. Something that adds a lot of new content to an already fantastic game and addresses the few flaws that were there from the start. If you are a fan of Bloodborne this expansion is pretty much mandatory and if you are new to Bloodborne you can purchase the base game at a reduced price. Combined with price of the expansion you can get the full Bloodborne experience for $59.99 which is a great price for amount of content this game offers. Bloodborne was already one of the best games of the year and The Old Hunters has just made it even better. Bloodborne The Old Hunters is available for $19.99 of the Playstation Network Store
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