Bloodborne delivers death and despair (hands-on preview)

The world of Bloodborne is rich in menace. It’s heard from the wails of a woman in the distance to the screeching sound of a blade being dragged on pavement … a blade that happens to have your name on it.

Hands-on time yesterday Bloodborne (the same version as folks are playing at Gamescom, Europe’s largest game show) promptly affirms developer From Software’s latest action-role-playing game as the unofficial follow-up to the Dark Souls series. You see this in the user interface, the combat controls, and the amusing dependency of dodge rolls. It’s even more familiar if you’ve been playing this year’s Dark Souls II and its trilogy of DLC. Retaining the muscle memory of those recent adventures made jumping into Bloodborne comfortable even though comfort isn’t something you associate with these punishing games by From Software.