"When Should DLC Be Released?"
When playing through my recent batch of games, I've started to realize that there are certain themes or topics that come to my mind. "Hollow Knight" brought to mind the idea of borrowing ideas in art, and how too much borrowing can lead to a game that feels lacking in its own identity. "Bloodborne" brought to mind the idea of gameplay over story, with a dash of high difficulty (or at least the aim of having high difficulty) attracting a new playerbase to a game/franchise/genre. With "The Old Hunters" DLC for "Bloodborne", once again my mind was drawn towards the unfortunate state of modern gaming, a medium filled with false promises, bloat, and "double dipping". This DLC should have been of a similar quality to the main game, but I actually couldn't bring myself to finish it due to the feeling that it was unnecessary content.
The non-boss fight sections were really bland and annoying here. I would say I enjoyed the opening area the most (before reaching the Cathedral once again), but after this all of the enemies felt like annoyances, and it created a very repetitive experience. The worst area for me was either the area between the Cathedral and Research Hall, or the Research Hall itself. Stun locks, traps, and multiple Vicars, Hunters, and Patients made it all too irritating to want to press forward, but I did. I felt that in the main game the enemy design was either way too easy or brutally overpowered, with a lack of a healthy medium, and I believe this gap was only widened with this DLC. Exploration felt less interesting, and the incentives were a large number of weapons and equipment that felt indifferent from what I'd already collected and ignored.
The story/narrative/worldbuilding here (whatever you want to label it) was even worse than the main game. I had no understanding of what I was doing in this new area, and the characters certainly didn't help make that any clearer. Therefore, it just felt like padding on top of an experience that I already found to be too long.
The boss fights are a huge attraction for this DLC, and I have to say that I was intrigued at first. Fighting "Ludwig, The Holy Blade" felt like the best spectacle of the entirety of "Bloodborne", and I enjoyed the crazy move sets he had, the solid difficulty of the fight, and the presentation. The fight against "Lady Maria" (I still don't know "why" the hunter fights her...) was an even greater challenge, mixing bloody design with a new type of boss movement system that, while frustrating, showcased the solid parts of this game's combat.
Sadly, the other bosses were crap for a variety of reasons. The "least crappy" was against "Laurence, The First Vicar", which was essentially the third time I fought against something that resembled "Cleric Beast". The added mechanics felt inconsequential, and I didn't find it very exciting or challenging to face. Moving on form this, the "Living Failures" were brutally annoying and yet painfully dull - their cheap AOE missile attack was badly implemented and led to a few deaths, but outside of this they just mostly stumbled around and provided little challenge.
The worst of the bunch is also one that is celebrated as one of the best bosses in the "Soulsborne" collection - "Orphan of Kos". And frankly, I just don't know why. Sure, the boss contains possibly the widest move set seen throughout the game, and the presentation is hazy and bleak which added to the tension. But the hitboxes and rate of attack from this boss put into question the nature of this game's combat design for me. It felt like there was barely any time to react to an attack, and if I did manage to dodge, I would end up taking damage to a follow-up attack...or AOE.
One last thing that I found to feel sort of weak (a bit of a nitpick depending on who you ask) is that fact that this area is meant to be played right before you beat the main game. If you complete the base game and try to hop into this experience, you'll likely get your *ss handed to you. It sucks that the earlier Soulslike games couldn't really fit DLC properly into the main content, but it would've been nice to at least activate this BEFORE you started a new playthrough in order to avoid awkwardly pausing your completion of the main story. This just rubbed me the wrong way the more I played through this expansion.
Overall, I didn't find this to be a necessary DLC. This content felt like more of the same in many regards, but it also felt like it was done sloppily. There are some definite sweet spots throughout, but it totals to about 1/5 of the non-boss sections and 1/5 of the bosses themselves. I didn't bother completing it because, well, it didn't really warrant completion. DLC like this doesn't generally appeal to me, even for a game that I end up liking, since I don't tend to see much of a purpose beyond pumping out more content. Sure, some fans could enjoy it, but I feel this type of content should only be put out if it adds something special or substantial to the experience. This DLC doesn't do much but add a few more memorable boss fights, a bunch of toys to play around with if you choose, and a bunch of frustration along the way. I think the main game already provided enough of this type of stuff...
Final Verdict: 6/10 (Above Average)
When playing through my recent batch of games, I've started to realize that there are certain themes or topics that come to my mind. "Hollow Knight" brought to mind the idea of borrowing ideas in art, and how too much borrowing can lead to a game that feels lacking in its own identity. "Bloodborne" brought to mind the idea of gameplay over story, with a dash of high difficulty (or at least the aim of having high difficulty) attracting a new playerbase to a game/franchise/genre. With "The Old Hunters" DLC for "Bloodborne", once again my mind was drawn towards the unfortunate state of modern gaming, a medium filled with false promises, bloat, and "double dipping". This DLC should have been of a similar quality to the main game, but I actually couldn't bring myself to finish it due to the feeling that it was unnecessary content.
The non-boss fight sections were really bland and annoying here. I would say I enjoyed the opening area the most (before reaching the Cathedral once again), but after this all of the enemies felt like annoyances, and it created a very repetitive experience. The worst area for me was either the area between the Cathedral and Research Hall, or the Research Hall itself. Stun locks, traps, and multiple Vicars, Hunters, and Patients made it all too irritating to want to press forward, but I did. I felt that in the main game the enemy design was either way too easy or brutally overpowered, with a lack of a healthy medium, and I believe this gap was only widened with this DLC. Exploration felt less interesting, and the incentives were a large number of weapons and equipment that felt indifferent from what I'd already collected and ignored.
The story/narrative/worldbuilding here (whatever you want to label it) was even worse than the main game. I had no understanding of what I was doing in this new area, and the characters certainly didn't help make that any clearer. Therefore, it just felt like padding on top of an experience that I already found to be too long.
The boss fights are a huge attraction for this DLC, and I have to say that I was intrigued at first. Fighting "Ludwig, The Holy Blade" felt like the best spectacle of the entirety of "Bloodborne", and I enjoyed the crazy move sets he had, the solid difficulty of the fight, and the presentation. The fight against "Lady Maria" (I still don't know "why" the hunter fights her...) was an even greater challenge, mixing bloody design with a new type of boss movement system that, while frustrating, showcased the solid parts of this game's combat.
Sadly, the other bosses were crap for a variety of reasons. The "least crappy" was against "Laurence, The First Vicar", which was essentially the third time I fought against something that resembled "Cleric Beast". The added mechanics felt inconsequential, and I didn't find it very exciting or challenging to face. Moving on form this, the "Living Failures" were brutally annoying and yet painfully dull - their cheap AOE missile attack was badly implemented and led to a few deaths, but outside of this they just mostly stumbled around and provided little challenge.
The worst of the bunch is also one that is celebrated as one of the best bosses in the "Soulsborne" collection - "Orphan of Kos". And frankly, I just don't know why. Sure, the boss contains possibly the widest move set seen throughout the game, and the presentation is hazy and bleak which added to the tension. But the hitboxes and rate of attack from this boss put into question the nature of this game's combat design for me. It felt like there was barely any time to react to an attack, and if I did manage to dodge, I would end up taking damage to a follow-up attack...or AOE.
One last thing that I found to feel sort of weak (a bit of a nitpick depending on who you ask) is that fact that this area is meant to be played right before you beat the main game. If you complete the base game and try to hop into this experience, you'll likely get your *ss handed to you. It sucks that the earlier Soulslike games couldn't really fit DLC properly into the main content, but it would've been nice to at least activate this BEFORE you started a new playthrough in order to avoid awkwardly pausing your completion of the main story. This just rubbed me the wrong way the more I played through this expansion.
Overall, I didn't find this to be a necessary DLC. This content felt like more of the same in many regards, but it also felt like it was done sloppily. There are some definite sweet spots throughout, but it totals to about 1/5 of the non-boss sections and 1/5 of the bosses themselves. I didn't bother completing it because, well, it didn't really warrant completion. DLC like this doesn't generally appeal to me, even for a game that I end up liking, since I don't tend to see much of a purpose beyond pumping out more content. Sure, some fans could enjoy it, but I feel this type of content should only be put out if it adds something special or substantial to the experience. This DLC doesn't do much but add a few more memorable boss fights, a bunch of toys to play around with if you choose, and a bunch of frustration along the way. I think the main game already provided enough of this type of stuff...
Final Verdict: 6/10 (Above Average)
1 Comment
I think you outlined a lot of my thoughts on the dlc pretty well. Other than that first area and a few of the bosses, the dlc feels really sloppy and unnecessary. Honestly glad to see someone else with the same sentiments on this one.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
1 year ago