Bloodborne board game

How to get into the vibe of the game?

I checked it out last week when I walked the streets of Yharnam. Thanks to Tomek, I got to know the story of the game and learn a bit more about the blood curse. I wasn’t expecting a 30-minute lecture, but it was nice to hear my friend explain what Bloodborne is all about. The music from the game played in the background, so the immersion was 100%.

I chose a character with a large axe. Apparently, it wasn’t the optimal hero, but in my opinion, he did quite well. Tomek played the hero from the cover (apparently one of the best).

We started our adventure with a quick exploration of the city tiles, just like on the console version. However, here at least I knew what to do. I heard a woman scream, and as heroes should, we rushed to her aid. Later, more quests and more choices awaited us. The story was pretty good. There were also a few boss fights, which definitely made me feel the thrill of battle.

As for combat, we have typical quick attacks, powerful but slow blows, and nervous dodging of enemy counterattacks. Everything takes place on our board, and the fun lies in predicting what the enemy might do. Maybe it’s not as easy to estimate as on a console, but there’s an interesting element of risk here.

Mechanically, Bloodborne gives us deck building. Something I love the most. We play cards both to perform actions and to attack. By killing enemies, we gain blood, which allows us to improve our deck. A cool feature is that new cards replace our old ones, making us feel stronger. We also gain loot and powerful passive rune abilities. I dug a huge Ludwik cannon out of an enemy’s corpse and spent the whole game wondering how I was going to transport it while exploring the city…

Summary

Overall, to sum up my first encounter with Bloodborne, I’d say I’m looking forward to more adventures in the dark Yharnam. The combat was interesting, the story drew me in, the atmosphere of the game seeped out from literally everywhere, and I liked that the game is divided into smaller campaigns. However, the spawning of new enemies and the constant healing of them brought back unpleasant flashbacks from the console version.

First verdict: I’ve shed my first blood and I’m waiting for more.