My heart beats its fastest when a Bloodborne boss is down to 10% of its health. Strategy honed through time and torment is applied with a bit of luck, and a task initially thought impossible soon becomes a reasonable possibility. At this point I usually do something impulsive and throw it all away, but that’s the real test of Bloodborne; keep your composure and stick to the plan. When it doesn’t work I feel terrible. When it does I feel like the smartest and most accomplished man alive.
This sentiment was loyal to Bloodborne when it debuted last March, and it’s doubly true of its first (and only) installment downloadable content, The Old Hunters. Like the DLC that followed both Dark Souls entries, The Old Hunters is a controlled amplification of the ideals that allowed its founding game to excel. It preys upon player expectations and introduces devilish twists and turns along an entirely new path. Ironically, The Old Hunters gives Bloodborne players more of what they want by obscuring its own nature. It’s attractive because everything inside of it is a feverish unknown.
In terms of pure content, The OId Hunter delivers a satisfying amount of “stuff” for Bloodborne players. Three (mostly) new environments, six armor sets, at least ten new weapons spread across both hands, and five new bosses are all wrapped up inside The Old Hunters. While not specifically part of The Old Hunters, its accompanying 1.07 patch for vanilla Bloodborne also adds a significant amount of new content (some of which, including a new Bloodtinge spell dropped by a new NPC in Forbidden Woods) has already been found.
I like The Old Hunters’ new toys, but I couldn’t use them beyond brief experimentation. The Old Hunters is accessible after you down Vicar Amelia in Bloodborne proper, and the only character I had in that position was a level 135 strength/skill build In New Game+. Only my +10 Saw Cleaver was putting a dent in my opposition. Still, the Amygdalan Arm, a hulking organic club of a melee weapon, and the Boom Hammer, which, upon transformation, shoots out an explosion, were neat to mess around with for a brief while. I was particularly fond of the First of Gratia, a left-handed weapon that replaced my Blunderbuss, as it basically functioned as another (albeit heavily underpowered) set of brass knuckles.
Through its progression, The Old Hunters also makes a meaningful contribution to Bloodborne’s murky lore. Laurence’s relationship with Byrgenwyrth gains some additional clarity, and the very nature of your presence in the recent past of The Old Hunters’ vista carries additional implications. On one hand I’m trying to avoid specific spoilers, but on the other I’d be lying if I said I could properly contextualize every last detail in The Old Hunters. In most cases I knew what was happening and in others I was motivated by the pure necessity to kill everything in the room. Either way, The Old Hunters doesn’t have a problem with motivating players to press forward.
Content is king, but its application of that content is more important. The Old Hunters’ first new environment is more of a modification of a familiar area. The second is a spiraling staircase with a few tricks up its sleeve, and the third is a submerged wasteland that’s easily counted among the most eerie environments in Bloodborne. All of these places were technically fine, but they lacked the experimental enthusiasm that marked all three of Dark Souls II’s downloadable installments. The Old Hunters is missing the exhibition of experimentation that fueled the shifting platforms of Crown of the Sunken King or blistering blizzards of Crown of the Ivory King. I unlocked a couple of clever shortcuts and I found plenty of vaguely hidden areas and items, but it felt a little too routine for a game as wildly oppressive and imaginative as Bloodborne.
With that in mind, I still had an absolute blast with The Old Hunters’ bosses. In the interest of potential spoilers I’ll avoid names, but The Old Hunters’ boss fights run the gamut of imposing and aggressive patterns. Among them are two giant beasts, one humanoid, one group fight, and a climax that stands as one of the more cruel oppressive battles in all of Bloodborne. Individual mileage may vary—remember it’s entirely possible that I’m just garbage at Bloodborne—but I fought the last boss for like six hours straight before I finally nailed down a victory. I hadn’t been thoroughly worked over like that since Ornstein & Smough in the original Dark Souls. When I finished I was drunk with literal alcohol (after three hours and it being Friday night, I turned this into a spirited drinking game) and metaphorical euphoria. It was a purely mechanics-focused endeavor.
There’s nothing else like this! Bloodborne and its Souls brethren spin a cycle of punishment and encouragement wholly unique in its medium. A task that appears impossible (somehow) always melts in the light of applied skill, and Bloodborne enables a dedicated player to master this transition. The Old Hunters isn’t as different or progressive as I would have liked, but even in relative normalcy it’s still an incredible supplement for a game that I adored. Perhaps I’m inundated with Bloodborne’s fashionable brand of design and maybe I can’t see its flaws. After enjoying four successive games in FromSoftware’s disconnected series it’s safe to say I’m one of them and incapable of proper judgment. On the other hand, does that matter? The Old Hunters is awesome.
