Descending Into The Nightmare Of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters

Bloodborne might be a gruelling and punishing experience, as you battle against the odds time and again, but it’s also one that’s deeply compelling for those that are willing to embrace the world and its peculiar brand of action RPG. With over half a year since launch, many will have finished the game or simply stopped and moved on to other things. Now is as good a time as any to return, as The Old Hunters invites you to embrace the Hunter’s Dream one more, or more accurately, The Hunter’s Nightmare.

Accessing the new expansion content is not something that will be immediately obvious to many players. Certainly, the pool of messengers that pop up next to the Doll in the Hunter’s Dream is fairly plain to see, albeit potentially lost amid the myriad of similar pools on the ground in the area, and they hand you the Eye of a Blood-Drunk Hunter. However, you need to have reached a certain level of progress, and how you first find your way to The Hunter’s Nightmare is obscure to say the least. It’s with good reason that From Software posted a guide as to how you gain access.

The world you’re presented with fits that description quite well, taking parts of Yharnam that you’ll know quite intimately and twisting them into something new. At first appearance, it seems as though you’ve simply appeared once more in Cathedral Ward, but venture outside the front door, and you find that the world has been skewed. Buildings jut out at strange angles, whole swathes of the area have been consumed by a bizarre growth, while streams of blood run under the bizarre glow of a consumed moon.

The eponymous hunters of the expansion also provide a new and rather formidable foe, amongst other additions, that more than justify the recommendation not to venture into The Hunter’s Nightmare before reaching level 65 – I currently reside at level 73. They’re a stern test of planning and execution, with exotic new weaponry in their hands, like the Boom Hammer – capable of dealing sweeping fire damage – and the Beast Cutter – a weapon with much in common with the segmented sword of Soul Calibur’s Ivy.

However, while a head taller than your character, the old hunters are still shadows of the new hostile hunters that you will come across. As in the main game, these feature much larger health bars, unique attacks patterns and abilities much like your own. Defeating these characters is a path to gaining some of the arsenal of new and unusual weapons, while others can be picked up by exploring the world.

Despite having plunged several hours into the expansion over the last few days, I’ve made what feels like very little headway. As a newcomer to the Souls-like game formula with Bloodborne, The Old Hunters reminds me of the difficulty I initially had with the game. Perhaps it was my dulled reactions and faded memories of how to play – I initially found myself tapping square to attack rather than using the triggers, and spent a few hours before I spotted the path I ought to follow – or simply that the enemies and the way that they’re grouped together are devilishly tricky to pick apart, but I feel like it’s been a struggle to make progress.

Being of a higher level would certainly help to a degree – I’ve yet to finish the main game, so those on a New Game + might find this easier to master with greater experience and better gear to stack against an increased challenge – yet I also know that a big part of the game is learning, and in that regard, I’m over the hump. I now know the first area leading toward the first boss, the enemies within and how to deal with or avoid them, and I’ve opened up new pathways and lit a second lamp.

A lot of it has been learning the world by rote, and it’s within this context that The Old Hunters loses some of its lustre. Though it’s important for the players learning how to make it through a world, it can feel just a little too hackneyed and scripted in places. There can be an old hunter just stood staring into a wall, waiting for something to walk close enough to trigger him into action, while a cluster of beast patients stand just outside of this range. Elsewhere, larger and more bloated enemies struggle past each other to try and get to me while I fought on a bridge above them, yet completely ignored me on my next foray into the same area. Not only are the strings that are being a pulled a little too obvious, but there’s small elements of inconsistency to be found as well.

Though I’ve yet to defeat the first boss, I’ve also found my first summoning point to further my future progress, where I can bring a rather fearsome and capable NPC hunter to aid me in battle. This is one of a number of new features and additions which were added for all players by last week’s 1.07 patch. In addition to letting you summon NPC hunters to aid you, the co-operative game has seen something of an overhaul. Joining and summoning others to a Chalice Dungeon should be much easier, for one thing, but you’ll also see more incentive to join others to defeat bosses, thanks to The League.

Led by Valtyr, a new character that you can find and talk to in the world, you can join the League on the quest to hunt down Vermin that live on the bodies of the bosses. It may be relatively superficial, but for the long term players, crushing the Vermin lets them climb the leaderboard.

In the grand scheme of things, those are relatively minor changes, but welcome for both the new and more experienced players of the game. More important is the new areas to explore and challenges to overcome within The Old Hunters. I’ve only been able to scratch the surface so far, yet to see some of the more awesome looking weapons, meet some of the bosses or embrace my own inner beast, but I know that, for all the punishment I’ll receive along the way, I’m looking forward to it.