10 Video Games That Were Never Better Than Their First Levels

There was a lot riding on Bloodborne when it launched in 2015. For one thing, it was a new IP from FromSoftware, developers of the beloved (and infamous, of course) Dark Souls series. It was clear that the game was very much a spiritual successor, not bearing the Souls name but heavily inspired by (and very mechanically and stylistically similar to) those titles. Secondly, it was (and remains) a PS4 exclusive, something the system was in dire need of when the game arrived.

Like the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne isn’t a game that holds the player’s hand. Grabbing the player’s hand and putting them in a half nelson like a vicious older sibling would be more FromSoftware’s style. To teach you the ropes, Bloodborne sets your newly awakened avatar in a battle against a nightmarish werewolf-creature, which you’re almost certainly going to be killed by the first time around. Only on your death do you awaken in the Hunter’s Dream (the game’s hub of sorts), where you’re given your first weapon and sent back into the fray.

Bloodborne is also unique in that its tone shifts dramatically later in the game. At the beginning, it appears to be a gothic tale steeped in Victorian-inspired horror, only to later reveal the depths of the mystical, Lovecraftian horror story it presents. For some players, Bloodborne’s beginning is Bloodborne at its very best.