2. Bloodborne
When Demon's/Dark Souls-creator Hidetaka Miyazaki mentioned his next game wasn't going to be another Dark Souls, but a new potential franchise called Bloodborne, fans eagerly anticipated what it would look like. How much of the core formula would change? And would there be enough of the razor-sharp Soulsian difficulty in there to make it worthy of Miyazaki's name? Well, yes, yes and a million times yes. Bloodborne not only takes the potent Souls formula of twinning rewarding exploration with studying your enemies' attack patterns and animations to a tee - but throws in a far more involving, easily-understandable narrative to back it all up. By throwing you into a nightmarish city that appears to be afflicted by an onset of beasts and demons, you'll set out to cleanse the streets with the help of a huge number of cobbled-together weapons, leathery armour - all set in a world more gothic than Marilyn Manson at an H.P. Lovecraft book reading. In the end yes, this is 'another Souls game' in its basic control scheme, but therein lies the smallest tweaks that make the biggest difference. By removing the ability to block and forcing you to dodge - as well as having one of the most unforgiving and brutal opening sections in terms of difficulty - it thins the ranks of those who'll want to stick with it to the end. And that's a great thing, as what awaits you around every corner of Bloodborne's city of Yharnam is one of the most rewarding experiences in quite some time.