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Five years and three mega-hit Souls games later, Bloodborne is one of the PlayStation 4’s biggest exclusive titles of 2015. This was of course encouraged by the success of Dark Souls and II, two mercilessly difficult games that have struck a chord with a niche audience of people looking for challenging video game experiences with little hand-holding.

While I’m far from an expert on the Souls series, Bloodborne tends to feel like the Dark Souls franchise’s more accessible and action-oriented cousin. And for someone like myself who tends to enjoy games that provide a challenge but are still playable without investing hours to understand their intricacies, this is a very good thing.

The first thing I noticed about Bloodborne is the game looks absolutely stunning and runs smoother than it did during a closed-door hands-off demo shown off during E3 this year. The frame-rate issues and lag that was apparent in early builds of the game seems to be gone. Bloodborne’s rain effects, character designs and environment features a level of detail rarely seen in video games, amounting to what might still be the best looking game I’ve seen so far on either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

The game’s impressive visuals are also about more than just polygon counts and high-resolution pixels. They stem more from Bloodborne’s Victorian-inspired architecture, superb lighting effects and gangly-looking enemy designs.

Opponents attack in slow, ponderous movements, forcing the player to hang back and wait for the right moment to strike. Making one simple miscalculation in Bloodborne can easily result in your death, especially if you’re fighting against a boss or large group of enemies. I also quickly learned how important blocking and rolling are to the game’s combat system, much like they are in the Dark Souls franchise.