The Old Hunters, from the name of the expansion itself, players have the idea on what to expect. As the current hunter of Yharnam, you’ll venture through the nightmare of The Old Hunters.
Expect more deaths from this expansion by Hidetaka Miyazaki of From Software, creator of the critically acclaimed Soul Series. You’ll die a lot so you need to bring your A-game. The DLC is not just your usual ‘ready to play’ expansion. You need to do certain things first to gain access to its first map. The hunter must sacrifice himself to a giant alien looking spider hanging outside the left exit of Cathedral Ward. Once you are ready to control your hunter, the new nightmare begins.
Defiled Yharnam
The expansion took place in a defiled version of Yharnam. You’ll find some gruesome scenes here and there but this won’t stop you from moving forward because a challenge awaits in every corner of the map. Some monsters are re-skinned powerful versions of the old ones from Yharnam but sooner or later, you’ll find them interesting and provoking. If you’re not careful enough maneuvering your play style, enemy mobs can easily ditch you. The spawning enemy hunters can be annoying if you don’t deal with them first. Every encounter needs a critical focus so you can survive this whole nightmare.
Pizza Cutter, Cauliflower and… Tentacles?
This is my favorite aspect of the game, the trick weapons! What’s a hunter without his weapons? The additional trick weapons range from melee to long range. From Software added more arsenal for us to choose from. They added more armors, guns, blades, whips and other interesting tricks. Though some weapons and firearms are generic, it adds more diversity to the game. The new bow, Simon’s Bowblade turns your bloodtinge build character into a powerhouse range shooter without spending silver bullets. The Beast Cutter, a powerful strength scaling weapons that lets you do high DPS by holding L2.
Some weapons and runes let you completely change your form, including your playstyle. The cauliflower head, no, the Kos Parasite form turns you into an octopus-like creature with tentacles that whips your enemy in any direction. The beast form, your berserker lycan form, can outwit your target by doing quick dodges and swipe attacks.
Dodging Simulator
Boss fights are intense to play. The game turns into a dodging simulator while figuring your way out to defeat the new bosses. Joking aside, the fact that you need to dodge more during boss fights is critical. The new bosses have the usual attack patterns and phases, but they also come with few surprises unlike those from the main game. The additional gimmicks during boss fights are rad to see. The expansion includes five additional bosses for you to slaughter. Optional companions during boss fights does not contribute well. The AI is not that good like in the main game. They can provide additional distraction for the boss but it’ll cost you insights – insights you can use in PVP mode. Besides, you can stay online and summon your friend in the same manner to help you beat the boss with higher probability.
So It Begins
The lore is beginning to take shape as the expansion shows us additional hints that connect to the main game’s lore. You’ll learn more about Gherman, the final boss of the main game and other blurry stuff. Every mystery and riddle of item descriptions, dialogues and cut scenes are pieces of the whole Bloodborne lore. The lore is ambiguous but in order for this to make sense, it’s up to the player to solve this whole puzzle.
The Verdict
The ‘insane difficulty’ is not an issue if the player chooses to rev up more blood echoes to level up. Though the expansion is engaging, it lacks replay value. It was short. It’s time consuming if you die a lot. The whole map can be beaten in one sitting if you already know the ups and downs of a Souls game. The expansion is good enough for a single play through. New players will enjoy this expansion like they did with the main game.
