CREDIT: Titan Comics
Rating: 3.5/5 – Comics Set in the Lovecraft-Inspired World of Bloodborne.
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
I’m a big fan of the FromSoftware games Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Of the two, Bloodborne is my preferred title as I love the setting, monsters and H.P. Lovecraft inspired world and themes. Unfortunately, the games don’t give the player much in terms of a cohesive story. Both game worlds are purposefully vague, forcing the player to try his or her best to piece the story together by gathering items and reading their descriptions in the hopes of tying the narrative, gameplay scenes, and action together. Although I didn’t expect a clear and simple story with Bloodborne number one, I was hoping writer Ales Kot, a huge Bloodborne fan, would tell a more traditional story set within the Bloodborne Universe.
So far, this first issue hovers somewhere in between the two. While the story flows well, there’s still plenty of questions as to who some of the characters are, and how they relate to one another. This issue opens up with the familiar Hunter from the game walking through Yharnam, slaughtering monsters as he goes. He stops once he sees a small child, a pale blood. From there, more familiar faces from the game show up until the end, where I was left with even more questions, but slightly more confident than I was during my playing of the game that we may eventually get some clearer answers.
I really enjoyed the art by Piotr Kowalski, but unfortunately his panels didn’t always flow from one to another. There were a few times where the action felt as though it was missing some panels, or Kowalski missed the opportunity to lay his pages out differently to tell a clearer story. His full page splashes are wonderful though and the monsters are whet you’d expect from the game. I didn’t enjoy Titan’s attempt at the Dark Souls comic and dropped it after two issues, but I enjoyed this first issue of Bloodborne much more and plan to be back for at least a few more issues.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics
