My initial post is going to be short because I am not going to regurgitate 'professional' reviews and I didn't have the luxury of playing a pre-release version of the game. However I will update this review and keep updating it until I reach the bitter end._____________________________________________________NOTE:Having reached 'the bitter ends', i.e. both the deepest dungeon and experienced the end of game and then progressed to NG+3, earned the Platinum (PSN ID: the_DAO), I've updated the content below to reflect my first month of Bloodborne playing._____________________________________________________These are my general impressions:' Awesome AI. Maybe other games have better AI but none that I'm aware of. Bosses manage to be unpredictable.' Impressive graphics, expected on the current generation of consoles. It's 1080p at 30 fps and no frame drop, as far as I can tell.' Fluid motion.' Fast, very fast when compared to the previous Souls games.' A lot, and I mean A LOT of 'Souls' DNA, see below' Intriguing weapons and new combat tactics are needed to prevail.' Difficult, but that's expected and difficulty should be overcome with patience and accumulated experience... the sweeter the rewards.' The dungeons add a lot of content - some say it's repetitive but I find it extremely challenging._______________________________________________________SIMILARITIES with SOULS GAMES- no specific or rigidly defined classes- same health and stamina bars- bonfires- bonfire teleport system, central hub but world sections loosely connected- blood stains- three levels of upgrade shards with the final upgrade, the blood rock, extremely rare- crystal lizards by another name- parries and backstabs but done somewhat differently- seeing the outlines of fellow hunters playing the game, always encouraging- ability to leave messages on the ground for other players to see- some elevators look exactly like the ones in Dark Souls- rag doll physics are back for enemy corpses which is fun (Dark Souls, Demon's Souls)- the hair ornament (Demon's Souls) is backDIFFERENCES- significantly faster- fewer weapons and weapons are specifically right-hand and left-hand- slightly different controls for combat- fewer armor sets- almost no shields and the one I found was just useless- PvP can be easily avoided if not specifically sought, I had less then half a dozen unwanted invasions in more than one month of play- covenants or what passes for covenants are greatly de-emphasized- this game has runes- some different methods for health regeneration- not a lot of magic for the player but some significant on the enemy side- Chalice dungeons, some procedurally generated add an enormous amount of content- lore can be easily traced to Lovecraft's universe - worth reading, can get near all of his works for 99 cents on the Kindle_______________________________________________________PVP and co-op don't seem to be as popular as they are in Demon's Souls or the Dark Souls games. Or at least not yet. I had a number of good co-op experiences when I offered to help. However, I was never able to either help someone or get help from someone inside a Chalice dungeon and I was only invaded twice. It's possible that this may change as many of us finish the game, do the dungeons, complete new game plus and are looking for 'more'.Meanwhile, all I can say is that if you have a PS4, this is THE game or at least it's the game I've been waiting for ever since launch. Only hope that they are going to do a sequel for all platforms so that 'everybody' can enjoy this.