Not only, in my opinion, the greatest piece of DLC to release for any game, but some of the best and most engrossing storytelling, level designs, lore, and bosses in any video game period. This is From Software and Miyazaki at their absolute peak and playing Bloodborne without this DLC would be to miss out on essentially the absolute best this game has to offer. If the DLC was purely just the Ludwig fight, or the Maria fight, or the Orphan of Kos fight it would still be an impressive piece of art. The events that unfold in the Hunter's Nightmare and how it recontextualizes the base game and several characters we have either met so far or have heard about is some of the most tragic, disturbing, and memorable storytelling From Software has presented yet. And even though it borrows heavily from the stories of Lovecraft maybe even more so than the base game (The Shadow Over Innsmouth specifically), it is able to utilize similar themes and aesthetics in a way that only acts to enhance the story of Bloodborne and creates a story that truly stands as its own - a story that would only be able to be told this brilliantly and with this much impact as a video game. Its influences are more than apparent but, like most great art, it manages to take an amalgamation of inspirational material and make something wholly new. Truly, I believe this to be a work of high art.

Not a fan of some of the lighting changes and the overall over brightening of everything (plus the new bonfire effect). However, being able to shrink the UI is great...but then the boss health bars become really small and dumb looking along with it. The Nintendo Switch version would be my preferable version, weirdly enough, if it weren't for the abysmal sound quality - whatever happened there - as it is basically just portable Prepare to Die edition. 60fps is nice for all other versions, but playing the original Prepare to Die edition on the PC with mods is definitely a better experience (if you are lucky enough to even have that copy of the game since they so kindly delisted it from Steam).

However, it is still Dark Souls and I adore Dark Souls (see my review for the original game or Prepare to Die edition). And if you are interested in the PvP for this game for some ungodly reason then this is the best way to play.