From Software have done it again. Forgoing fantasy for Gothic horror this time around, they’ve taken their sadistic brand of RPG and pumped it full of steroids. Gone are the shields and heavy armour of yesteryear, replaced with firearms for quick-fire ripostes and transforming weapons to spice up your combos. The open-ended skill-tree of Dark Souls is still here only more stripped down, limiting your scope but keeping a heavy focus on balanced combat. Said lack of scope is more than made-up for with the white-knuckle combat that’s deep, challenging and incredibly addictive.

As if it couldn’t get any better, that’s all coupled with a garishly macabre art-style and an engrossing, if not bewildering, story that pushes the player to learn more on each subsequent play-through. Brutal, addictive and beautifully twisted; Bloodborne stands out as one of this year’s best RPGs.

Whilst our reviewer wasn’t exactly thrilled by it, a good portion of our staff were enamoured with the fantastic Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt which hit current gen consoles and PC earlier this year. Bringing the fantasy world of The Witcher into an open-world environment for the first time in the series, CD Projekt Red have created one of the finest open-world RPGs to ever grace our presence.

Bloodborne certainly has the edge on combat mechanics, but it’s world building and story telling are where The Witcher 3 reigns supreme with a likeable cast, fantastic quest design and a truly believable fantasy world. It’s not without its flaws to be sure, but no game is perfect and what Witcher does well, it does bloody fantastically. Characters in the world are just that, characters rather than just quest dispensing machines and your choices throughout the game can have real consequences on the world at large.

Bravo CD Projekt Red, bravo.