Gaming Playlists: Bloodborne

picture via Playstation.com

Have you ever wanted to step into the boots of a hunter and wander gothic, Victorian landscapes as you’re tasked with killing beasts and monsters, some the size of buildings? Have you ever gotten livid from a game’s difficulty that you threw your controller out of sheer rage only to find yourself picking it up again in a couple minutes? Well this game is for you.

To put it bluntly and mildly, Bloodborne is difficult…like Mega Man (NES) difficult. Sure, the dark winding streets and towering cathedrals are a sight to behold, but when you’ve seen them a million times because this impossible pain-in-the-ass of a giant white wolf-man keeps thwomping you into the ground, you tend to get tunnel vision. After your 30th failed attempt at a boss fight, you might go down an alley way that you kept avoiding because you expected the boss to be a prerequisite, and even if you were right, you don’t care, because it beats getting your ass handed to you again.

In this game of fight, die, rinse, and repeat, variety is welcome, and the easiest way to bring some variety is to plug in your own music playlist. Some may fuel the rage that Bloodborne induces with a well-warranted dose of metal, but I’ve taken a completely different approach. There is a reason game music is usually instrumental and pushed to the background. The music is never meant to distract, and with a game like Bloodborne, focus is key. Even something as simple as beats could throw off a dodge roll and land you in the jaws of defeat.

In this playlist are ambient tracks with a brighter side to them. The juxtaposition adds a relief to the darkness: like adding a fresh slice of tomato to a grilled cheese sandwich...a really dark and bloody grilled cheese sandwich.

https://open.spotify.com/user/1221914413/playlist/2SMdHbpeUqyxE9HbZIOpcQ