The following is footage from the hands-on demo of Bloodborne that was available to all Gamescom attendees. It's footage is from a concealed mobile, it was difficult to acquire any footage since filming was not allowed, so excuse the quality.
The footage contains glimpses of the 'Controls' page. I can only make out this much.
COUNTER SHOT
- Shoot gun just before enemy attack hits
- The enemy will start to collapse
- When the enemy is collapsing follow up with R1 button
- High power special attack will occur
- Hit the enemy with maximum charged attack from behind
- When enemy is collapsing follow up with R1 button
- Will set off a high power attack different from normal attack
Impressions from the demo: (Not my impressions. These are from a friend who got to play the demo)
At the beginning of the demo, you can choose between either two set characters. One has a Saw and Blunderbuss, while the other has a Large Axe and a Pistol. These are not set classes that will be available in the game. They confirmed that you could customize and create your own character. The two characters were for the demo only. After that it was the 'Control' page which listed the buttons and what they do. As well as explain some new mechanics.
The demo starts off in a random area in the city, with a location title in the lower left corner naming which specific part of the city. For the demo it only said 'Yarnahm'. Just at the start, if you walk to your left there was an item that could be picked up. The pick up animation and the HUD that shows off the item that was picked is very reminiscent of Demon's Souls. The item was a Molotov Cocktail, it can be used to do fire damage to enemies. You could also pick up Blood Vials.
There were a bunch of closed gates close to the spawn area that could only be opened from the other side, and there were no clearly visible paths to get behind the gate. So it seems that the highly-praised interconnected areas of Dark Souls make a return in Bloodborne. There was also a ladder also close by which led you to another level of the city. Confirming previous press impressions about the city having lots of verticality and diverse areas.
Enemies were easy enough to kill with only a couple of swings but the same was true for you. It was very easy to die in the demo and I heard from a Sony rep that the demo was toned down in difficulty so people could enjoy it without restarting too often.
The game looked fantastic, the visuals were very sharp. Lots of blood, attacking enemies with bladed weapons always gushed out dark red blood. The blood effects themselves look very good, some of the best I've seen in a video game. The game was graphically impressive, but was even more impressive with its atmosphere. The atmosphere in the game is so thick and consistent, it's gloomier and darker than FromSoft has ever been before.
The animations were smooth, fluid and tight. The pacing of the game was also turned up a notch but certainly not enough to make it a hack and slash. The player character had much faster movement than in any Souls game. It didn't make combat easy though.