22 Games Like Bloodborne
Our collection of video games like Bloodborne features other brutal action role playing titles that will challenge players and feature dark game settings for all platforms (PC, PlayStation and Xbox).
Released in early 2015 as a PlayStation 4 exclusive title Bloodborne follows a protagonist known as the Hunter through a fictional city that has been overcome with a strange blood borne virus. Exploring the Gothic and Victorian inspired world of Yharnam from a third person perspective players will fight their way through the dark mysterious storyline while increasing their character power and equipment to battle regular enemies or bosses.
Bloodborne offers a wealth of initial visual customisation for your Hunter along with an origin that establishes both your story and attributes. Agile melee combat is central to your Bloodborne adventure with Yharnam offering a diverse range of connected locations and enemy encounters. Only the lantern checkpoints or the safe central hub known as the Hunter's Dream provide you safety although activating lanterns will respawn enemies. In time players will acquire Blood Echoes from enemies that serve as both experience and currency to be spent on increasing character power or expanding your arsenal.
The games like Bloodborne for PC and console platforms below will send you to dark settings that require you to hack, slash, dodge and upgrade your way through hordes of enemies.
Darksiders
Darksiders is an action adventure game and first of the franchise that follows the adventures of War, a horseman of the Apocalypse. Launching for Windows in 2010 the game has since expanded to a range of console platforms with a remastered version and sequel expanding on the game universe. Darksiders draws inspiration from the stories of the apocalypse and accordingly centres on the ongoing war that rages between the forces of Hell and Heaven. This struggle has been raging on since the beginning...[Read Review]
Darksiders II
Darksiders II offers a high quality hack and slash style RPG that is available on all the major platforms. The game is often praised for its balanced difficulty, role playing features and well-polished gameplay. In this second instalment of Darksiders players once again play as one of the Four Horsemen, this time as Death. The game actually runs during the same time frame as the original game which means you’ll take part in twists and turns from the original game. The story revolves around the e...[Read Review]
God of War III
God of War III finishes your story of revenge on the PS3 with a refining of the all mechanics you’ve already seen in the previous God of War games. With Kratos still at the centre of the game you’ll have an adventure just as brutal and unforgiving as the first two Game of War games. All the Greek mythology is also there with players still seeking the defeat of Zeus to bring an end to the reign of the Olympian Gods. This adventure starts in a very climactic way as players reach the to...[Read Review]
Salt and Sanctuary
Converting the Dark Souls formula into the fabulous world of 2D is Salt and Sanctuary a title for both console and PC gamers to challenge themselves within its dark setting. With several classes to master which includes unique challenges like the chef class you’ll have plenty of tools to dispose of the darkness before you that also comes with reasonable replay opportunities. The world of Salt and Sanctuary that players find themselves in has been at war for a long time but now finds itself...[Read Review]
Clive Barker’s Undying
For paranormal adventures that involves the occult and plenty of horror few games have been able to capture the same level of atmosphere as the 2001 release, Clive Barker’s Undying. Primarily a first person shooter but also involving lots of magic spells for players to use, the game is considered a classic in the difficult dark adventure video game genre and continues to be available through GOG.com Set in the 1920s the game follows Patrick Galloway an Irish paranormal adventurer who decid...[Read Review]
Dark Souls II
Dark Souls II is the next brutal instalment in the popular and dark action role playing series. Building on the foundations from the original Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls that came before it players can be sure that a challenging adventure awaits. While the world for this new adventure is the same one that was featured in the original Dark Souls players will find that there is no story link between the two. This allows new and old players alike to get a taste for this dark adventure without any ...[Read Review]
God of War: Ascension
God of War: Ascension delivers you the origin story of Kratos while also adding multiplayer into the mixture of puzzles and brutal combat. Ascension is set within months of his families death but well over a decade before the events of the original God of War adventure. After breaking your blood oath to the god Ares, you’ll be controlling Kratos as he confronts the three furies to ultimately free himself. The story isn’t as deep or interesting as what you might have experienced in th...[Read Review]
Shrouded in Sanity
Gritty horror and blood is the focus of Shrouded in Sanity, a game inspired by titles like Dark Souls, Resident Evil and also Bloodborne. This ensures countless deaths lie before you as you try to master combat and uncover the secrets of the game world. Taking players back to 1897 and an alternative timeline players sign a contract to find out the mysterious reasons for the unnatural fog that has previously risen and overrun the manor grounds of the Berelai Manor. In addition to creating an eeri...[Read Review]
Dark Souls
If you want a game with a nearly unforgiving difficultly level Dark Souls is your solution. The game is an action role playing game that offers a large open world environment. Dark Souls was originally released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation but eventually made its way to PC under the name Dark Souls: Prepare to Die. Dark Souls focuses around dungeon crawling mostly with the overworld being a huge open experience with only a few restrictions (some areas require certain quests to be completed first)...[Read Review]
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior (2013) remakes the highly popular original game which was released in 1997, sharing the same name and core gameplay although modernised. While Shadow Warrior is fundamentally a first person shooter players will also need to rely heavily on their melee combat abilities which is both highly effective and visually appealing. In this demonic adventure players will assume the role of Lo Wang, a Japanese assassin who has a range of specialties that make him one of the deadliest in the d...[Read Review]
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor puts you in the middle of The Lord of the Rings universe as you combat orcs with a deadly ranger that also possesses unique wraith abilities. With strong sword combat, stealth mechanics, a large open world and a unique nemesis system Shadow of Mordor offers a high quality Lord of the Rings action adventure with 30-40 hours of gameplay for completionists. Set during in The Lord of the Rings universe a basic understanding of the lore will definitely be a great asset ...[Read Review]
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is an action role playing game with a dark fantasy setting that was released on Windows in 2006 with a subsequent Xbox 360 release in 2008 known as Elements which expanded on the core game content further. Giving players ample choice over how they approach the story and combat you’ll be able to wield sword, magic and stealth playstyles. The setting of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic feels right out of the Lord of the Rings or similarly themed universe with t...[Read Review]
Demon’s Souls
Demon’s Souls is the spiritual predecessor of Dark Souls and features the same focus on providing a high level of game difficulty without relying on cheap tactics to beat players. Released in 2009 for PlayStation 3 the game was remastered in 2020 for the PlayStation 5 with fundamentally the same core gameplay albeit some additional content alongside a graphical and audio overhaul. One thing clearly not changed though is the unforgiving nature of combat which places great emphasis on character ad...[Read Review]
Blade of Darkness
Blade of Darkness is a brutal role playing game that features close quarters hack and slash combat. The game launched in 2001 only on Windows. Players will explore a number of realistic environments that have similarities to locations throughout Europe and Africa. This game world is dominated by the powers of sword and magic with four playable classes available to the player. Unlike most games the differences between these characters extends beyond visual and skills with each character starting ...[Read Review]
Dark Souls 3
For the third time players can experience video game difficulty at its finest with the 2015 addition to the Dark Souls franchise hitting all the right marks for long term fans while also converting plenty of newcomers to the harsh difficulty of the series. Exploring the Kingdom of Lothric the Age of Fire is reaching its end and in turn bringing with it the Age of Dark which awakens the undead and cursed. This process though need not occur if the appropriate ritual can be completed which is where...[Read Review]
Nioh
Originally for PlayStation 4 and PC with a subsequent PlayStation 5 remaster Nioh explores the Sengoku period of Japan and pairs it with a dark difficultly setting akin to that of the Dark Souls series. As you fight your way through the chaotic civil war period of Japan you’ll fight both fantasy creatures and men throughout your adventure with brutal sword efficiency. For those unfamiliar with the Sengoku period of Japan this was a time of great civil war between the clans that occupied Ja...[Read Review]
Soul Sacrifice
Soul Sacrifice is a unique and dark action adventure game for the PlayStation Vita that launched in 2013 that introduces a unique premise onto the standard action RPG hack and slash experience. In the game players will sacrifice parts of themselves (or items) to unleash powerful and reckless attacks on their enemies with a finite self sacrifice ability and the build up of scars on the player’s body. In addition to these unique ideas Soul Sacrifice is definitely not short on story elements ...[Read Review]
Lords of The Fallen
Set in a dark and gritty game world Lords of The Fallen brings hardcore action role playing to the latest generation of consoles with a rich fantasy story. Explore both the human and demonic worlds in this richly diverse title for Windows and consoles. Note an iOS and Android spin-off is available that features similar mechanics although is closer to an arena RPG than the full Lords of The Fallen experience. Set in a world where the Gods have all but abandoned the human race players will assume ...[Read Review]
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow puts players in complete control of Gabriel on his quest to revive his wife and defeat the evil order who refer to themselves as the Lords of Shadow. Rebooting the Castlevania franchise on consoles in 2010 before making it’s way to PC in 2013 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow offers a familiar mix of 3D environments, devastating melee combat and puzzle solving that the action-adventure genre is well regarded for. While Castlevania has seen consistent releases since it beg...[Read Review]
Enclave
Enclave is an action orientated game set within a fantasy realm where players fight on behalf of good or evil with separate missions based on their choice of alliance. Originally launched in 2002 for Xbox and Windows the game was subsequently released on the Wii, Mac and Linux platform a decade later. Enclave is set 1,000 years after the high wizard Zale erected a dome of protection around the town of Celenheim to protect it from the dominating armies of the evil demon Vatar. With the hope to gi...[Read Review]
The Surge
Mixing in science fiction to the popularised Dark Souls like formula The Surge is an action role playing title that also serves as a spiritual successor to Lords of the Fallen video game albeit in a sci-fi setting instead. Set in a dystopian future where our relentless use of resources has lead to exhaustion of resources which has put intense strain on the social and environmental elements of the world. It’s a grim future as players awake in an exoskeleton within a destroyed complex of the CREO ...[Read Review]
Necropolis
Opting to lean heavily on the action role playing framework established by games before it Necropolis mixes the likes of randomisation, loot and varied equipment to create a randomised Dark Souls like Adventure game with rouge-like undertones providing ample challenge. Following it’s original release and player feedback a Necropolis: Brutal Edition version was released expanding further on the game world with a new character, biome, AI and loot. Something that stands out early on in your N...[Read Review]
