Today I officially beat Bloodborne The Old Hunters with the death of Laurence and it got me thinking about Brad's comment a week or two ago on the Bombcast. He asked if the $20 price tag for the DLC was worth the content/time for fans of the game. Since I recorded everything on my Twitch channel I know exactly how much time I spent on the DLC and how it was spent (fighting X boss, exploring area, doing PVP, etc.) since I can go back and look at the footage. I made a rough addition of the time and it comes out to about 24 hours of playtime. I think I beat Artorias of the Abyss around 15 hours and it was done with an underpowered character in NG+ just like The Old Hunters.

The other Souls DLC that rivals the content and quality of The Old Hunters is of course Artorias of the Abyss. I believe The Old Hunters surpasses Artorias of the Abyss in just about every possible category. It has more bosses, a larger environment to explore, more weapons, more equipment, more enemy types, and it's by far more challenging. The only thing Artorias of the Abyss has that surpasses The Old Hunters is the lore hype around Artorias, the Abyss and the events of the past.

What does everyone think? Is The Old Hunters DLC worth the price? How does it compare with the other Souls DLC?

Old Hunters is absolutely worth the $20 price tag. The number of added weapons, armor and the first boss alone make it more than worth if for me; not to mention the DLC did a good job filling in the holes in the lore the base game had.

I haven't gotten very far yet, still only up to the second boss, but yes without a doubt. Great weapons and outfits, the story stuff is pretty intriguing thus far and filled with all kinds of twisted imagery that'll be difficult to forget, and the research hall is a fantastically designed environment! So many shortcuts and alternate pathways.

Why would you immediately post an unmarked spoiler in the first sentence?

Anyway, I've only beaten the first boss and it already feels worth it. Very well done piece of DLC.

Yep though don't play it on NG+8 unless you're a masochist. Like me.

Weapons are great, spells are great, environments are great, two of the bosses are great. Exploiting the giant fish men is great.

I imagined that people that have completed the DLC would be judging it's worth based on what's in the game in comparison to other past Souls DLC. Didn't think that people that are still in the beginning of the DLC would be looking at topic. Marked as spoilers now.

I burned through it faster than I thought but I was definitely over-levelled. If you exclude the new weapons and items/spells I think $20 is a bit much. I didn't use any of the new stuff because I'm in a monogamous relationship with the axe.

That being said I think the new weapons and spells add value to the game as a whole because they give you an opportunity to play the rest of the game differently. Am I actually going to go and level up the boom hammer so I can play the whole game again with it? Probably not at least not for quite some time but the option is there so that's cool.

I really liked Old Hunters, but I think $20 is too much for it.

I think $20 is a little much, but the content in the DLC itself is top notch.

Maybe you guys are all just studs, but after getting my teeth kicked in by Ludwig on ng+ at lvl 100 the amount of rage I'm feeling isn't worth $20. If I get past him maybe however I am really starting to regret this purchase.

I haven't played the Old Hunters yet but Brad's argument didn't even make sense. He questioned whether the Old Hunters was worth $20 because it was "only 5 bosses" worth of content. The base game had 11 fucking bosses and it was $60. 5 bosses is MORE bosses than any piece of Souls DLC that I can remember and they were all priced at the same point.

Brad tends to do that. That is making arguments that make no sense but only to him. Go listen to the GOTY podcasts from 2013 and how the Skyrim discussions went.

Anyways, It's really up to the player to decide. If $20 is too much for your taste then you won't buy it, period. Analyzing the price of the DLC in relation to the number of bosses is really getting into the realm of pettiness.

I was surprised when Brad argued this. I don't even like the game and saw this dlc as great value

$20 is a bit steep, perhaps, but the content is really solid and having so many new weapons is great. I've switched out my old Skill weapons for the Winblade 2.0 and the Bowblade.

And while I may be a bit far removed from the main game now, Maria is now my favourite fight in the entire game - even ahead of Papa Gascoigne and Gehrman. Maria was just a well designed fight. The phases were well put together and when I finally took her down, fist pumps occurred and "fuck yeahs!" were shouted.

18.

I agree with everything you said except I had to pay $30 due to regional pricing which I think is just a little too steep. Still very solid DLC both The Old Hunters and TW3's Hearts of Stone from this year should be examples to the rest of the industry on how to make singleplayer DLC.

I find it interesting that Brad and the crew often laughs at mails, comments etc. that takes up $/gameplay concerns and then he gives comments like this about an very substantial DLC. Im not into the game but it seems to me the DLC provides way more content in the style of the original game (Not the usual skill challange, time trial or some bullshit like that) than you usually get for $20 DLCs. To me it comes out as "If we happen to like the game your comment about gameplay/$ is just fundamentally stupid but if we dont like the game lets break it down into how much gameplay versus dollar spent we get."

Meanwhile he praises Destinys DLC strategy like they are actually doing something good...

Ah sorry. I don't know why the wiki doesn't list them all. Even so though. 6 bosses per $20 is a game of the year contender but 5 is questionable value? Please.

@nevergameover: There's more than 18 actually; think it's like 27 or something. There's multiple variants of some of them though so you could argue it's like 33. That said bosses per capita is a stupid argument and Brad tends to make stupid arguments about... lots of stuff.

Brad's Skyrim argument is the stuff of legends. "GAME'S BIG! LIKE REAL BIG! GG MOTHERFUCKER." Which would mean the Witcher 3 would be his GoTY for sure, no? Possibly Just Cause 3 but emptiness counters big so it would have to be big + lots of shit. Brad actual top 3 for the year: Witcher 3, Mad Max, Just Cause 3.

It felt a lot like the reaction of somebody saying "This iOS game costs more than a dollar!?". Pricing conventions are largely arbitrary, and the market has come to expect certain things only at certain price points but I have always found that to be ridiculous. Especially when you compare the perceived value of games compared to the price of DVD and Blu-Ray movies.

I'm wasn't counting the dungeons but regardless, everyone bitches about Dark Souls 2 having too many bosses. The number of bosses really isn't the point. It's the quality of the content that matters.

Agreed. Playing through Scholar the only boss I've thought, "Ah, cool." so far has been the Skeleton Lords. The ones in Bloodborne all carry a threat.

@golguin: I think the DLC is Fantastic! I have beaten every boss except Laurence. I came really close when I teamed up with someone but I can't even get close on my own! I will do it eventually.

It's worth it. I also think that this is the best DLC From Software delivered.