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Bloodborne’s twisted take on Christianity tells a tale of worship gone wrong

“This, then, is the endpoint of the Healing Church’s quest for intimacy. The Healing Church applied the Christian logic of Communion to impersonal, alien beings, and it destroyed them. As a hunter, the player is cleaning up the mess left behind by the Healing Church’s vast theological failure. Bloodborne is a fable about religious logic misapplied, taking ideas from real-world Christianity and applying them to a place so mad and cruel that those ideas become apocalyptic threats. The Great Ones aren’t gods, really, at least not the way Christianity would frame them. They’re just incomprehensible creatures from some alternate dimension. You can even fight and kill a few of them. As such, the Doll’s intriguing question springs from the same false premise upon which the Healing Church’s doctrine is based.

“Hunters have told me about the church, about the gods and their love. But do the gods love their creations?” Did the Great Ones create the world of Yharnam? They could have. Do they love their creations? We don’t know. How would you even tell? What happens to the people who aspire to commune with gods like that? Look at the red moon suspended in the sky—the fire and smoke mingling with the dark clouds. Hear the roar of all Yharnam turned into beasts. What happens when you want to sit at the table with these gods as an apostle to a Great Ones’ Christ? Try asking that man with the pitchfork over there. He’ll tell you, screaming the only thing he remembers how to say as he tries to tear your eyes out: ‘This town’s finished!’”

Boss fights are the only fights in the refreshingly restrained Titan Souls

Every December, instead of searching for a group consensus, Gameological looks back at the year in games through individual perspectives. These are the staffers’ personal takes on a few games that have stuck in their minds for whatever reason—big or small. These are simply the Games We Liked.

Illustration: Luke Meeken

—Our favorite games of 2014, part one

—The kindness of strangers is more vital than ever in Dark Souls II’s expansions

The Gameological  staff discussed some of its favorite songs from games' quiet moments—save points, pause screens, and safe havens. What's yours?

—Hit pause to play: 9 great songs from video games’ idle moments

The bald eagle is a badass national symbol and all, but on the eve of Independence Day, we have to ask, is it badass enough?

Inventory: 16 video game birds that could kick the bald eagle's ass