Bleak Faith: Forsaken

~ V1.000.000 (6.37 GB) on disc

Completely playable offline with no download required.
Utilized default settings except for slightly bumping back the camera distance & briefly disabling the crouch function from the left analog stick.

Beaten with the "Secret" ending alongside less than 1% 'Entropy' corruption. Majority of bosses, besides the optional 'Plagued Revenant' encounter, were defeated & all attempted trophies unlocked as necessary. "Normal" ending, along with other disputed conclusions, were untested for reference.

* For what it's worth, the offline disc build appears to be based around the "Breakthrough" patch from August 2024 on PC (Steam). Not every single fix appears to be present, but some of the major feature updates, like revised character models, UI overhauls & location refinements, seem to have landed on hard copy. Additionally, the game received significant revisions to the overall design after its initial debut on PC around March 2023. As a result, content will likely have huge differences when consulting any walkthrough material from around the original launch window for computer.

-- Real-time nature of the opening cutscene can sometimes result in several cinematic shots becoming unnaturally clear due to select visual effects, such as bloom or fog, not loading properly.
-- Many low-budget shortcomings are carried over from early build iterations, such as levitating environmental details (ex. rocks, barnacles, etc.), clipping attire designs / animations, scare incomplete item descriptions (ex. respawn blade / waypoint radar have "lore pending" wording) & inconsistent subtitle support (ex. missing dialogue text during the ending cutscenes, etc.)

-- Minor technical performance issues, such as distant enemy / terrain pop-in & flickering textures as a result of clipping. Noteworthy framerate hitches & slowdown can occur at random intervals or densely active areas.

-- Cloth physics will eventually act strange with certain attires, like capes / hoodies, either having ends that float in the air, completely freeze or operate at a lower framerate. On multiple occasions, cloth textures for pants would drift off the character during sprints. Staying still, sometimes jumping / rolling, will often correct these issues, but it might take several tries before everything readjusts & these faults will reappear overtime with no lasting impact on the actual gameplay. Very rare moments of stretched NPC textures from defeated foes that only happened in a single spot in the Asylum.

-- Infrequent instances where mobile platforms, like elevators / swinging surfaces, would cause the lower half of the player character to sink into the structure. Thankfully, this peculiarity would resolve itself shortly after with regular gameplay.

-- Getting hit with an enemy attack while warping can have various effects. Getting damaged while fast-traveling down a previously-climbed large ladder often continues stagger momentum that might cause the player to fall off a ledge after reappearing on the other side. Getting damaged while transitioning to another location would result in the player loading into a void with an indefinite fall. Using the item that spawns you back to your last Humunculus / save point will fix the problem at the cost of obvious progression. One single instance where the player character became invincible to damage during gameplay while being able to interact with environmental prompts, but couldn't attack any enemies. Used the respawn item to reset everything to avoid the problem potentially binding to the save file.

-- When attempting to use the main ladder leading deeper in the Upper Blocks, near the broken highway bridges, the interact button to climb down seemingly wouldn't work after killing the flying sentry. Holding down the button would acknowledge the skip function, but it doesn't become available until a ladder has been used at least once. Stepping away & re-approaching appeared to make it work as usual. No other related problems of this nature occurred over the 30+ hour play-through.

-- Under Blok 6175, where the Humunculus fast travel point & Handler NPC are present, going off-grid by jumping down a concrete path underneath the respective circular structure leads to an overview with a massive, texture-less rectangle. Jumping down to it reveals the platform is solid, but kills the player from upon impact.

-- In Uranopolis, a very small floating block for a large ring structure in the sky appears to be texture-less. Various low-poly surfaces can be found throughout the game, such as during the 'recaliberation' sequence after defeating Nurgei. These seem to be an artistic choice as they've been retained across multiple builds.

-- The ability to grab onto the flying serpent in Uranopolis appears to have been removed. In comparison to a video walkthrough, the prompt to climb, similar to giant enemies, is supposed to appear when moving above the creature on the final tower walkway leading into the Nurgei boss fight. At the very least, the player can still walk or selectively land onto the creature while it's wrapped around the structure & eventually take flight across the area. Just be forewarned that it isn't the most polished experience as large spike textures can block the camera, route can partly clip through several surfaces & the model looks rather rigid once it wraps around the last tower to momentarily idle.

-- Finale Spoiler Advise: In the last stretch of the game, two major consequences take place without direct knowledge to the player. First, after either clearing two 'recalibration' scenes or three bosses + one calibration bit, the entire world map becomes populated with elite "Red Knights" capable of inflicting a corruption status called "Entropy" in approximately 0.25% intervals. While it doesn't have immediate impact on the gameplay, the condition can block out the player from a trophy that specifies completing the game with less than 1% corruption & dying excessively to these figures (estimated 400 times) can result in a unique "resolution" where the player's save file is permanently deleted (as reported from a clip using the PC version). If you want to explore the world map without any additional hurdles, postpone those milestones until you're interested in further progressing the narrative. Lastly, in order to obtain the 'Secret' ending, the player must clear three timed sequences & beat the hidden boss at the end of the gauntlet without dying a single time. After reaching the center of the maze in the Anomaly, which serves as the "point-of-no-return," the player must choose between a terminal or a pillar delivered by a mysterious figure. Activating the latter kicks off the "penalized" section. It's advised to equip the expanded lung / oxygen consumption item, studying video guides in advance for the pathway or backing-up your save data (via online PS Plus subscription service), to improve your chances of success for the single attempt. Please be aware social media reports have claimed triggering progress as intended can still glitch out to prevent the player from unlocking the 'Secret' ending, but it worked on this playthrough using a single try without error. Dying during the segment locks the player into the 'Normal' conclusion for frame of reference.