You carved your soul to shreds in servitude to a dark god, but false promises and betrayal were your only reward. Now you have a score to settle and it will be measured in blood! Experience the madness in one carnage-soaked package! All the gore, all the unholy war! Zombies, gargoyles, hellhounds and blood-crazed hordes of horrors await! Crush loathsome evil of the mighty Tchernobog! Or condemn yourself to eternal damnation in this leviathan of unhallowed gaming action! Visit a dark near-future world populated by hundreds of bloodthirsty enemies. You'll engage in a nightmarish battle against the minions of an ancient god bent on wiping humanity from the face of the earth. With cultists, gargoyles, zombies, hellhounds, and an unholy host of other terrors, Blood immerses you in a world of horror unlike any you've experienced before.
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Blood is a fantastic shooter of the "Doom clone" variety. Far from a mere clone, Blood's opts for a culty take on Doom's campy sprite-based gore-fest. It's an aesthetic triumph!
It really excels in the level-design, with spaces that straddle the line between believable 3D space and 90's FPS abstraction, making Doom II's rendering of Earth in its middle chapter look utterly Stone Age by comparison.
Where it falls short is in the mechanical design of the enemies, with copius hitscan causing the combat design to feel somewhat undisciplined.
It really excels in the level-design, with spaces that straddle the line between believable 3D space and 90's FPS abstraction, making Doom II's rendering of Earth in its middle chapter look utterly Stone Age by comparison.
Where it falls short is in the mechanical design of the enemies, with copius hitscan causing the combat design to feel somewhat undisciplined.
Oh you love Blood. You love it. It knocked your socks off so far off your feet that the blood couldn't catch up.
This game is fucking badass. Lot of crazy action. As someone who loved Doom and Heretic, this absolutely delivered. I might even say I like it more than Heretic. The action is just so out there. Every enemy is memorable. The bosses probably gave you a journey to remember.
4 episodes of like 7 levels each. For the most part the game got better the more I played it. There's a couple of levels I got super lost in but for the most part it was pretty chill to navigate. That navigation filled with a ton of shit to kill and weapons that make you feel like a badass. This game is more Bonestorm than Bonestorm ever was! There's an expansion or two that came with this but I will play those at a later date to spread out the package.
Can't stress about the weapons. It makes the simple act of shooting a regular zombie way more fun because you have a lot of fun unique tools to use. I beat this game pretty fast because I was craving more action and every day just kept playing more than I usually do.
If you like blood, if you like 90s style shooting games, if you like being a cool guy in a cloak, then this game is probably for you. Wish I had this when I was 10 years old instead of 38! This "backlog in release order" journey has been super fulfilling because I get to play cool shit like Blood that I would have never played otherwise.
This game is fucking badass. Lot of crazy action. As someone who loved Doom and Heretic, this absolutely delivered. I might even say I like it more than Heretic. The action is just so out there. Every enemy is memorable. The bosses probably gave you a journey to remember.
4 episodes of like 7 levels each. For the most part the game got better the more I played it. There's a couple of levels I got super lost in but for the most part it was pretty chill to navigate. That navigation filled with a ton of shit to kill and weapons that make you feel like a badass. This game is more Bonestorm than Bonestorm ever was! There's an expansion or two that came with this but I will play those at a later date to spread out the package.
Can't stress about the weapons. It makes the simple act of shooting a regular zombie way more fun because you have a lot of fun unique tools to use. I beat this game pretty fast because I was craving more action and every day just kept playing more than I usually do.
If you like blood, if you like 90s style shooting games, if you like being a cool guy in a cloak, then this game is probably for you. Wish I had this when I was 10 years old instead of 38! This "backlog in release order" journey has been super fulfilling because I get to play cool shit like Blood that I would have never played otherwise.
Very atmospheric and challenging.
blood really does hate you to a remarkable degree. if you thought doom 2 went overboard with hitscanners, blood pisses in your cheerios and calls you a bitch on live television. every single enemy is designed to be some flavor of aggravating, from the lowest tier zombies resurrecting after being killed with the shotgun to the highest tier gargoyles that are only feasibly damaged by about two weapons. it's a fascinating thing.
somehow, though, there's a rhythm to blood that's difficult to rationalize. it's less like a boomer shooter in the old doom/duke way and far more like a first cut at the concept of hotline miami. you have a lot of ways to approach an encounter, and you're encouraged to liberally quicksave and blast into each one with the correct tool for the job to limit resource expenditure. you take a ton of damage, but most everything is pretty squishy if you apply the correct weapon to it, to the point that recycled bosses are notable as the exception.
what really props blood up is how incredibly solid the core weapons are. it's not a perfect list - i'm not a fan of the lighter or the voodoo doll, and i never figured out the life leech - but its highs are absolutely monstrous. the shotgun gives doom's a run for its money, the tommy gun is an absolute bullet firehose, and the dynamite is the only time in video game history i've defaulted to having grenades out while roaming. i didn't vibe with the lighter, but the other two fire weapons (flare gun and napalm launcher) are absolutely perfect. the tesla cannon came too, i guess, it's kind of a budget doom plasma gun and it feels alright.
it's a game of brilliant highs and deep lows, but when blood's hitting its highs it might legitimately be the best that the 90s fps culture has to serve up.
somehow, though, there's a rhythm to blood that's difficult to rationalize. it's less like a boomer shooter in the old doom/duke way and far more like a first cut at the concept of hotline miami. you have a lot of ways to approach an encounter, and you're encouraged to liberally quicksave and blast into each one with the correct tool for the job to limit resource expenditure. you take a ton of damage, but most everything is pretty squishy if you apply the correct weapon to it, to the point that recycled bosses are notable as the exception.
what really props blood up is how incredibly solid the core weapons are. it's not a perfect list - i'm not a fan of the lighter or the voodoo doll, and i never figured out the life leech - but its highs are absolutely monstrous. the shotgun gives doom's a run for its money, the tommy gun is an absolute bullet firehose, and the dynamite is the only time in video game history i've defaulted to having grenades out while roaming. i didn't vibe with the lighter, but the other two fire weapons (flare gun and napalm launcher) are absolutely perfect. the tesla cannon came too, i guess, it's kind of a budget doom plasma gun and it feels alright.
it's a game of brilliant highs and deep lows, but when blood's hitting its highs it might legitimately be the best that the 90s fps culture has to serve up.
One of the best classic shooters of all time. Yes even better than Doom ( and maybe even Quake, its pretty damn close )
Easily the best Build Engine game. The early level design is creative and just plain fun. Monolith knew when they could turn a weapon into something a bit more quirky and interesting (Pistol to Flare Gun) and when not to mess with perfection (Shotgun). Also the dynamite in this game is so good and satisfying to use, it genuinely makes me wonder why almost no other game used something similar (until Cultic).
When the later levels make the switch from the typical Build engine "real places" (cities, trains, carnivals etc) to somewhat more generic "first person shooter places" (lava factories, caves etc) they get less interesting and I wish the map was better about letting me know where that damn skull key door that I saw earlier was but those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things.
When the later levels make the switch from the typical Build engine "real places" (cities, trains, carnivals etc) to somewhat more generic "first person shooter places" (lava factories, caves etc) they get less interesting and I wish the map was better about letting me know where that damn skull key door that I saw earlier was but those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things.