Blood
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"I LIVE... AGAIN!"
— Caleb
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Blood is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive and developed using Ken Silverman’s Build engine. The shareware version was released for MS-DOS on March 7, 1997, while the full version was later released on May 21 in North America and June 20 in Europe.
The game follows the story of Caleb, an undead early 20th-century gunslinger seeking revenge against the dark god Tchernobog. It features a number of occult and horror themes. Blood includes large amounts of graphic violence, a large arsenal of weapons ranging from the standard to the bizarre, and numerous enemies and bosses.
Blood received largely positive reviews from critics upon its release, with many praising its creative level designs, the humor (particularly its use of pop-culture references), the atmosphere, and its gameplay, though some criticism was aimed at the game's challenging difficulty. It later gained a cult following and it is considered to be one of the best games on the Build engine.
The Blood franchise was continued with two official expansion packs titled Plasma Pak (developed by Monolith) and Cryptic Passage (developed by Sunstorm Interactive). A sequel titled Blood II: The Chosen was released on November 25, 1998. The game was released on GOG.com along with its two expansion packs on April 22, 2010, utilizing the DOSBox emulator to run on modern systems. It was released on Steam on July 14, 2014. The game also served as the principal inspiration for the manhwa Priest. A remaster of the game with improved graphics and a newer engine was made to run better on modern systems Blood: Fresh Supply was released on May 9, 2019, by Nightdive Studios and Atari.
Plot
The player takes on the role of Caleb, once the supreme commander of a cult called "The Cabal", worshipers of the forgotten god Tchernobog. Known as a merciless gunfighter in the late 19th century American West, Caleb joined the Cabal in 1871 after meeting Ophelia Price, a woman whose husband and son may have been murdered by the members of the Cabal; it is implied that she later became Caleb's lover. Together they rose to the highest circle of the dark cult, "The Chosen", until all four members of The Chosen were betrayed and killed by Tchernobog for unspecified failures. Several years later, Caleb rises from his grave, seeking answers and vengeance.
Why It Lives Again
- Just like 3D Realms' other games like Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D, this game takes inspiration from certain movies, this time from horror movies by having gothic themes to them such as: The Shining and Army of Darkness
- Spooky and really creepy soundtrack.
- Great voice acting by Stephan Weyte as Caleb who delivers his dialogue in a badass and hilarious manner.
- There are many references and Easter eggs mainly to not only horror-related media like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Near Dark, Return of the Living Dead, and Fright Night, but also music like Frank Sinatra, "Embraceable You", "Ain't Misbehavin", and more.
- Creative and varied weapons that fit the theme of the game. The pistol is a flare gun that shoots incendiary projectiles that set enemies on fire; the rocket launcher is replaced by a napalm gun that sets enemies on fire alongside the normal explosive damage, and there are bizarre weapons such as the hairspray and a lighter, voodoo doll and the Life Leech staff.
- Tons of demons and varied enemies that are fun to kill.
- Plenty of instances of black comedy to be had.
- There are plenty of fun mods to try out.
- Decent cutscenes.
- The game received two expansions, Cryptic Passage and Plasma Pak. The former is a third-party expansion that adds a new "Cryptic Passage" episode and four multiplayer maps, while the latter adds another episode titled "Post Mortem" along with new multiplayer maps, new weapon modes, new enemies, and additional bug fixes. It was later packed in one package titled "One Unit Whole Blood" in 1998.
- In addition, the game received a Nightdive Studios remaster titled "Blood: Fresh Supply" on May 9th, 2019, which makes the game run easier on modern systems with improved graphics, KEX Engine, and more.
The Only Bad Quality
- There are two game-breaking bugs in the original game without Plasma Pak.
- A glitch in earlier builds made it impossible to shake off Choking Hands once they've attached to you.
- E4M5: Fire and Brimstone was also missing a key in one version of the game that prevented the player from finishing the level without cheats.
Reception
Blood received "generally favorable" reviews from professional critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic based on seven reviews. Critics especially praised the intricate and creative level designs, humorous wisecracks and pop culture references, over-the-top gore, variety of settings, and inventive, unconventional weaponry. GameSpot particularly noted that the Voodoo doll "might be the coolest little accessory to ever grace the weapons belt of a first-person killing machine".
A few criticisms were voiced about the game but did not find consensus among reviewers. For example, while GameSpot said the game "is just too damn hard", citing how quickly enemies can deal damage, Next Generation asserted that "the game is lengthy without being too tedious, and challenging without being too difficult". GamePro followed up its own criticisms by concluding: "Blood's flaws are easily swept aside when your guns start blasting and the bodies start falling".
GamingOnLinux reviewer Hamish Paul Wilson decided in a 2015 retrospective that Blood was easily the best of the three major Build engine games, stating that Blood was "one of the most underrated shooters of the whole decade. Blood arguably built more on the legacy of Duke Nukem 3D than Shadow Warrior did, taking its gameplay to sophisticated new heights and offering its referential overtones with an even greater degree of refinement". Player Attack described Blood in a 2011 article as "the best of the Build engine games after Duke Nukem 3D, with its combination of scary atmosphere, great level design and challenging gameplay putting it above the rest".
More than 350,000 copies of Blood have been downloaded. This number reached one million in its first six months of release.
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