[LGR Theme]
[fizz, sip]
Aahhh!
Blood.
Now THAT is a proper name for a first-person shooter.
And, man, does it live up to it.
This is one disturbing and dark title,
brought to you by none other than 3D Realms and Monolith.
Blood was released in 1997, fresh off the success of Duke Nukem 3D.
The developer of the game, 3D Realms, looked to repeat its success with another game
based on Duke's build engine,
this time focusing on parodies of horror and slasher films.
However, when it was nearing completion, 3D Realms sold the game to Monolith,
and they finished the game off and released it that way.
3D Realms did this in order to focus on another game
they were working on at the time, Shadow Warrior,
which was also set to be released that same year.
Soon after this, they started work on Duke Nukem Forever,
and the rest is a very sad and unfortunate history.
Speaking of history, you may be wondering what time period or location Blood finds itself in.
Well, feel free to speculate, because it never is specifically mentioned.
In fact, the story itself is barely worth going into.
But I'm going to anyway.
You play as Caleb,
who is a gunslinger in the American Wild West in the 1800s,
and the ex-leader of the Cabal cult,
worshippers of the forgotten god of Tchernobog.
The cult becomes awesome,
but for some reason their god smites them all.
And then Caleb somehow rises from the grave
Army of Darkness-style, blah, blah, blah.
I don't even know why there's any kind of story at all,
especially when every last bit of the game is a parody or ripoff of some movie or pop culture
and the game never really contains many story elements
that lead anywhere.
You'll occasionally get a little hint, but it's really not that important.
All you need to know is you're an evil undead guy
with glowing red eyes, a trench coat and a thirst for blood.
The gameplay is nearly identical to its forerunner, Duke Nukem 3D.
The engine is a bit more advanced.
Not as much as Shadow Warrior,
but it does still use the 3D voxel objects
instead of sprites for things like weapons.
There are linear levels to navigate
and shoot hundreds of enemies in,
and find keys to get to the next level,
with a boss fight in between episodes.
Nothing amazing here.
It's very standard '90s first-person shooter fare.
But what is amazing is the level design, atmosphere, and the feel of the game itself.
First thing's first: you're going to need a way to shed all of that blood,
so there are plenty of deadly weapons at your disposal.
You start off with a pitchfork that can gorge and decapitate enemies,
then quickly move on to a flare gun that sets enemies on fire
and blows them up in almost one shot.
You can also get sticks of dynamite,
a double-barreled shotgun straight from Evil Dead,
a Tommy gun, napalm launcher,
the shocking Tesla rifle, and even a voodoo doll.
And flaming... skull thing.
Almost all of the weapons have something very unique for the time:
alternate fire modes.
You just didn't see that in games in 1997.
You can shoot both barrels at once for the shotgun, for example,
or sweep enemies with the Tommy gun.
You can also occasionally get the ability to dual wield weapons akimbo-style,
doubling the pleasure and doubling the fun.
This is extremely useful,
as the enemies that you encounter will die quicker.
I really only mention this because you will need every ounce of power you can
against these enemies.
Every undead creature, demon or evil monk you encounter
is absolutely hellbent on killing you and killing you fast.
It's really not uncommon at all
to turn a corner and get slaughtered within a second,
even with full health.
And even on lower difficulties.
You can often have 10 to 15 murderous ghouls after you at once,
so dying is probably going to be very common.
Of course, if he's back from the dead already,
how does that work?
That's a question for another day.
Being called Blood, I do have to mention the... blood real quick.
There is no reason for this game to have as much blood and gore as it does.
Except that it is awesome.
I mean, it's flying everywhere. It's on the walls,
it's on the floors, it's hanging from the ceilings
I mean, there's nastiness all over the place.
This is easily the goriest game to date in 1997.
The thrill of blowing off heads and disemboweling demons
with weapons that probably shouldn't do so never gets old.
You can even kick around the heads until they fall apart, if you want.
Interactivity.
Yay!
There's no reason for such things,
and that is what makes Blood so fun.
As with Duke 3D, there are lots of interactions and goodies to find throughout the levels.
As expected, there are plenty of movie references to things like
Frankenstein, Friday the 13th,
of course Army of Darkness, The Shining.
"Heeeeere's Johnny!"
[gunshot]
There's even a Jaws one thrown in there.
"You're going to need a bigger boat."
But there are also several memorable lines by Caleb himself throughout gameplay,
although he's not nearly as vocal as Duke or Lo Wang.
And the levels themselves remain fun,
with very few dips in enjoyment.
Occasionally, they'll get a little maze-like,
but that's just kind of to be expected for whatever reason.
Mainly due to similar textures being used.
There are, of course, a few annoying platforming sections,
which I just to not think belong in an FPS game at all.
And some of the levels can get very confusing
for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
Also, you can have up to six keys in one level that you'll have to find,
which is a few too many, in my opinion.
And the doors are really not clearly marked either at all times,
so navigation tends to be the most annoying thing in the game.
Still,
it never made me want to quit playing,
just to take a break once in a while
and then go back and shotgun some zombies' heads off,
Dawn of the Dead-style.
But simply, Blood is bloody fun,
complete with all of the trademark aspects
that make 3D Realms games so enjoyable.
There is a lot of gameplay here too,
more than the original Duke 3D and more than Shadow Warrior.
So you'll probably be playing it for quite a while, should you choose to get it.
And if you can locate the game and the two expansion packs for it,
The Plasma Pak and Cryptic Passage,
there's even more to enjoy.
But that may be the problem:
finding it.
The game didn't sell extremely well,
the expansion packs sold even less,
so it has become - well, somewhat appropriately - a cult classic of sorts,
and finding a complete copy at a decent price
can be a very good challenge.
But the search is honestly worth it,
because if you like horror, violence,
and a good time for the sake of a good time
in a first-person shooter,
Blood is one disgustingly wonderful way
to spend an afternoon.