Ah, good ol' Build Engine shooters...

I really, REALLY like Blood a lot. The crushing difficulty, inventive enemy design, the amazing arsenal, and so much more make Blood a unique and fun FPS experience.

Even though Blood is great, it does have its usual quirks like the other FPS games of its time; primarily the cryptic-at-times level design, occasional bland key hunting, and some repetitious design quirks that drag the experience a bit.

Overall, super fun, and a high recommendation from me. If you like classic shooters (or you want to get into them), Blood is a great game to play.

Be aware of its crushing difficulty, though...
Hitscan enemies... Hitscanners everywhere...

When you play a lot of games, it’s easy to forget the staggering level of work that goes into game development. You expect guns to go bang and enemies to fall over, and that seems easy enough, but every sound and reaction effect needs to be purpose-built to feel satisfying and suit the game’s tone. Every weapon needs an entire suite of secondary animations, like trying to shoot without ammo or using an alternative fire mode. Enemies should react differently to being shot, set on fire, or electrocuted, so the complexity multiplies with every new weapon and enemy type. Having variety and reactivity in this way is a massive undertaking, but Blood proves how polish in these areas can elevate a game to greatness. In most shooters you get a boring handgun by default, but here, you get a flare gun. It doesn’t just set enemies on fire when you hit them, it fizzles menacingly until they burst into flames and start flailing wildly. You might expect to get a hunting rifle for long distances, but in Blood you get a voodoo doll, sadistically jabbing it to take down enemies. The focus is on B-movie horror brutality, but it’s done in such a tongue-in-cheek way that it never feels mean spirited. You’re just there to have a good time sprinting at the insane speed of a 90’s shooter protagonist, blasting cultists with some of the most satisfying weapons ever put into a computer game. The cherry on the top is the custom difficulty system, which lets you tweak the game to whatever you find the most fun. There’s the usual damage modifiers for you and the enemies, but also settings for enemy counts and aggression levels for each type. You can make it a run-and-gun with hordes of weak enemies, or a horror shooter where you have to be careful with your resources. As long as you enjoy shooters, you can have fun with Blood. Since a rerelease took until 2019 and it never got a quality sequel, it’s been criminally overlooked, so I encourage even the shooter skeptics out there to rediscover this classic.

Lots of cool and ambitious for the time designs with surprsingly impressive set pieces and level design (some levels are a little much imo, there's a reason this game has SIX universal keys, and doors that aren'teven unlocked by keys) let down by horrible enemy design. When I say bad enemy design I mostly mean that the most common enemy in this game is the full screen hitscan cultists who have been rewarded for their faith with incredible aim and reaction time.
I live in constant fear even in normal difficulty of every signle corner, in that there might be a lowly cultist sitting there ready to obliterate my health bar because most of the time there is. While the rest of the enemy design isn't bad per say, most are interesting, I dont really like fighting most of them most of the time.
You can adjust plenty of things in the game in Fresh Supply (btw, fantastic port all around), and I often hear people say just nerf the cultists yourself, but I'm some weirdo freak who thinks that's cheating. If you don't care about that go for it amigo you'll probably have more fun than me.

Blood, Monolith Production's first masterpiece; a story of revenge and dark Slavic cults. Caleb, "Chosen" leader of the Proto-Slavic Cabal cult, raises from the grave to avenge his death and betrayal at the hand of Tchernobog, god of bad fate.

It is the gothic answer to Doom, featuring a cast of enemy cultists shrouded in linen clothes, gargoyles, werewolves, and grim reapers; bethel environments made of wood and stone. Granted, not quite gothic - rather hard to pin - much like Quake's direction; both eldritch, with elements of "weird fiction".

Its main selling point was undeniably its makeshift weapons, which added to the overall brutality and outlandishness of the title, by far the most satisfying asset of this game. Our favorite being the flare gun lighting cultists aflame; we won't spoil the rest.

Blood remains the best of the Build engine games, with its level design both highly realistic and lifelike, yet maze-like enough to rival Sandy Petersen's own abstract hellscape, it can be frustrating how obtuse it is.

"Woah... Just me."

Blood'ı ilk aldığım zamanlarda oynarken oyunun görüntü ayarlarında bir şeylerle oynayınca balık gözü kamera gibi olmuştu. Böyle bir ayar yapınca oyunu oynarken görüntü yüzünden aşırı başım döndürdü ve midemi bulandırdı bunun sonucunda iade etmiştim. İade ettikten birkaç ay sonra oyunu yine indirimde gördüm aklımda tekrardan almak zaten vardı. Tekrardan alıp başladım ve şaşkınlık içerisindeyim. Bu kadar eski bir FPS yapımından bu kadar çok zevk alacağımı hiç beklemiyordum. Oyunun başından sonuna kadar muazzam bir tat aldım. Bu tadı aldıktan diyorum iyi ki tekrardan oyuna bir şans daha vermişim. Oyun eski olsa bile o kadar hoş ve sağlam yapıda bir oynanış sahip ki çok az bir kısımda sıkıldığımı hatırlıyorum. Genel oynanışı zaten ilk Doom'a fazlasıyla benziyor. Bir de oyunun hoşuma giden oynanışına artı olarak bolca ilginç silah verince elime deme keyfime düşmanların üstünde voodoo bebeği bile kullandım. Silah kullanması o kadar hoşuma gitti ki bazen aynı silahı suyunu çıkaracak derecede fazla oynamıştım.

Oynanışı dışında oyunun teması ve ana karakterimiz beni oyuna çeken diğer noktalardı. Öncelikle ana karakterimiz Caleb karizmanın sözlük anlamı gibi adam. Hiçbir şekilde bir tarikatçıya bile acımayan intikam peşindeki bir avcı. Üstelik seslendirmesi de replikleriyle muazzam olmuş. Tema hakkında zaten nereden bakarsan bak kolayca anlaşılan şeytana tapan tarikat konsepti olduğu fark ediliyor. Teması son zamanlarda oynadığım CULTIC ile aynı bu temayı içeren yapımlara nedense aşırı bakasım geliyor. Özellikle böyle öfkeli bir ana karakterle onları kıymaya çevirdiğimi oyunlar tadından yenmiyor. Tasarımlar olarakta düşmanların çoğunluk kısmını oluşturan tarikatçıların kullandığı farklı silahlara göre rengi farklı oluyor. Mesela Tesla silahı kullanan tarikatçı mavi pompalı kullanan kahverengi oluyor. Tabii sadece bu durum kullandıkları silahla da sınırlı değil farklı özelliği varsa o düşmanın yine normalde önceden gördüğünüz düşmandan daha farklı renkte oluyor.

Oyunda çok hoşuma giden bir diğer nokta ise korku film göndermeleriydi. Elm sokağının Freddy Krueger'ından Evil Dead'in Ash Williams'ına kadar bolca gönderme var. Hatta gönderme olarak 13. Cuma filmlerini andıran bir bölüm bile var. Bölümde Jason Voorhes'in meşhur sesini bile duyabiliyorsunuz. Oyunda H.P Lovecraft eserlerine bile çok güzel göndermeler içeriyor. Göndermeler sadece korku yapımlarıyla sınırlı bile değil o dönemin popüler oyun serilerinden Duke Nukem ve Tomb Raider gibi yapımlara kendi tarzıyla göndermeler yapıyor. Oyundaki hile kodları bile birer gönderme olması aşırı hoşuma gitti. Kodlardan örnek verirsem oyunda T tuşu ile açtığınız sohbet kısmına lara croft yazdığınızda oyun size tüm silahlarla beraber sınırsız mermi veriyor. Bu göndermelerden en çok hoşuma giden voorhees kodu diyebilirim. Kodu kullandığınızda 13. Cuma filmlerinin baş kötüsü gibi ölümsüz hale geliyorsunuz. Böyle göndermeler yapması benim gibi korku yapımlarına bayılan birisi için oyun zevkimi kat kat arttırmasıyla beraber oyunun gönlümde taht kurmasını sağladı. Öve öve bitiremediğim bu yapımda sadece dert yandığım tek nokta var. O da haritalarda sürekli yolumu kaybedip durmam. Bu aslında benden kaynaklı bir durum olsa bile bazı haritalar öyle ne yapacağını şaşırtıyor ki yarım saat boyunca aynı yeri dönüp dolaşıp duruyorsunuz. Ben bu durumu çok yaşadığım için uyarmak istedim. Kayboluşlarımı hatırlayınca komiğime gitti gözümün tam göremeyeceği kısma bir düğme koymuşlar. O düğmeye bastığımda oyunda ilerleyeceğim. Ben o düğmeyi göremedim diye yarım saat başka yere gidip kaybolmuştum. Övgülerden sonra bunun aklıma gelmesi komik oldu. Eski oyunların çoğunda bu tasarım tercihi oyuncunun oynanış saatini uzatmak için yapıldığından o kadar şikayet etmeyeceğim.

Bu kadar sağlam olduğunu düşündüğüm bir yapımı herkse tavsiye edebilir miyim tam emin değilim. Blood çok güzel ve beni her saniyesinde tatmin etmiş bir yapım. Tabii bunlar benim görüşler olduğu için insanların bu kadar eski bir FPS yapımına ne kadar şans verirler emin değilim. Ben yine de söyleyeyim bu yapıma şans verin biraz takılın belki benim aldığım tadı sizde alır akar gidersiniz.

If Doom is a drug, Blood is a dirty street replica of that drug that has been cut with dodgy amphetamines and cough medicine. After playing a few levels, getting to grips with the weapons and becoming used to the movement, there's an adrenaline-fuelled rush of "THIS IS LIKE DOOM.... ON DRUGS!!!" that courses through you as you electrocute dogs, set zombies on fire and blow up clusters of cultists. It feels great - for a while - but eventually the high wears off, and you find yourself angrily quick-loading for the eighteenth time because there's a gargoyle round the corner who is going to rush your 6HP arse off a tiny 16x16 platform for the nineteenth time.

Fresh Supply's "Made to Order" mode makes for a much less frustrating experience than the original game or its sourceports, and I highly recommend using it if you want to experience Blood in a way that won't make you want to poke your eyes out with a pitchfork. It's essentially a checklist of difficulty modifiers that you can tinker with to create something that affords you all the highs of Blood with a helluva a lot less comedowns. My recommended settings? Anything with 'cultist' in the title gets set to Low, and the enemy count gets cranked up to High. Still plenty of difficulty to be found in facing off against armies of undead beasts, but none of the frustrations that come from being gunned down by a tommy-gunner who's 10 pixels wide on the distant ledge of a sixth-floor window.

This is undoubtedly the Build engine at its peak in terms of weapons, foes and artwork, but I can't help feel like all the tactile effort has been let down by level designs that are often poorly thought out - it really sucks that the final level of this is a Xen-like platform-jump through a demon's farting anal tract followed by a boss rush in four boxy rooms, but hey! It wouldn't be a Build game without a final battle that's less challenging than fighting the weakest enemies in the game - there are certain traditions to be upheld.

Blood is a bit like Doom 2 in that regard - a huge technical achievement undermined by level designers who couldn't see all the potential in the toolkit they'd been given. I really wanna try some Blood mods and fan campaigns, because I feel like this is a game that's has huge potential lying beyond its surface.

Blood is really good. Amazing creative direction, with wonderful visual and sound design to back it up. The weapons feel and sound good, and each one has its own purpose in combat. Each one feels like its own unique extension of the player, and each one has its own special way of making itself feel extremely powerful. The levels are also designed very well, in that it's very hard to get lost. Part of this is, unlike other Build games, backtrack shortcuts need to be very obviously opened, usually with an explosion. Players will watch the blast, peak their heads through the crater, and see the backtrack, so that it's fully learned.

The weak area of Blood (and part of why I think it's hard for a lot of people) is enemy design; all enemies in the original Blood are chargers (who can be dodge pretty consistently) or cultists. Chargers can be fun in tight spaces, and can present interesting gameplay challenges when mixed together, but they usually aren't in Blood. Cultists are hitscanners, obviously, and hitscanners don't make for dynamic mid-fight problems because fights with them are just damage races if they can see you. This isn't actually a huge deal by itself, but this kind of design scales really poorly.

The best you can do (and what Blood does) is make the hitscanners hit harder and hit sooner, but that just decreases the amount of (already limited) choices the player gets to make. No new techniques or improved ability are needed for high-difficulty enemies in Blood, because the best way to fight them (blow them up while they can't see you) works on every difficulty. Higher Blood difficulties just punish you harder for not doing that, which inordinately limits player freedom on those higher difficulties.

But, then again, Blood came out in '97, so maybe this wasn't known, or was known but wasn't technically reasonable at the time. Just play the game on a difficulty that's fun for you, it's worth it.

And no, I haven't beaten the game on Well Done, but I probably will, eventually. Gotta play Death Wish first, though...

Played through the base game. Been a while since I have. There's a bit of a dip in the second episode in particular which has the worst excesses of the 90s FPS key-to-door gameplay, with multiple instances of collecting a key to open access to another key and nothing else, but it's mostly fine. The Fresh Supply edition has a really neat feature in its custom difficulty; this means that you can deaden the worst part of the game, its incredibly aggressive hitscan enemies, while still keeping other enemies as-is and maintaining the enemy count for maximum carnage. It also reduces the danger of doors and other Build-related clunkiness, which is nice.

I definitely have a lot of fond memories of this game, mostly of the first episode. I think they still hold up - there's so much energy and gusto in the ridiculous kills and stupid references (Caleb quotes Army of Darkness once he kills the final boss because of course he does) that it can't hide the fact that this was actually a 3D Realms game sold off to Monolith for completion. If you haven't played it through before, definitely give at least the first episode a play through.

If you’re interested in reading my full review for Blood, go check my entry for the original 90’s release. Here, i’m simply focusing on a sole aspect that was very well handled in Fresh Supply: the difficulty.

It’s no surprise that any discussion about Blood comes tied in with a few comments about it’s difficulty. See, when you choose a hard mode on a classic FPS (Let’s say, ultra-violence in Doom) the difficulty is solely based on a higher enemy count. In blood, instead, it’s not just the enemy count, but also their health, the accuracy and the damage of their attacks. Not only that: It is very well known that the lightly broiled difficulty (Which is Blood’s normal difficulty) can get a lot harder than Doom’s ultra-violence.

The typical way of solving this, would be to simply go for Pink on the inside (Blood’s easy mode) but you might feel that it’s just way too easy. For some reason, the gap between easy and normal mode in Blood is huge. This was actually adressed as a flaw by some of the original game’s designers.

How does Fresh Supply solves this? By adding a Custom mode where you can tweak many aspects of the difficulty until you find the perfect spot for you. If you’re still too newbie for the Well Done and even the Lighly Broiled difficulty, i would suggest going for the custom difficulty, and setting things up to make a higher enemy count but a bit easier to deal with.