Memorization-heavy peekaboo shooting is fun when the level design lends itself to that playstyle; otherwise it's a slog. When people talk about Blood, they talk about the cultists but never about the other enemies. There's a reason for that: they might as well not exist at all since strafing and/or crouching completely nullifies their (extremely slow and telegraphed) attacks. When the only credible threat in your roster is an overtuned one then you rely on the level design to do all the heavy lifting to try and shake things up in the long run.
For episode 1 and most of episode 2, it works. Mainly because the levels are very well-designed, pretty short as well as self-contained and thankfully the weapons in your arsenal encourage that kind of peekaboo shooting playstyle I mentioned earlier, Episode 3 onward is where things start to crumble. What once was the source of exhilaration becomes the source of frustration and eventually boredom. The levels become bigger so the crazy hitscanners more annoying to deal with, the other walking non-threats become tankier and come in greater numbers making them a slog to dispatch (Cheogh and Shial take the whole damn cake). Some levels are entirely devoid of cultists, those only serve to exacerbate Blood's main flaw as they are very much "nothing" levels as they lack any kind of challenge.

It's a shame because I love everything else about Blood but, due to an obvious lack of playtesting, the enemy balancing is so bad it ends up souring the whole dish. I played on Well Done because anything lower than that and the cultists become non-threatening too so not much point to it in my opinion.

ENG: The year is 1997. At id Software, without John Romero due to creative disputes with John Carmack, the launch of Quake II is being prepared. Quake II had only the name, since the lovecraftian aesthetics was replaced with a militaristic-futuristic aesthetics and the soundtrack went from being ambient with industrial horror touches to heavy metal. It sold well, but had mixed reviews.

None of this matters... much, though. I'm just commenting on it to sort of follow up with my Duke Nukem 3D review. Or if it matters... at all. And the thing is, even though Doom was a thing of the past for id Software, it wasn't for many people. Duke Nukem 3D was not the last gasp of a class of technologically outdated games.

The year is 1997. Blood is released by Monolith Productions.

If Duke Nukem 3D was the next step in terms of Doom-style FPS, Blood was the refinement of that formula.

Blood has, mainly, two things that make it stand out from the rest: the weapons and the setting. It's true that Duke Nukem 3D already had some curious weapons compared to its predecessor, Doom. However, it was Blood who took this topic to its maximum expression: a pack of dynamite, an aerosol can, a flare gun, a voodoo doll, among so many others that I forget. On the other hand, the setting. If Duke Nukem 3D was an ode to Hollywood action movies of the 80s, Blood was an ode to Hollywood horror movies of any era. It is not a horror game per se, because it is still a frenetic FPS of its time, and yet, thanks to its setting, it gives a very different feeling to what we were accustomed to the FPS of those times.

Caleb is the protagonist of this story... a story that doesn't matter much, I know. But what does matter, just like in Duke Nukem 3D, is the protagonist. Duke is mocking and ironic. But a good guy at the end of the day, his mission is to save the world. Caleb, on the other hand, is sadistic and ruthlessly sarcastic. His mission is not to save the world. He's involved in a personal crusade and doesn't mind killing civilians. Where the voice acting was comical in Duke's character, it is also comical in Caleb, only in a more perverse and cruel way.

Blood isn't perfect, as much as I'd like it to be. Like Duke Nukem 3D, maybe it wears a little thin at the end.

Despite that, Caleb lives, again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk&ab_channel=KurtHecticJukebox.

ESP: El año es 1997. En id Software, ya sin John Romero debido a disputas creativas con John Carmack, se prepara el lanzamiento de Quake II. Que de Quake tenía solo el nombre, puesto que la estética lovecraftiana se reemplazo con una estética militarista-futurista y el soundtrack pasó de ser ambiental con toques terroríficos industriales a ser un heavy metal bien pesado. Vendió bien, pero tuvo críticas mixtas.

Aunque nada de esto importa... mucho. Solo lo comento para hacer una suerte de seguimiento con mi reseña de Duke Nukem 3D. O si importa... algo. Y es que, aunque en id Software Doom ya era pasado pisado, para mucha gente no. Duke Nukem 3D no fue el último suspiro de una clase de juegos desfasados tecnológicamente.

El año es 1997. Blood sale a la venta por Monolith Productions.

Si Duke Nukem 3D era el siguiente paso en cuestión a FPS estilo Doom, Blood era el refinamiento de esa formula.

Blood tiene, principalmente, dos cosas que lo hacen destacar del resto: las armas y la ambientación. Es verdad que Duke Nukem 3D ya tenía armas cuanto menos curiosas en comparación con su predecesor, Doom. Sin embargo, fue Blood quien llevó este tópico a su máxima expresión: un paquete de dinamita, una lata de aerosol, una pistola de bengalas, un muñeco vudú, entre tantos otros que me olvido. Por otra parte, la ambientación. Si Duke Nukem 3D era una oda a las películas de acción hollywoodenses de los 80s, Blood lo era a las películas de terror de hollywoodenses de cualquier época. No es un juego de terror per se, debido a que sigue siendo un FPS frenético propio de su tiempo, y aun así, gracias a su ambientación, da una sensación muy distinta a la que nos tenían acostumbrados los FPS de esos tiempos.

Caleb es el protagonista de esta historia... historia que no importa mucho, ya se. Pero lo que si importa, al igual que en Duke Nukem 3D, es el protagonista. Duke es burlón e irónico. Pero un buen tipo a final de cuentas, su misión es salvar al mundo. En cambio, Caleb es sádico y despiadadamente sarcástico. Su misión no es salvar al mundo. Está envuelto en una cruzada personal y no le importa matar cíviles. Donde la actuación de voz era cómica en el personaje de Duke, en Caleb también lo es, solo que de una manera más perversa y cruel.

Blood no es perfecto, por mucho que me gustaría que lo fuera. Al igual que Duke Nukem 3D, a lo mejor al final se va desgastando un poco.

Pero que mierda digo, yo voy a seguir con Caleb, caretas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk&ab_channel=KurtHecticJukebox.

I said in my review of Cultic that it was my new favourite boomer shooter. Scratch that. This is my new favourite boomer shooter. I'm gonna start with the few negatives just to get those out of the way. The numerous pop culture references can often feel a bit cheap, the sense of humor is a bit childish at times and some of the abilities you can pick up like jump boots and beast vision (what does that even do) feel pointless. Other than that this game absolutely slaps.

The weapon variaty is insane with everything from the standard shotgun to dynamite to voodoo dolls to laser skulls. This is a level of variety that most shooters can't even dream of and it keeps blowing up cultists fresh throughout the game's runtime. Along with that there's also the fantastic blood and gore. As you blast your foes their blood will paint the walls red, their chests will be blasted open, their heads will pop off and it all looks fantastic. The movement is so much fun and always feels fantastic, except for the platforming segments which thankfully aren't plentiful.

If you're going to be running around shooting things for eight hours the environments better be fun to look at and this game goes above and beyond in that department. The atmosphere is thick and engrossing and refuses to let you go. It's hard to put this game down. All the level design is fantastic, the mansion in the hedge maze, and the hospital being standouts with their open and winding design that somehow never gets annoyingly confusing. This combined with the outstanding atmosphere makes for some of the best shooter levels I have ever played through. Hell, some of the best video game segments in general. It's a mastahpiece.

A true FPS classic that, despite a high learning curve, easily became one of my favorites in the genre. While the opening levels might be overly difficult and punishing, the gameplay and level design of Blood finally shines through after slamming your head against the wall repeatedly. The weapon arsenal is robust, satisfying, and for the most part, every weapon is handy. The level design is often inventive and creative and requires exploration and ingenuity in terms of discovering secret pathways without feeling overly labyrinthine like Hexen or Doom 2. Learning how to properly throw the dynamite at different lengths to properly counter the game's ferocious enemies is a difficult skill to master but feels near orgasmic when you do. Thankfully the levels are largely consistent too, and the game mostly avoids the 90s FPS curse of a weak third act. Making the cultists, the game's default enemy, one of the most dangerous was a brilliant subversion of typical shooter conventions. Blood may be punishingly difficult but once you learn how the game functions, it becomes one of the most fun FPS games I've ever played. I can't say I cared for any of the boss fights, they're fairly standard shooter fights. Shial especially strikes me as entirely superfluous and I kind of just ran out of ammo and repeatedly stabbed her to death with the pitchfork for ages. The final boss Tchernobog is a weakling, going down almost instantly with multiple napalm shots. They are a relatively minor part of the game, so it's not a huge deal, but it is noticeable when it happens.

The game's presentation is a gleeful combination of gothic and post-war Western aesthetics, blending them with surprising ease to create a grungy, dingy-looking atmosphere of cathedrals and stagecoaches. While Blood did look slightly outdated even in 1997, with games like Quake 2 and Hexen II easily kicking its ass on a technical level, I believe it to be the visual peak of pseudo-3D FPS visuals. The intractability of the environments and the smaller details such as Caleb's weapon sprites visibly becoming lighter and darker based on the lighting is impressive, and the enemies all have expressive and detailed sprites made from clay models. Environments look as detailed and lived-in as the Build engine can allow for, and levels such as the Overlooked Hotel are filled with smaller details and just exude charm. Caleb himself has an incredibly cool design, reminding me of a demonic version of Colonel Mortimer from For A Few Dollars More. Speaking of Caleb, he could have easily been the edgiest, most wince-inducing thing in the world, but he's the perfect blend of intentionally camp and genuine awesomeness that makes him infinitely endearing. If there's any weak spot, it's the soundtrack, which is fairly mediocre to my ears. My opinion on the OST can swing fairly moderately depending on whether you selected the MIDI or CD tracks, and I played most of the game on the former and was thoroughly unimpressed. A lot of the MIDI tracks simply have repetitive, boring, and unimaginative compositions that neither stand out nor build an effective atmosphere. The CD tracks, on the other hand, feel like what the composers always intended the music to sound like. The compositions are still nothing special, but the additional vocals and sound effects create a competently creepy and effective atmosphere that is far superior to anything the general MIDI tracks can offer.

Blood is easily one of my new favorite FPS games, with its creative level design, phenomenal weapon arsenal, and satisfying and innovative combat loop leaving me longing for more. Tackle on appealingly edgy art direction in the best possible way and some impressive use of at-the-time outdated technology and you get something truly special, and a true shooter classic. It's a shame the soundtrack isn't more memorable, but it hardly brings down the game. Highly recommended, and a must-play for anyone who loves FPS games.

(Played on “Lightly Broiled” which is this games equivalent to normal difficulty.)
A Must play for a any fan of the genre.
Great level design with interactivity, engaging exploration, fun combat encounters and memorable locations. something i especially like about Blood's levels is there are a lot of alternate paths withing them. making them feel very open and elaborate, but without making them into labyrinths like so many other shooters of its age. I can’t really think of any level I disliked.
Enemies are all pretty fun to fight too. Not really any I would call annoying. Though, I think the shotgunners could do for a reaction time nerf.
Weapons are great. Not much overlap and they are all fun to use. There are obvious FPS mainstays including a shotgun, machine gun and a rocket launcher. But there are many other more unique weapons that make Blood’s arsenal as interesting as it is. Such as a flare gun that ignites enemies, a voodoo doll and a staff that can run off of your own health.
Though by far my favorite of the bunch is the dynamite. An explosive that (dependent on the type you use) can be detonated via remote, proximity, time or just on impact. You can also adjust how far you throw it and (for non-impact types) bounce it off walls which is great for taking enemies out from around corners. I don’t think I have ever used a grenade type of weapon this much in a boomer-shooter. Let alone had so much fun with one. Seriously one of the most satisfying weapons in a shooter. In the same realm as the DooM II SSG, Quake Rocket launcher, the Quake II railgun and the Marathon 2 Dual shotguns.
One criticism I do have is that the final boss was probably the easiest and most anti-climactic boss I have ever fought. It took only, what? Maybe seven rockets to kill? Just like that. Within literally ten seconds it was dead. I guess that’s better than a frustrating final boss but it being so easy made it feel like the game didn't really end, it just kinda stopped.
In my opinion this game deserves just as much if not more attention than Duke Nukem 3D gets.

Part of Spooky Season 2023.

What you see is what you get with Blood: a late 90s DOOM-inspired boomer shooter with a cheesy comedic horror tone that’s reminiscent of films like Sam Riami’s Army of Darkness. There’s even an enemy type that is literally just Ash’s possessed hand from Evil Dead 2. Blood wears its inspirations on its sleeves and manages to be a pretty decent time… depending on what difficulty you set the game to.

Blood can be brutal and not in a way that feels like an actual test of your skills. The game has an abundance of hit scanning enemies that can melt your health like butter from a rather far distance, before you can get a chance to register that they’re even there. I initially started off with the game’s second hardest difficulty “Well Done” and was struggling to get past the second level, so I decided to play the game on “Lightly Broiled” instead and I don’t regret my decision. Even on this difficulty there were some aspects of the game that just felt cheap, particularly the placements of enemies behind the corners of entryways. I got into the habit of quicksaving frequently just because the game loves to ambush you with dickish enemy placements quite often.

Despite this though, I had a pretty decent time with it. It has a solid arsenal of weapons that feel pretty fun to use. The enemies were alright, I feel like they were kind of lacking in terms of variety and design compared to something like DOOM or Quake. I wish more enemies had specific methods to effectively take them down, like using a combination of the Flare Gun and the Shotgun to dispatch Axe Zombies as quickly as possible. Most enemies are just weaker to specific weapons and that’s about it. The Gargoyles were extremely annoying. I hate how they fly higher than you can actually aim so you can’t really do anything about them until they land close enough to where you can shoot them. There’s also an enemy type here that shares my username - Phantasms. I was… never really clear on what these enemies are supposed to do besides annoy the hell out of you. It just charges at you and gets in your face while this really loud screaming sound effect plays over and over again. I couldn’t even tell if it was ever actually damaging me, I would just shoot it with the Shotgun whenever it stopped being intangible and never gave it a second thought.

I actually really enjoyed this game’s level design. I had a really great time making my way through the haunted mansions and various mazes in the game, it was really satisfying. I will say that some of the levels in Episode 3 were a little longer than I would’ve liked, especially E3M5: Spare Parts and E3M6: Monster Bait. I actually had to look up a walkthrough for these levels because I had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do at times.

The story is… there. It’s told over the course of very short cutscenes that usually play at the end of an episode. There’s not really a whole lot to it, and it ends extremely suddenly, making it very underwhelming. I was disappointed with the protagonist, Caleb too. He doesn’t talk nearly as much as I expected him to. I like him when he does talk, and I dig his personality being essentially Duke Nukem if he was a freaky black magic guy. But he’s pretty much silent unless you’re blowing stuff up with TNT, which is when he laughs maniacally.

Blood is a solid time as long as you’re not playing on the higher difficulties. I have to admit, I don’t really have a whole lot to say about it because I don’t think it really stands out all that much from other boomer shooters of its time. I love the horror aesthetic, I love all of the little pop culture references, the weapons and level designs are neat, and that’s about it, really. It’s a really standard title for the genre. I think if its horror aesthetic appeals to you, or if you’re just hungry for more classic DOOM-inspired FPS games from this point in time, then I think you’ll enjoy it. Otherwise, it’s definitely fun, but I don’t really know if I can say that it’s a must-play. Still, it’s a neat cult classic game, and the perfect October game if you’re ever looking for something horror-themed to play around this time of the year.

Blood is an absolute treat. Armed with a massive selection of weapons, you're tasked with surviving a legion of killer cultists and hell-spawn, as protagonist Caleb makes his way to get revenge on his master. The level design is some of the best in the genre, with some jaw-dropping setpieces, especially for 1997. Character art and texture work is bursting with detail. Every weapon is useful and satisfying, only further complimented by the diverse rogue's gallery.

Is this the best classic shooter of all time? I think so! Personally, this feels like the Super Mario World to DOOM's Super Mario Bros. 3. If you haven't played this yet, what are you waiting for? For your first playthrough, I'd highly recommend enemy damage at "Pink on the Inside", and everything else at "Lightly Broiled". Enemies will still punish you when you're careless, but you won't have the weakest fodder devouring your entire health bar with a stick of dynamite every few minutes.

Il level design in alcune sezioni l'ho trovato un po' confusionario, mi so pure perso. Però al netto del fatto che le cutscene in CGI fan proprio cagare e che è difficile in culo è un ottimo gioco, molto spettacolare. La difficoltà si deve anche al fatto che molte delle risorse per recuperare vita e per dotarsi di uno sputo di armatura sono nascoste a mo' di segreto, ma buona parte di questi segreti sono almeno facilmente sgamabili. Le munizioni sembrano non bastare mai ma grazie a Cristo c'è la dinamite