| Blood | |
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| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Nick Newhard |
| Engine | Build |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
| Release date(s) | June 20, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | RSAC: V4: Wanton and Gratuitous Violence ESRB: M (Mature) |
| Media | CD (2) |
| System requirements | Intel Pentium 75 MHz CPU, 16MB RAM, 80MB HD space, 256 colour VGA, MS-DOS 6.2 Soundblaster |
Blood is a PC game developed by 3D Realms and Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive. Development was underway at 3D Realms in parallel with a number of other well-known titles. Following the success of Duke Nukem 3D, development progress was made public starting in June 1996 with weekly updates on their website. It was originally scheduled for release in early 1997. On January 22, 1997, a press release announced that all rights had been sold to Monolith so that 3D Realms "could focus efforts on Shadow Warrior," another Build engine game slated for release the same year. Released on May 31, 1997, it utilized an enhanced version of the Build engine from Ken Silverman which featured the addition of voxels. The game falls in the first-person shooter category and has an arsenal of curious weapons, numerous enemies and liberal amounts of gore.
A sequel to Blood, titled Blood II: The Chosen, was released on October 31, 1998. In terms of copyrights and ownership, Monolith sold the rights for Blood to GT Interactive who published the games; the company was later purchased by Infogrames which has since been renamed to Atari.
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A first-person shooter in the spirit of schlock horror/slasher flicks, the gameplay of Blood is witnessed through the eyes of the player controlled character and consists of fighting with all the means available, firearms or magical weapons, the different enemies which populate the levels of the game. In single player mode, the objective of the player is to lead the main character in his quest of revenge against his former master: this is achieved by navigating the levels of each separate episode, looking for an exit, until the "boss" level is reached and a showdown against a large opponent takes place. Each episode can be played separately, in no particular order, albeit these are organized to follow the game's storyline.
Blood's gameplay is similar to other classic FPS games like Doom, in that the player is required to activate switches and/or seek keys to proceed through the levels; on larger maps, finding up to six different keys may be required. A classic FPS feature which is rarely employed in Blood is the teleporter. The player's progress is further complicated by different types of traps, including the classic crushing blocks, explosive barrels or lava pits, the occasional jumping puzzle, and combination lock doors.
Blood was also one of the first FPS games (along with Marathon, Strife and Star Wars: Dark Forces) to feature dual or alternate attack modes for the weapons; most weapons in Blood have two completely different methods of dealing damage, in contrast to previous games in which each weapon had only a single type of attack. Another concept added in Blood are the "super secrets", very hard to find and hard to reach areas which merit large rewards.
Weapons, artifacts and bonus items appear in Blood. Firearms include a flare gun, sawed-off shotgun and a Tommy gun, explosive weapons like a napalm launcher, a sci-fi shock rifle named after inventor Nikola Tesla and several dark magic artifacts, including a Voodoo doll. Many of the weapons in Blood have a secondary attack mode.
The game features a large number of creatures throughout its levels and most of them are absolutely hostile to Caleb, being either human members of the Cabal or creatures fighting for the dark god Tchernobog: these include regular enemies, as well as the end-level bosses. A lesser class of enemies, often referred to as nuisance enemies, lists some creatures who are not considered real threats, but will try nonetheless to harm Caleb. Finally, there is also a small number of neutral creatures who will not pose a danger for the protagonist.
Blood takes place in an unspecified time period resembling the Old West. The game takes place in about 1928, in the game's sequel Blood II: The Chosen, the setting of Blood is retroactively dated to the year 2028. Here science-fictional elements coupled with real life technology abound, and many elements are deliberately anachronistic, including weapons, pop-culture references and other details.
The game's protagonist is Caleb (voiced by Stephan Weyte), once the supreme commander of a cult called "The Cabal", worshippers of the forgotten god Tchernobog (voiced by Monolith CEO Jason Hall, who was credited as "The Voice"). Although the back-story was not delineated in the game itself, the Monolith website and a readme text document presented the few facts known about Caleb's early career.
Already 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 in the god's name. An unspecified number of years later, declaring, "I live...AGAIN!", (one of the many quotes Caleb uses from the film Army of Darkness) Caleb mysteriously rises from his grave seeking vengeance and answers, in no particular order. Blood will flow as he treks across the world through various Cabal strongholds and back to the "Hall of the Epiphany", a temple where the dark god is found.
Dressed in a black trenchcoat and broad-brimmed hat, his eyes glowing red, Caleb immediately begins his quest of ridding the world of the minions of Tchernobog. Caleb is a cynical, sarcastic man with a strong bent towards sadism, taking pleasure in killing almost anything that may impede his quest. Though his "pleasure in pain" obviously removes consideration of Caleb as a true hero, he does have a slight attitude change between Blood and its sequel Blood II where he begins to show more tolerance for innocent bystanders.
Blood is organized in four episodes, each consisting of eight or nine maps which are broken down into six or seven regular levels, one "boss" level and a secret level. Some locations are drawn to resemble present-day cities, with civil buildings, museums, pubs, shopping centers and so on; a few levels are centered upon a particular location, like a mortuary, train station, carnival, sewer, hospital or lumber mill, and each is designed to include elements typical of these places (e.g. a crematorium in the mortuary, attractions at the carnival and so on). Maps built around moving vehicles are present as well; the third level in the first episode which is set aboard a train, for example (stepping outside the vehichle results in instant death). Several other levels have a typical Victorian or Edwardian architectural style and this is used especially in some atmospheric "haunted house" levels. Levels with a more "fantastic" setting abound in the last episode of Blood which takes place in several evil temples and even in a fully organic setting, whose walls, ceiling and floor are all composed of flesh and blood. The episodes are structured as follows:
Caleb's adventure starts with him rising from his grave in a tomb located in a graveyard of the "Morningside Mortuary" funeral home (a reference to the film, Phantasm) stating, "I live...again," (a reference to the film, Army of Darkness). In search of the first of Tchernobog's minions, the gargoyle Cheogh, the protagonist moves to the railyard and station known as "Miskatonic Station" (a reference to the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft), where he boards the northbound "Phantom Express". Once aboard the train, Caleb fights his way from the locomotive to the caboose and back, finally stopping the train by blowing up the locomotive. Emerging from the wreckage of the "Phantom Express", he proceeds through a "Dark Carnival" with several Cabal controlled attractions, including a grotesque "House of Horrors" which is featured as the episode's secret level. A water pool in the carnival area is then used by Caleb as a shortcut to reach one of the Cabal strongholds (a deconsecrated cathedral) where a droning message in the Cabal's language echoes throughout the grounds. Cutting through swarms of Cabal loyalists and other creatures, Caleb gains entrance to the "Great Temple", a place protected by numerous underwater tunnels as well as several napalm traps and Cabal minions. A teleporter found in the Temple leads the protagonist to Cheogh's altar, where Caleb will fight the gargoyle to the death, finally slaying the creature. Caleb finishes by lighting up Ophelia's funeral pyre to cremate her body, then after he approaches the slain Cheogh, points his shotgun at the creature's head and blows away the gargoyle's brains with a well-placed shotgun blast.
Looking for Shial, the second minion of Tchernobog, Caleb moves to the north on a small boat, uttering a famous quote from the movie Jaws. The player character boards a larger, icebound wooden sailing ship in the Arctic north (a reference to the novel, Frankenstein) and uses it as a gateway to a nearby lumber mill the Cabal has transformed into a crude human remains processing area. Then a snow covered maze of hedges awaits Caleb, as he needs to find his way to the "Overlooked Hotel", a haunted building with several nods to The Shining, including a frozen Jack Torrance in the garden maze. Recovering a set of mysterious tomes, Caleb may also find time to visit a snow covered mountainous area (the episode's secret level), filled with Cabalists and other even less reassuring creatures, before proceeding to another haunted building, a large two-story mansion with many rooms, a kitchen, gardens, a library, a cellar and even an indoor pool. Blowing a hole in the pool itself, Caleb follows an underwater passage leading to a facility that probably served as a support station for the operations of a nearby mine. The mine is the protagonist's true objective, since Shial's lair is hidden below the frozen surface, under the bowels of the earth; navigating the Cabal infested tunnels, Caleb finally finds a large spider decorated door leading to the hideout of Shial, a dark stony cavern where the spiders feast upon the rotting corpses of their victims. In a climactic battle, Caleb defeats Shial, crushing her with a powerful stomp of his boot, then proceeds to rip out and drink the heart blood from the nearly-dead, cocooned corpse of Gabriel, another of the betrayed Chosen, thus gaining the power of his fallen comrade.
Back in a civilized area, Caleb has a new objective: Cerberus, now Tchernobog's second in command, must be eliminated. The first section of the episode consists of a town that has fallen under heavy airborne bombing; few still live in the place, aside from the Cabal and its minions. Leaving behind the meat processing plant and the city hall, Caleb enters the sewers to reach the other side of the war battered city. Emerging to the surface, the entrance of a hospital lies ahead: the interior contains patient rooms, a chapel, a morgue, an "assisted suicide" room and a baby carriage with a demonic hand sticking out of it as a tribute to It's Alive!. From the chapel, access to the catacombs (secret level) can also be gained. Once out of the hospital, the protagonist moves across an industrial facility, entering a nearby dam control installation located close to Cerberus' cavern. Caleb struggles his way through a difficult "combo lock" puzzle, then blows up the dam with explosives. The resulting flooding makes it easier to access the demon's fiery hideout. Several seals, guarded by Hellhounds, must be unlocked before Cerberus makes his furious appearance from behind the stone walls. The two-headed beast does not prove a match for Caleb, who then fills the creature's stomach with many remote-controlled bundles of TNT and blows up the corpse, causing it to rain red over Caleb.
Once Tchernobog's lieutenants have been dealt with, Caleb heads for the "Hall of the Epiphany" where the dark god is waiting. The first step is to cross a strange land with a mad-scientist laboratory and Frankenstein-esque theme to it, subsequently diving into an aquatic breeding laboratory, presumably one of the main locations where the gill beasts are grown by the Cabal. Later, bursting out of a water cistern, Caleb finds a charnel house, where Freddy Krueger's hat and sweater can be found on the wall, serving as a disposal site for dead creatures. The place has a nearby passage leading to a forest-rimmed lake with wood cabins arrayed around "Crystal Lake". This section draws largely on references to the Friday the 13th series of films. As Caleb roams the area, he may even hear the infamous sounds of Jason Voorhees himself, or perhaps even discover his goalie mask and machete hanging on one of the walls. The exit from the area is reached through a toilet: here the player can move immediately to a Cabal temple located well above the surface of a lava filled area or take a visit to the "Mall of the Dead", a shopping center acting as a homage to the film Dawn of the Dead, with similar looping "elevator music" and zombies. Caleb then gains access to the inner temples defended by Stone Gargoyles and Mother Spiders (similar to the Cheogh and Shial bosses), until he finally uncovers an organic looking entryway to reach his former master; this passage leads to the level "In The Flesh", in which the walls, ceiling and floor are all made of living flesh. Caleb's stray bullets pound this wretched structure, causing the very walls themselves to bleed. Once out of this strange, horrible place, the protagonist ultimately reaches the "Hall of the Epiphany", an outworldly temple where he must once again face the previous bosses - Cheogh, Shial and Cerberus - before battling the terrifying dark god Tchernobog himself. There, before facing him, Caleb finally learns why "The Chosen" were cast down: the dark god knew Caleb would return to him, killing anyone he ran into to take his revenge and thus gaining immense power, something Tchernobog wants for himself. As Caleb approaches the final showdown, Tchernobog's voice echoes and reverberates around him, "I HAVE AWAITED YOU. KNEEL BEFORE ME," to which Caleb replies "I'm gonna have to put you down!" Caleb battles and destroys the dark god, ending his reign and temporarily stopping the Cabal. At the ending full motion video, Caleb is so disgusted with the waste of many innocent lives that he even kills a monk with his Tommy Gun before leaving the Hall of Epiphany.
The first episode of Blood was released as shareware. The full retail version of Blood on CD-ROM features all four original episodes and contains all the elements that were missing in the shareware version. The extremely violent content of the game prompted the release of a censored version of Blood with toned-down violence. Two different expansions for the game have been released: Cryptic Passage was produced by Sunstorm Interactive and features a new 10 level episode; Monolith's official add-on for Blood is titled Plasma Pak and contains new levels, new creatures and weapons modes. A special edition collection titled One Unit: Whole Blood was later released, including fully patched versions of Blood, Cryptic Passage and the Plasma Pak in a single package. Also, strategy guides for the game have been published, namely Blood: The Official Strategy Guide and Blood: Unlock the Secrets.
Released in 1997, the Plasma Pak expansion adds several new features to Blood; a new episode of nine levels titled "Post Mortem" is included, along with two new multiplayer Bloodbath levels, one of which was modelled after Monolith's corporate offices. New enemies are added by the Plasma Pak, and all are featured in the extra episode; the new creatures include two new Cabal loyalist types, Crysalid pods, the miniature Calebs and a new boss, the Priest/Beast. There are no additions to Caleb's arsenal, however several innovations are introduced; the Tesla cannon can now be wielded akimbo (provided the appropriate power-up is collected), while the Napalm cannon and the life leech have new secondary attacks. The Plasma Pak also integrated a large number of bug fixes which had been previously addressed by several patches.
After Caleb has learned the Cabal is training replacements for the fallen Chosen, he sets out to stop the cult's plans. The player character starts his new adventure beside a department store overtaken by several Cabal members; clearing a way through his enemies, Caleb enters another shopping center which is connected to a processing facility of sorts and keeps investigating in his own fashion the recent Cabal uprisings. Next, the protagonist is lured to an ambush in a warehouse fully under the control of the Cabal, however, using the aeration conduits, he is able to outflank his enemies and proceed to the aqueducts of the city. A Cabal ship is docked nearby, but Caleb does not waste time and sinks the vessel; he also has the chance to visit some forgotten Catacombs while at the aqueducts. Later, he moves into Cabal territory, wreaking havoc in a temple complex, then ruining the cult's plans once more by storming the inner temple, where the Cabalists are preparing some kind of unearthly ceremony to worship their dark god. Satisfied the temples have been dealt with, Caleb enters the dungeon, a dark, creepy structure built to stop anyone trying to reach the training ground for "The Chosen". A set of locked doors blocks the exit and Caleb is forced to wander across different areas to gather all the required keys, but in the end he reaches the grounds where the final threat awaits. In order to rest, Caleb must destroy each of the four "Chosen" in training and the Beasts within them.
Cryptic Passage was published by Sunstorm Interactive and is the only officially authorized commercially available ten-level add-on episode for Blood that was not made by Monolith. It should be noted that Cryptic Passage was released before Monolith's own Plasma Pak expansion.
Having heard news of an ancient scroll, Caleb sets out to retrieve it for his own dark needs. He arrives on the Boat Docks, which later open onto a large cave, a cabin and a lighthouse, structures overrun by the Cabal. Ahead, a large opera house is found, built in the tradition of the late 1920s-early 1930s, where apparently The Phantom of the Opera (called "The Phantasm of the Opera" in the game) is being shown. Without losing any time with the opera, Caleb moves to the Gothic Library, located in the midst of surrounding forests: there he barely escapes the minions of the Cabal after recovering all the keys required to leave the place. However Caleb does not have time to rest, since strange rituals are taking place in and around the monastery: the protagonist must end them in the most violent and chaotic manner he can muster. A steamboat serves as an escape from the monastery, but it does not prove to be a gentle ride as the Cabal owns the ship. Finally reaching a quieter zone, Caleb finds himself at a graveyard whose relatively empty surface hides the crowded underground catacombs and tunnels. A passage may be taken by Caleb to reach a gloomy swamp (the secret level "Boggy Creek"), riding along the river on a boat where the Grim Reaper is the captain. Back on his path, the adventure takes the player character to the mountains this time, where both gorges and ghosts must be survived. The Cultists hide behind every stone as Caleb makes his way across the cliffs to the mine, a dark place infested with phantasms, which is the only access to the castle where the scroll is hidden. When Caleb climbs the stairs into the castle, he is greeted by "The Lord of All Nightmares", who proves to be nothing less than two guardian Cerberi. Between Caleb and the coveted scroll now lies a final battle between Beast and Man.
Blood is essentially a single-player game, but features multiplayer options. When it was released, Internet play was not well established, therefore Blood relied upon the standard modem, LAN or serial cable connections for multiplayer. Modem and serial cable connections only allow two player games, while an IPX network connection can support up to eight players. The multiplayer modes consist of the classic deathmatch, which is known in Blood as "Bloodbath", and cooperative play.
Bloodbath matches can be played on specifically designed multiplayer maps or on the levels of the various episodes; the "frag limit" or "time limit" options are available to end matches, as well as the possibility to control respawn mode for weapons and powerups. A feature of Bloodbath is "The Voice", an audio comment heard upon each frag, that punctuates the death of an opponent often in gory and irreverent terms. "The Voice" is that of Jace Hall, who was CEO of Monolith Productions at the time.
Cooperative gameplay follows the lines of the single player campaign, allowing several players to work together against the computer controlled opponents on the levels of the different episodes.
Blood is powered by a modified version of the Build engine created by Ken Silverman for 3D Realms. The Build engine renders its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called "sectors" and simple flat objects called "sprites" to populate the world geometry with objects. It is generally considered to be a 2.5D engine, since the basic world geometry is two-dimensional with an added height component, as each sector may have a different ceiling and floor height, and the ceiling and floor may be angled along one line of the sector. However the final result is that the world looks three-dimensional due to the way the engine renders it. The version of the Build engine used in Blood also uses voxel technology for weapon and ammo pickups, powerups and occasionally decorations, such as the tombstones in the first level of episode one, "Cradle to Grave".
A central feature of Blood is an abundant (and often exaggerated) graphic violence, from which the game derives its name. Enemies can be blown to pieces, and the pieces often rain down on the player. Zombies' heads can be shot off and then kicked around like soccer balls, spewing fountains of blood. Enemies scream if set on fire or otherwise injured, making sound an integral part of the violent atmosphere of Blood. The levels themselves are designed with the same spirit, as corpses, torture victims, and several grotesque situations are witnessed in the game. Collectively, these features caused public concern about Blood, leading to the release of a censored version.
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Blood is a first-person shooter computer game from Monolith Productions released in 1997. It was followed by two expansion packs that same year, Cryptic Passage and the Plasma Pak. It's sequel, Blood II: The Chosen, was released in 1998, and it received an expansion pack called The Nightmare Levels in 1999.
Contents |
  | ''Cryptic Passage'' official website - Sunstorm Interactive - Cryptic Passage for Blood |
| | PlanetBlood - A source of information for all Blood games - Planet Blood - News, Screenshots, Previews, Reviews, Guides |
| | ''Blood'' official website - Blood - Welcome to the Realm of Blood |
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