I just finished One Unit Whole Blood for the first time. I had played the game throughout the years (downloaded as "abandonware" which I can say I don't believe in the word anymore), but never got far. Once GoG released it, I buckled down and started playing seriously. Learning what weapons to use against which enemies, how to dispatch certain enemies, which enemies to avoid, etc. I can say that I enjoyed this game a whole lot, even without nostalgia. This should say something about the game. If a game can age this well, it truly is a masterpiece. Sure, it's not perfect but it's close enough.
My favorite level is the Dark Carnival in Episode One. Not only do we get to play with another character from the Build engine, but there are all kinds of fun games to play around with. It really reminds me of (the other way around for most people here, I'm sure) the carnival level in Left 4 Dead and the movie Zombieland. Great times.
I can see myself playing this gem over and over throughout the years to come, just as I play Doom religiously. Thank you, GoG, for giving me the opportunity to play this game while supporting the developers.
Now, I've puchased Blood 2: The Chosen a few days ago. It is time I play that. It's not nearly as good as the first, but I expect that reading the reviews and comments about how awful the game is. So far, I don't think it's too bad. Caleb at least hadn't lost his charm in this installment, that I have seen anyway.

Another Bloodite! Welcome to the fold my friend. I've been playing Blood on and off since I first bought it back around 1998. I was only 12 or 13 at the time and had just graduated up from Doom 2. I had played some Duke Nukem and liked it well enough. But to be honest it got a bit old for me after awhile. I had always enjoyed horror fiction and movies, and Duke lacked the sort of dark sensibility I enjoyed. Doom had some of it, especially in some of the user created maps of the time. But no game I had played up to that point, other than maybe Diablo, had lived up to what I truly wanted. Then came Blood.
I was sent on a vacation to Alaska and Canada by my folks and instead of coming back with postcards I cam back with Blood. I played Blood nearly non stop for a year. I beat it, then beat it again. I made save files on all my favorite levels and played them over again. The game fit ever aspect both in style and gameplay that I wanted.
I hope you enjoy Blood 2. It is, in my opinion, inferior to Blood 1 and is a disappointment. But Caleb is, as you said, just as witty, and the level design is quite good in places. Just wish it played better...and was a bit more bloody haha.

Glad to hear you enjoy this game so much! BTW, have you tried this yet? It gives another huge amount to the enjoyment factor; athough it takes some time to set it up (you have to copy all the contents of the Blood folder several times), it pays off.

Ahhh yes the Blood Launcher. Get this immediately! The original version of the game is worth the play through all by itself. But the Launcher adds more than 20 new episodes to the game. Not to mention all the individual player maps. A wonderful addition to my collection.
Also, if you end up enjoying Blood and Blood 2 you should come over to [url=]http://forums.the-postmortem.com/[/url]. A great community for fans of Blood!

Precisely!
I have, too, played Blood here and there abandonware, and have as well never got too far. But after buying it from GoG, I have finished all episodes and now I am exploring modifications and maps from Blood launcher. This game is even better than the one I was always nostalgic about - Duke 3D.
It just has so many ideas, so great atmosphere, weapons and enemies are just... Flawless! I really love how EVERY out of 10 weapons or so play a different role, and every opponent requires different approach. This game truly is a classical gem.

I must say that I feel the same way towards the game

I always played Duke and Doom back when I was in my very early teens but never got my hands on Blood

Thanks to GoG I discovered these games and almost fell in love

What I really like about Blood is it's unique atmosphere and the INCREDIBLE attention to detail, seriously, if you look and search around you can almost always find something cool

I really wish modern FPS would have something like this....I was very pleasantly surprised when I was going through the first act, walked up to the minibar, looked at the wineglass and bottle and pressed "use" after which Caleb said: "I sure could use a drink" or for example when you can play the organ at the very start and a power-up shows up

I think it's this little attention to detail that makes the game unique and shows that the people who worked on this game really put a lot of effor and love into it

I am saying this without any nostalgia whatsoever, it may not be a perfect game but it's so damn good

Blood rocks

I first played Blood in 1997 or 98 as far as I remember. I fell in love, instantly. And still am. Some games just resist the time, the aging. Ta hell with GTAs, Blood rules forever.
I didn't play it for a couple of years, it wouldn't work on my various pcs or there wasn't the music. Now I got this version and thanks to some dudes here on the forum I was able to fix there the original midi music... and when I heard it, I almost had tears in my eyes... I just LOVE this game, it will be always my number one.
Sorry for the nostalgia crap but... I mean it.
If only someone reworked it to a slightly better (not much though) resolution, something like Duke HRD... but never mind, it still rules.

the Blood is the life...

"shake it baby" That game is one of my favourites of all time, there's so much replay value and challenge in finding those little references throughout the game, and the difficulty actually makes the enemies better instead of making their guns better and yours worse.

"Victims? Aren't we all?"

I want to find a list of the caleb quotes, there's some great gems that blow duke and wang and earl out of the water.

If I had 10 million dollars, I'd license UE3 engine and get a team to make Blood 3. Pity that we may never see a sequel again.

Glad to finally buy this, it was the first game i played as a kid, i could not stop having dreams about it, i never owned it though. $6 for the best game ever made?

....time to bleed again :)

don't get me wrong, I LOVE Blood and always will, but I think it's just too late to make Blood 3 now... when I look at every engine there is at the moment, none of it would be able to catch that unique atmosphere of the first Blood. they're all just so shiny and shadowy and perfect... one of the things that made Blood so loveable was the almost-comic-like look (if the zombies or monks for instance were transformed into real 3D, they'd just look stupid)... so, I must say, rest in piece, Blood, we'll never forget (and always will play over and over again) you...

I think if Blood 3 could be awesome if done right of course and hey, I'm always excited about old franchises when they evolve and grow

I hope Blood will live again someday...