Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood . The trinity of major 3DR Build games. Released by Monolith, Blood is one disturbing yet awesome horror shooter. Do you like your hands bloody? Caleb does. And so does this reviewer.
Blood for MS-DOS PCs
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 non other than 3D Realms and Monolith. Blood was released in 1997 fresh off the success of Duke Nuke Em' 3D. The developer of the game, 3D Realms looked to repeat it's success with another game based on Duke's Build Engine. This time focusing on parodys of horror and slasher films. However when it was near in 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 working on Duke Nuke Em' Forever and the rest is a very sad and unfortunate history.
Speaking of history, you may be wondering what time peroid or location Blood finds itself in. Well, feel free to speculate because it is never specifically mentioned. Infact the story itself is barely worth going into but i am going to anyway. You play as Caleb who is a gunslinger in the America wildwest in the 1800s and the ex leader of the cabel cult worshipers of the forgotten god Tchernobog. The cult becomes awesome but for some reason their god smites them all and then somehow Caleb rises from the grave, Army Of Darkness style... Blah Blah Blah. Ahh, I don't even know why there is any kind story at all, especially when ever last bit of the game is a parody or rip off of some movie or pop culture and the game never really contains many story elements that lead anywhere. You'll occassionaly get a little hint but its really not that important. All you need to know is that your a evil undead guy with glowing red eyes and a trenchcoat and a thrist for blood.
The gameplay is nearly identical to its forerunner Duke Nuke Em' 3D. The engine is a bit more advanced, not as much as Shadow Warrior but it does still use the 3D box objects instead of sprites for things like weapons. There are many 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, its very standard 90s first person shooter fair but what is amazing is the level design, atomosphere, and the fuel of the game itself.
First things first, your gonna need a way to shed all 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 barrel shotgun straight from Evil Dead, a tommy gun, napalm launcher, the shocking telsa rifle, and even a voodoo doll or a flaming skull thing. Almost all 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 duel-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 monkey that you encounter is absolutely hell-bent on killing you and killing you fast. It's really not uncommon at all to turn a corner and get slatured within a second, even with full health and even on lower difficulities. You can often have 10 to 15 murderous gouls after you at once so dying is probaly going to be very common. Plus if he is back from the dead already, how does that work? Thats 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 this much blood and gore as it does. Except that it is awesome! I mean its flying everywhere, its on the walls, on the floors, hanging from the ceiling. There is nastiness all over the place! This is easily the goriest game to date in 1997. The thrill of blowing off heads and disembolewing 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 is no reasons for such things and that is what makes Blood so fun. As with Duke 3D there is lots interaction and goodies to find out throughout the levels. As expected there are plenty of movies references to things like Frankenstein, Friday The 13th, ofcourse Army of Darkness, The Shinning. Theres even a Jaws thrown in there. But there are also several memorable lines by Caleb himself throughout gameplay, although he is not nearly as vocal as Duke or Lou Wang and the level themselves remain fun. With very few dips in enjoyment. Occasionally they will get alittle maze like but that just kinda to be expected for whatever reason. Mainly due to similar textures being used. There are ofcourse a few annoying platforming sections which i just do not think belongs in a 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 will have to find which is a few to 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 the trademark aspects that make 3D Realm's games so enjoyable. Theres alot of gameplay here too, more then the original Duke 3D and more then Shadow Warrior so you'll probably be playing it for quite awhile should you choose to get it. And if you can locate the physical game and the two expansion packs for it: The Plasma Pak and Cryptic Passage, there is 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 somewhat appropiately a cult classic of sorts and finding a complete copy at a decent price can be a very good challange. 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!
The game and all the expansions, DRM-free, and are now available here on gog.com for an unbeatable price!
5 out of 5 stars!
Go get your hands bloody!