Sure!

Absolutely not. Blood was known for it's charm, humour, good level design (well partially) and a unique look.
Blood 2 has none of that.

Blood had a two and a half year development time to blood2's 13 months. Only in the last 6 weeks did blood2 have access to the full team. Shogo missed its target date in July 98, meaning the devs for Microsoft's baby got the 8 extra weeks they needed. This was done at blood2s expense.

If you want to start a new petition, (Who wouldn't want to start one of those!?!?) then write one requesting blood2 get its lithtech 1.5 patch. Kiss psycho circus was built with a patch that was meant for blood2 and shogo. I understand that monolith/lithtech operated as real companies in the real world where money is required to exist, but that was 16 years ago.

Gog deserves that patch, Shogo deserves that patch, and you, the fans of the game that put monolith in the spotlight, who waited patiently for years, employing ever more desperate tricks to get the games to run, you deserve that patch most of all.

rant mode off.

Speaking of Psycho Circus, that game was awesome and ran pretty well for being a Lithtech game.

Blood 2 was and is dire.

Blood II while not bad is not good either. The weapons are fun to use and Caleb's one-liners are hilarious but the levels and the enemies are just so boring compared to the original. Everything about the game has the feel of being rushed to meet a deadline. If Monolith had more time on Blood II it could have been an excellent game, hell, it may have been better than the original. Unfortunately, they didn't have that luxury and what we got is what we got.

The most accurate review of blood2 I've seen in years, well done.

I agree with much of the above,but have to add that moving the game out of the gothic horror atmosphere of the original Blood was a huge mistake. Why they threw away the uniqueness in exchange for a cliché futurisitic setting is beyond me. And that game, as noted, had performance isues on it's first release which have just gotten worse with more modern OS's just make it worse.
It's not without virtues: Caleb one liners are great (but al lot of the other attempts at humor fall flat) a couple of the levels are a lot of fun...the giant steampunkish airship levels ae a blast...t..but over all the level design goes from medicore to terrible.
But at Six Bucks it's worth a try.

No kidding. To this day, I still wonder what the devs were thinking when I saw those washing machines on the train platform. :S

If whoever said Blood 2 has better atmosphere than the original left you flabbergasted, what does the Blood 2 page on Home of the Underdogs do for ya? :P

I honestly don't know how anyone could say the following with a straight face. If anyone here on GoG can honestly say they prefered Blood 2 over the original, I would seriously like to know why. In case you haven't the HOTU Blood 2 page, here it is.


"BLood 2 is essentially bigger and better Blood. There are more weapons, enemies, and levels than in the previous game. The level design, one of the highlights of Blood, is even better in this game: in the first episode alone, you will travel from a museum to a huge science facility, to dark city alleys, and finally to a futuristic flying machine. Caleb's funny and witty one-liners are back, and the soundtrack is even better than in the original game. As in the first game, Blood 2 offers a lot secret passages and other pleasant surprises. You can also choose not to control Caleb but some other protagonist who is among "the Chosen." Each of the Chosen has a different weapon specialty and comes with their own set of taunts. But you will see the mini-movies and hints during the game only if you play as Caleb. The graphics are also much better and clearer drawn than Blood. Instead of blurry, dull palette, you see vivid environments brought to life in SVGA, with plenty of detail.

When all is said and done, though, the game itself doesn't feel as fun as Blood. Perhaps it is because a lot of so-campy-it's-funny elements have been replaced with a more ominous plot and more threatening monsters. But Blood 2 still remains very entertaining and highly replayable, especially with fun multiplayer levels and a full map/level editor. Best of all, Monolith has released the source code and other nifty tools for the game into the public domain, so if you want to try making your own FPS, check out the official site."

Well that description while too overly optimistic is acceptable because isn't lying. I personally like raw industrial feel of Blood 2 environments, design of weapons and taunting enemies like Prophet, Fanatics, Drudge monsters are cool too. But my personal favourite is that damn badass necro-psycho Ishmael and merciless Ophelia! Gideon is annoying but battle on rooftop was fun with all that bloody robes and red eyes. Cold passage and Westworld from Nightmare Levels is also neat, only soul drudge acting as zombies are quite turn off. I can close eyes for bugs and prefer design, atmosphere and music as better game than Half-Life but packed in worse engine (with SiN being better than Blood 2 and HL). ;P

With limitations of game world comes more creativity to fill blanks and mood behind the scenes with your imagination.

Blood1 is different game and comparing it with sequel isn't fair to the Blood 2. Blood 2 has that nostalgia factor and industrial, old school s-f with easy to jump and feel into while Blood1 has dark, opressive and gloomy feeling with a lot of gothic black humour and harder to get used to it or learn what defines it's essence. I first played B2 and had earlier fun and atmosphere than B1 before I learned how to play and catch the feel of B1. Needed 5 years to actually complete first episode in One Unit Whole Blood after unfinished shareware on painful playthru till the E1 level 5. That preference changed over time when tried other BUILD games but I'm quite fond of my first B2 Ishmael run. ;-)

Wow, what a good example of a mindless fanboy.

What it amounts to you just can't appreciate the classic horror atmoshpher of blood.

Is it adressed to me? If that so, you are wrong. I prefer Blood1 more but can't really downvote Blood 2 judging it with today's standards or compare to first part, more like treat as established reality and title on it's own merits. Sure it's rushed but when you play games like these you also need put yourself in the mindset of that time, where objectives for gameplay and graphics were different and doesn't suit to modern standards. Hell, you supposed to re-create them along your playthrough like man lost in time. Your taste doesn't matter, glaring eyes doesn't suit, all what is important to emulate what was left, to fill the blanks with imagination. If you don't, every game is garbage because is limited somehow.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I think we can all agree that the steampunk futuristic setting was a bad choice.
Sure, if they stuck with the gothic horror setting it would've been repetitive, but I think they could of gone with something better.