I'm really liking the game, but the way the cultists can rip you apart from 100 health to dead in a few seconds seems very unbalanced to me and makes playing certain parts of the game less enjoyable than it should be. Reloading after getting randomly destroyed 10 times in a row because the damage they deal is so out of whack (on stage 2!) is not fun.

So are there any mods to make them slightly less God-like?

Not that I am aware of & yes it's a little rough at first. The first time I played the game I got killed by rats in the mortuary, but the more you play the better idea you get about where things are. The AI can be fairly predictable when you get used to it.

You might want to watch the Extra Crispy recordings ThePostmortem put up on YouTube. ÐÐ is a little fond of pitchforking zombies, but it does save on ammo.

I'm also playing through this one now. I agree, the difficulty is very high solely based on the amount of damage mobs can do. I tend to play games on "normal" difficulty. With this one, I'm playing it on the easiest and its still rough.

It seems the goal is memorization/retrying. Once you know why you died, you can take a different approach (not my favorite way to play a game).

The fire breathing doggies are an essential one shot if they ever connect (even on the easiest setting). And not always from the afterburn.

At any rate, save often (use the different save slots if needed). I've started saving after every room clear and I'm making good progress now. Not my ideal way to play, but its letting me get through it.

First thing:

Episode 1 is the most cruel when it comes to that. It has less weapons, and almost exclusively zombies and cultists. LOTS of cultists. Its basically the hardest when it comes to that.

Yes, they can tear you to shred, but this game expects you to use a certain level of strategies. The weapons can do a lot of miraculous things, quite a few however, does hint on your knowledge of the map. However, if you die 10 times in a row in the same spot, you need to rethink strategies, look out for secrets, or frankly, lower the difficulty setting.


The cultists react very, very quickly. However, once you're out of their sight, they wander, and if they get their back to you, will not shoot you, and you can change your approach accordingly. This is a big difference with many other AIs in those generations of games. They don't "wall hack" and always know -exactly- which side you are and immediately turn to you as if they had eyes in their back. Use this weird AI to your advantage.

The best thing if you don't know where they are, is to be very quick to fall back. Go back, and let them come to you if they can and deal with them. If they're in other spots, figure out a way to kill them without being in their sights. Because thats what this game is. You are -not- supposed to be standing in the line of fire of a cultist. They rip you to shreds. You have sufficient speed and many tools to indirectly destroy them. Use every last one of them.

Yes, this is a very difficult game. It rewards patience and intelligence.

And I'm afraid there is no mod to lower the damage. I actually looked, once, annoyed by the difficulty just like you were. But instead, I had a lot of fun trying to overcome it. This game is a challenge -> and you have everything you need and more to overcome it. Try to have fun that way!

This is situation with all the Build engine games, as far I know. I've played a fair share of Duke Nukem 3D over the years and I've reached the very last stages in Blood.

What I just love about Blood is that it's weapon selection and functionality has something for every situation. Cultists giving you a hard time from a distance? Shoot them down with the flare gun. Pesky zombies ganging up on you? Mow them all down with the spray can.

The difficulty IS annoying but, like Dusty said, practice and knowing more about the AI helps a lot. Like SFJake said, the one aspect of AI that I hated the absolute most is the instant reaction time. Tchernobog must grant them amazing reflexes ;3 Either way, its annoying. BUT it makes you think before running around a corner, screaming and blasting. Long corridor with no baddies? That corner at the end is probably gonna have a cultist or two on the other side. Throw some Dynamite! Use strategy ;D

But yeah, I just finished playing the Death Wish addon. It was absolutely brilliant. When (if) Blood finally gets its source port Death Wish should be included as the official Blood 2 and those dudes should be PAID!

Well, there is a post somewhere in these forums regarding damage as there is an oddity with Blood.

Start a new game on the easiest difficulty and let the first zombie hit you. Note how much damage you take - you should drop to 89 health.

Quit and start a new game. Save immediately then reload. Now let the first zombie hit you and look how much more damage it causes - you should be down to 64 health.

So it seems that after a load the damage swaps around, so the easiest difficulty gets the most damage, but retains the spawns of the easiest difficulty. The hardest difficulty gets a damage reduction after a reload, but retains the hardest spawn numbers. The middle difficulty, therefore remains unchanged.

Why the game does this I don't know. Is it a bug? Is it intentional? Either way, I imagine that this is partly the cause of why the game seems unbalanced.

Here we go, knew I'd seen it somewhere.
http://www.gog.com/forum/blood_series/difficulty_setting_changes_when_loading_save_files

Just so you guys know, that in these old build engine games the difficulty you select won't determine the amount of damage enemies deal.. Just how many will be there..

Like if your on easy and walk into a room, you might find 1 or 2 enemies.. On hard there would probably be 5 or 6..

Their damage and ability's are not effected by difficulty, only their numbers.

You're wrong, Bones.

In this game, every difficulty (every single one) has a different damage scaling. Yes, there are more enemies, etc, but the damage -also- changes. There are more subtle changes with the difficulties as well, I believe the orange cultists only throw dynamites in higher difficulty levels, for instance.

There is also a glitch that changes the damage scaling when you load a game, and I've made a topic to get around this as well

So I don't mean to offend, but you shouldn't say such things when you don't know what you're talking about.