Blood
Description official descriptions
Caleb was once a feared gunslinger, until he met a woman who was involved with a mysterious cult known as Cabal. Caleb, too, is sucked in, and soon becomes one of the Chosen - the most favored worshippers of the evil god Tchernobog. But one day, Tchernobog inexplicably kills the four Chosen, including Caleb. Mysteriously resurrected years later, Caleb is out to get revenge, and learn why his lord cast him down so abruptly.
Blood is a first-person shooter with horror elements, which uses the Build engine. Similarly to Duke Nukem 3D, the environment is interactive: many objects can be physically moved or affected in other ways. Destruction of landscapes is possible (although only in specific spots), with bullet holes being left by misplaced shots. The Build engine version is 2.5D, so there are rooms above rooms and puzzles which are based on this.
The game consists of four episodes, each containing a set of maps that have to be traversed by the protagonist in a specific order. The levels are usually realistic-looking structures, e.g. a carnival complete with twisted attractions, a city district, a moving train, etc.
Throughout the levels, Caleb will have to find keys (up to six in a level) and hit switches in order to work his way to the exit. On the way, he will meet a variety of enemies, such as zombies that tend to come back to life after killed, cultists armed with shotguns and tommy guns that shout in pseudo-Latin language, crawling hands that attempt to choke him, hell-hounds that can set him on fire with their breath, and many more. Boss battles await Caleb at the end of each episode.
To defend himself against this menace, Caleb utilizes a variety of weapons: a pitchfork; a flare gun that can set enemies on fire; a sawed-off shotgun; a tommy gun; a napalm launcher; TNT bundles which come in three different varieties; a home-made flamethrower made of an aerosol can; a tesla cannon that electrocutes enemies; a magical staff dubbed "Life Leech"; and a voodoo doll.
There are items to pick up strewn around. Unlike most other 3D shooters, the protagonist's health is not replenished via medikits, but by "Life Essences", heart-like power-ups randomly dropped by enemies upon their death. It is also possible to find armor, which comes in three different varieties - Physical, Fire, and Spiritual, each one defending Caleb from different attacks. There are also other power-ups: some (such as Jumping Shoes or Doctor's Bag) can be picked up and activated at any time, while others (such as Partial Invisibility) activate immediately when taken.
As the title implies, violent and gory imagery plays a significant role in the game. Enemies might explode when taken out; it is possible to kick severed heads; impaled victims can be found lying around; enemies die in different ways depending on how they are attacked and in which part of their body, etc.
Groups +
- 2.5D Engine: Build
- Blood series
- BPjS / BPjM indexed games
- Gameplay feature: Drowning
- Gameplay feature: Recordable replays
- Inspiration: Author - Edgar Allan Poe
- Middleware: Smacker Video
- Online Service: Heat.net
- Theme: Zombies
- Total Entertainment Network (TEN) multiplay platform
- Visual technique / style: Digitized sprites
- Visual technique / style: Voxel graphics
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Credits (DOS version)
123 People (103 developers, 20 thanks) · View all
Game Designer | |
Project Manager | |
Build Engine, Editor, and Tools by | |
Additional Tools | |
Lead Programmer | |
Game Programming | |
Network Layer / Setup Program | |
Level Design | |
Additional Level Design |
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Lead Artist | |
Additional Artwork | |
Character Modelling | |
Sound Engine | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 25 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 146 ratings with 12 reviews)
The bloodiest and sickest FPS to date!
The Good
This game is certainly different than majority of FPS games. It has got a very special atmosphere. It is dark and sick and yet humorous at the same time. Especially the level design is way better than in other BUILD games (Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior). The weapons are also good - you can for example use hairspray as a flamethrower, and if you want, you can set the spray can in fire and use it as a grenade (don't try that at home).
The graphics are very good for a sprite based game and the sound is excellent. Especially the comments from the main character are great... he is a very very sick man, and comments are stolen from famous horror movies and old boardway songs.
The game features very large amounts of blood and gore - using a zombie head as a football is one of those, and you can set enemies in fire - they'll start running around and screaming.
The difficulty levels are well balanced, easiest levels are very easy and the hardest offer almost impossible challenge.
The Bad
Well, the game itself is just great... but... the bosses, especially the final boss, are quite dissapointing. Also, the game has very many bugs, don't even try playing without updating to the newest version (note, UK version can't be updated) - and even after that it may crash constantly on fast computers (at least on my computer). Save often and in at least two different slots!
The Bottom Line
Very very bloody, but imaginative and great FPS. If you don't have it, go get it.
DOS · by Aapo Koivuniemi (41) · 2001
The Good
Blood is not a revolutionary game. But it did have the most unusual plot I have ever seen in a FPS. Let me start with level design, for you traverse many real-world locations I have yet to see duplicated in any other FPS. The weapon selection is better than in any other FPS ever made, for where else could you use an aerosol can or flare gun to set your enemies on fire and watch them scream, "It burns!" The enemies are also memorable, for you have cultists which shout Latin-Sanskrit phrases at you (which have real English translations), and zombies who emerge from the ground and say "More Brains." The graphics, while considered poor by today's standards, (though I like them) do add a certain atmosphere to the game. Also, the one-liners from Caleb, Blood's protagonist, are what set it apart from others of the same genre.
The Bad
The bosses are to easy to defeat. Shial is quite scary though. The violence in Blood is intense, so if you do not like violent video games stay away from this one.
The Bottom Line
One of the best FPS around. Much better than Duke Nukem 3-D. Find and play it, you are sure to have one of the best experiences ever in computer gaming.
DOS · by Mr. Hapton (13) · 2005
The Good
GAMEPLAY: Refined. Comfortable learning curve. Superb level design. Feels very good to play. Difficulty just right. Awesome weapons. Dark humour and pop-culture references. Fun and addictive. [5/5]
GRAPHICS: The Build (Duke Nukem 3D) engine pushed to its absolute limits. Nice crisp look. Detailed and attractive. Not state-of-the-art but refined. Enemies are 2D but I don't care -- they're quite detailed. [4/5]
AUDIO: Cool. The weapon sounds are crisp and punchy, although a tad more bass would be good (although just EQ it and you'll be right). Music is just there, mood enhancing but never intrusive. The one-liners are... odd. [4/5]
PLOTLINE: Utter rubbish. But fun, like a B-grade slasher. The dark god has forsaken you and you'll get even. Therefore, kill a bunch of boss monsters. Seriously, that's about it. Stylishly, of course. The mood is dark, menacing and grim, with a slight goth-western flavour, unlike Hexen which was goth-fantasy. [4.5/5]
The Bad
Did the weather have to be overcast ALL the time? Some rain FX would've be sooo cool for this game. Ah well, opportunity missed.
The Bottom Line
Duke Nukem 3D with a gothic-western flavour. That is, a tough but comfortable shoot'em'up with incredible level design and not drenched in puzzles. [4.5/5]
I utterly LOVE this game!
DOS · by Tom White (12) · 2004
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Blood Special Edition | Gazzoid | Sep 2, 2023 |
Cooperative Multiplayer | And Wan | Dec 20, 2015 |
Blood manual | Judicator | Aug 18, 2009 |
Blood ... for Mac? | Dae (7217) | Jun 2, 2008 |
Trivia
3dfx patch
Monolith released an alpha patch for Blood that provided 3DFX support. Unfortunately, being an alpha patch, it only works with version 1.0 of Blood, not One Unit Whole Blood. It is also incompatible with Voodoo Rush and Voodoo 2 chipsets.
Cultists
The strange language spoken by the cultists is supposed to be a combination of Latin and Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India, from which several modern languages of that region originated.
Cut features
One early feature that Q Studios was planning to add to Blood was the idea of "BloodLust". According to this feature, each time when the player killed a minion of the Dark God, his BloodLust meter climbed a notch. If his BloodLust climbed high enough, he metamorphosed into the Beast. As the Beast, he was supposed to be stronger and faster than a human, but he was also limited in his choice of weaponry. Of course, BloodLust waned with time--if the player did not kill frequently, he reverted to human form. This feature was not added to the final release of the game.
Death Mask
Death Mask, the power-up that makes you invincible for a short period of time, does not tint your view with color while active, so it's impossible to see when it runs out, which makes it somewhat less useful. The Monolith team admitted that they forgot to implement this.
Development
Apogee were the ones who started production on this game in 1994. The developers were Q Studios Corporation (an independent game development studio). In the short while they were working on it, they called it Horror 3D. After a while the rights for the game was sold to Monolith which completed the game and changed the name to Blood, which we're familiar with today.
Extras
Some versions of Blood came with a second CD that contained demos and the video for Love you to Death by the appropriately gloomy band Type O Negative.
German index
On June 28, 1997, Blood was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. The game group contains more information about what this means.
Inactivity
When you stand still for a few seconds, Caleb starts to sing lounge classics. Some of the songs he knows are My Way, Puttin' on the Ritz, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. There's No Business Like Show Business and Strangers in the Night.
References
- The game contains easter eggs with references to Jack Nicholson, Duke Nukem and The Crow. The tips & tricks section contains information how to reach them.
- In the level after the train level, you will able to see in the rest of the train, the clothes of Harrison Ford's charachter in The Fugitive
- The cheat code for god mode in Blood is 'mpkfa', where 'mp' stands for Monolith productions and 'kfa' is taken from 'idkfa', the cheat code for all weapons in DOOM. It seems like Monolith was paying a tribute to DOOM.
- In the first level of the third episode, there's a secret room which is based on the infamous "Sloth" murder from the movie Se7en. There are those goody-smelly Wunderbaum trees hanging on the ceiling and the word "Sloth" is written in blood just above the bed.
- In the level "Crystal Lake" you can find several locations from the Friday The 13th horror movies. Indeed, the name of the level itself references Camp Crystal Lake, the setting of many films in the series.
- There is one gag available only in the Blood shareware that did not make it to the retail version of the game. During the first mission (E1M1) on the second floor of the Mausoleum there is an embalming room with a conveyor belt and a furnace. Among the items in this room are the "drips" that one would find in a hospital. Some a filled with what can only be blood. In the shareware version if one activates the blood drip one hears Caleb draw a big slurp, and exclaim "Aaah, tastes like Kool-Aid." This line was dropped from the Retail version, most likely due to copyright issues. Thus when Caleb takes a drink we only hear the slurping sound effect, and the subsequent "Aaah."
- Axe-wielding zombies say "Brains" or "More Brains" and there are dormant zombies found in metal drums. These are all references to the Return of the Living Dead films.
- A sign in E1M1 says "Welcome to Morningside Funeral Home" with the Morningside crossed out with spraypaint and replaced with "HELL." The name "Morningside" is likely a reference to the antagonist's name from the Phantasm movies.
- In E1M1, if you try to use the sink, Caleb says "out, out, damned spot!" It is a reference to Lady Macbeth washing her hands of blood in Shakespeare's play Macbeth.
- In E1M2 the train station is called Central Miskatonic, a reference to H. P. Lovecraft's works.
- The train in E1M3 has the name "Phantom 666" emblazoned on the side, a reference to the "Number of the Beast" 666 in Biblical prophecy.
- When you have the Incinerator equipped, Caleb will occasionally remark "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," a reference to Apocalypse Now.
- In E3M2, enter the wine cellar and Caleb will comment on a certain barrel "A cask of Amontillado!" Edgar Allen Poe wrote a short story with the same name. Destroy the barrel and you'll find several sawn off limbs and body parts inside.
- In the secret level "Butchery Loves Company" you can find a hidden area with a Duke Nukem arcade machine. Caleb will remark "I don't have time to play with you," a corruption of one of Duke's many one-liners.
- Caleb's opening line "I...live...AGAIN!" is lifted out of Army of Darkness.
- One of the lines spoken by Caleb while massacring enemies is "Da-da-da-dat's all, folks!", a reference to the famous closing line from Warner Bros. cartoons, as delivered by Porky Pig.
- And if you 'activate' Eric Draven's gravestone on the first level of Blood, Caleb will say 'Nevermore'. As in "Quoth the raven: 'nevermore' " of course, from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven".
- In one further piece of homage in this densely referential work, on the second page of the "default keys" reference, characters from Blood will comically re-enact gameplay from Pac-Man, Asteroids and Donkey Kong.
Shareware
The shareware version of the game contains many things that are not present in the full version, such as mushrooms that cause you to become delirious. The shareware levels are also slightly different in the full version. For example: E1M2 has been updated to include civilians which are not present in the shareware.
Tchernobog
The name Tchernobog means black god (crno bog) in Slavic dialect. It is a pagan deity dated from ancient 12th century Slavic religion.
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart required special editions of this game to be made before they would sell it. Identical to the original game in most aspects, they toned down the gore and removed any nudity.
Information also contributed by 88 49, B14ck W01f, bächtërmän, ClydeFrog, Corn Popper, Emepol, Goteki45, JudgeDeadd, Maw, MDMaster, Michael Palomino, Pseudo_Intellectual, Roger Wilco, Scott Monster, WildKard and Xoleras
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Related Sites +
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Blood - Coming from 3D Realms
game development page at the Apogee/3D Realms website, snapshot from 1996 preserved by the Wayback Machine -
Blood Cheats
from 3D Gamers -
Blood Pool
Ring of sites dedicated to Blood. Some may be down but there are many still working. -
Blood Wiki
The Blood Wiki, a wiki devoted to the first-person shooter game Blood, its sequel Blood II: The Chosen, and their respective expansion packs. Also available is information on the various mods, fan projects, development details, and the fictional world in which Caleb and the others live in. -
Control Z's Blood Site
A good Fan Site for Blood -
Crapshoot
A humorous review on PC Gamer -
Crudux Cruo
A fan site that contains custom level reviews, a "Blood Bank", and links to other sites. In the cultist language "Crudux Cruo" means "Fresh Blood." -
Deathmask.net
A personal fan-page that contains some downloads and other things relating to Blood. It also hosts the famous "Build on XP" tutorial. -
PlanetBlood
Featuring downloads, reviews, hosted sites, fan fiction/art... just about everything that has to do with Blood 1 and 2. The perfect site for any Bloodite. -
Purgatory
The site of a large, four-episode Total Conversion for Blood. -
The 13th Realm
A Blood total-conversion that aims to include more "traditional" horror elements in Blood's levels. -
The Official Blood Homepage
official website of the game from 1997, preserved by the Wayback Machine -
The Postmortem
Sort of a monument-like fansite built for Blood and Blood II: The Chosen to keep it's soul alive for the next generation of Bloodites. -
Zaphod's Blood Page
One of the oldest existing fansites for Blood, Zaphod's contains screenshots, custom maps, and some hints and tips.
Identifiers +
Contribute
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Accatone.
Additional contributors: Kate Jones, Xantheous, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Frenkel, retinadesgastada, Dae, Maw, Havoc Crow, oct, Patrick Bregger, MrFlibble.
Game added March 6, 2000. Last modified March 5, 2024.