Blood II: The Chosen

The Good
In opposition to Tomer's review, I'd rate the graphics as excellent. Superb even. Gory, smooth, dark, seedy and scary. (I'm running it on a PII 400 mhz, though, with Voodoo 2 accelerator).

The sound, while repetitive at times, is of great quality. And the music is glorious.

I love the story-line. A first person shooter, where you're an undead being? What a neat relief from the space-marine/anti-terrorist syndrome which lives on and on. Also, it finally gives a logical reason why you are taking bullet after bullet and living. Not many other games supply an explanation - in Quake/Doom etc., I guess you're just a hefty boy who enjoys and deals well with pain.

Awesome level design. From the straight-forward (literally) subway car where you just walk in a line, to the beautiful museum of antiquities where you have to blow up a coolant pipe and leap through skylights to get in, the missions are varied and beautiful.

Dark humour is my bag, so stumbling across a body stuffed into a washing machine and having the lady there explain that "he must have just stuck his head in too far, or something" really cracked me up. In fact, most of the acting voice-over work is funny, and well done.

It's horror based. So few games are horror based. It's a genre that should be expounded to the skies.

The Bad
The A.I. is VERY weak. They won't pursue you if you run (which may be a plus, actually, since every player knows the trick - get 'em to pursue you, wait around a corner and blast 'em when they show up). I've shot people, and as long as they can't see me when I do it, they'll just stand there and take some more. I've lit people on fire and had them stand there and take it further.

The sound can sometimes get repititive. I noticed it most with the zealots. "Come out, we won't hurt you" becomes less believable with each iteration, especially when coupled with the phrase "You don't stand a chance" over and over and over again.

The zombies of the original have been replaced by weird "worm-zombie-alien implant" things. They still look like zombies, so that's what I pretend they are. A much cooler monster.

I liked the fact that the first game took place in the 1800s. It was unique, and I preferred that time period to this one (modern/future).

Oh, and the levels take too long to load.

The Bottom Line
For fans of first-person, a definite game worth looking at. For fans of horror, even better. But don't expect the enemy to react realistically.