Blood

aka: Horror 3D
Moby ID: 980
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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.

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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
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)

I live...again!

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

I'm going to paint the town red!

The Good
Blood is a game that is considered along with Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior to be the holy trinity of Build engine FPS games. I discovered the game several years ago via the website Home of the Underdogs, a great website full of underrated PC games, definitely check it out.

In Blood, you play as Caleb. An Old West gunslinger who used to be part of the Chosen, the elite enforcers of the Cabal, a sinister cult who worship a dark god named Tchernobog. One day, Caleb, his girlfriend Ophelia and the rest of the Chosen are summoned to Tchernobog. Instead of gaining immortality and ultimate power, Caleb is forced to watch as his love and friends get slaughtered by Tchernobog and his minions. Caleb himself gets exiled and put to rot inside a hollow, cold grave. Several decades later, Caleb somehow comes back to life, seeking answers and above all else, bloody revenge!

Like I mentioned before, Blood uses the Build engine made famous in Duke Nukem 3D. Like Duke3D, Blood puts a strong emphasis on varied weapons and enemies as well as huge, highly detailed levels. Blood mostly takes place in real-life locations such as a cemetery, a hospital, a besieged city and even a moving train. There are also some more bizarre locations. One of the final levels in the game is called "in the flesh" and consists of Caleb moving through a living, breathing and occasionally bleeding creature. Furthermore, the environment reacts to what you are doing. Shoot the walls and bullet holes appear, statues and paintings can be destroyed in order to reveal hidden stashes, etc.

The first level, for instance, takes place at a cemetery. You start the level in your crypt and go through the graveyard, blowing up zombies "freshly" risen from the grave. After that, you will enter the memorial church and eventually the cremation room. Another level is one huge tribute to the horror movie (and novel) The Shining. It takes place in the Overlooked Hotel, complete with hallways, bedrooms, secret passages and a hedge maze. If you look hard enough, you can even find the Redrum writings and Jack Torrance's frozen corpse!

Level design aside, one of Blood biggest strengths, in my opinion, lies in its original weapon arsenal. In Blood you have some typical FPS weapons like a shotgun and a rocket launcher (changed to a napalm launcher) but you also get stuff like a flare pistol, an aerosol can makeshift flamethrower and even a voodoo doll (my personal favorite, by the way). Your melee weapon in this game is not a fist or a knife, but a freaking pitchfork. Ideal for stabbing those hapless mimes between the ribs! Not only that, but almost every weapon has an alternative firing mode. For example, the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun can fire either one barrel at the time or both at once for an awesome sounding BLUUUAAAAM!

The enemies themselves are also pretty original. You have typical horror enemies like zombies, psychopathic cultists and gargoyles but also walking hands, hell hounds and even fish like humans with shark heads (you have to see it to believe it). Some enemies will run, crawl or swim straight towards you to stab or bite you, others will shoot you and even others fade in and out of existence to slice you in half. In addition, the enemies are very challenging to fight against, particularly on the higher difficulties. Not only you get to fight more foes, but also because they get new abilities. The cultists, for example, will throw dynamite at you as well as strafing and crouching more often if you choose a harder difficulty level. Simply put, every enemy will test your skills and will require you to use different tactics to overcome the odds.

The game's audio and music also deserve as much or even more praise than its atmosphere. Zombies mumble stuff like "brains," cultists speak bizarre gibberish and the phantoms screams will pierce through your eardrums. Shoot enemies and they will scream out in pain. Set them on fire and they will shout "it burns, it burns" before falling apart into a tiny, smoldering pile of ash. All the weapons sound great and hearing blood dripping to the ground or the pitchfork penetrating flesh is awesomely gruesome. Music-wise, Blood is a far cry from typical game music. No rock, techno or orchestra themes, but ambient sounds like moaning, clock ticking or spiritual chants. It certainly adds to Blood's dark, morbid setting.

Caleb himself, and his voice actor Stephan Weyte, definitely deserve acclaim. Caleb really steals the show as he, like his Build bros Duke Nukem and Lo Wang, loves to comment on everything he sees and does. Enter the hospital level, and he says "I'm here to donate some blood, someone else's." Finish off the final boss and Caleb mutters "good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun." Caleb is pretty much an undead version of Dirty Harry as he has little shows little care for anything but his own issues. He is very morally ambiguous as he is pretty much as violent and psychotic as the cult he fights against. Blow enemies up and he will laugh maniacally, shoot a mime standing around and he will coolly say "I hate mimes." Still, Caleb is a joy to play with and you will constantly wonder what is next in store for him to kill and comment on.

Blood is like a huge love letter to classic horror fans. You will certainly recognize stuff from movies like The Evil Dead, Friday The 13th and Jaws. I do have to say that the game scared me little and that is exactly what the developers intended to do with this game. It uses horror and violence in such an absurd and exaggerated way that it becomes funny and just very entertaining. Like Duke3D, Blood is a game made by gamers for gamers with creativity and overall gaming pleasure put well above making money.

And of course, for a game named after the red liquid that flows through all our bodies, the game has a ton of blood and gore. Every kill is bloody and ultra violent. Throw dynamite to a zombie or cultist and watch as the blood, limbs, organs and other chunks of flesh get scattered all over the place. Shoot them with a shotgun next to a wall and see the blood slowly ooze all over the wall. Shoot enemies with a flare gun and watch them go out in flames. Use the voodoo doll and enemies turn to dust, literally!

The Bad
Like typical 90s shooters, Blood can be brutally hard at times. More often than not, you will enter a seemingly empty room only to get shot in the back by a cultist hiding in the corner or to have a horde of axe-wielding zombies appear from behind a fake wall.

The game's graphics, while detailed, are also very low resolution. Even on higher resolution settings, the game is pretty blurry, particularly the textures. I do have to say that these low res graphics certainly add to the game's B-movie style.

The Bottom Line
For me, Blood, alongside Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D can be considered the swan song of the 2.5D shooter genre. And along with these other two games, I can certainly recommend you all to give this game a go. Especially if you are looking for a bloody good game (no pun intended) to play for the Halloween season! Now go get your hands bloody!

DOS · by Stijn Daneels (79) · 2014

One of the bloodiest, sickest, most sadistic, frightening 3D shooters ever...and I LOVE IT!!!

The Good
There's far too much to list here! First off, the sheer amount of stuff you can do in this game is amazing! You can blow huge parts of the environment up! Destroy and entire train! Meet JoJo the Idiot Boy! Kill mimes! Blast zombies and cultists apart and laugh as their blood rains upon your parade! Quote Evil Dead and Shakespeare! And more! I've never seen a 3D shooter with so much wit and charm before Blood came around!

Now, onward...your in-game persona, Caleb, has a unique and sadistic sense of humor. I even think he's a better character than Duke Nukem ever was, and I also love some of the lines he comes up with (especially his "I...LIVE...AGAIN!" when he rises from his grave in the first stage), most of which will draw a few chuckles from the player. Also, there is a wide variety of enemies in this game, all of which also have their cool ways about them (check out the evil hands!), and all of which have some pretty damn good AI about them. Third, your weapons. Man, what variety of tools of death and mayhem have you got at your disposal! I mean...what other 3D shooter lets you kill your enemies simply by stabbing a voodoo doll near them? Or even better yet...grabbing the awesome Guns Akimbo Power-Up and mowing a whole room of baddies with two Tommy guns? Speaking of Power-Ups...they're plentiful, and they're all totally cool.

Graphics and level design are top notch, and I love some of the more unique levels (like the carnival stage!) and the little touches Monolith put into them. All the graphics are excellent for this type of game (which reminds me...who says you need polygons to get great graphics?), and the color scheme (for the most part) feels appropriate.

Sounds and music are both absolutely amazing. The music especially is awesome because it's all recorded in Redbook Audio format and each piece has a cool, errie, creepy feeling about them. Great for Halloween! Sounds are mostly the normal fare: explosions, gunshots, screams, and a few others, but they're crisp and clear, and I love hearing the cultists scream in agony when I stab my voodoo doll in the heart and watch them crumble into dust in front of my eyes. All in all, hardly anything was wrong with this game, except...

The Bad
The game had one big problem going for it: it was shipped with a lot of bugs still left in the program. One especially annoying bug was the fact that Monolith had the FMV sequences played by putting the video in one file, and the audio in another. For a long time, neither would play, because Monolith couldn't align them right. There are a few others, such as the game being unable to loop the CD Audio music properly, leaving you with no music for about half a level sometimes, as well as a couple of tiny level bugs here and there (nothing major though).

The Bottom Line
Despite the nitpicky bugs, I wholeheartedly recommend that everyone who loves a good 3D shooter or a good horror flick grab this game if they see it. Too bad Blood 2 sucked (IMHO), and also that Monolith seems to have vanished as of lately. I'd love to see Blood 3 done, but done in the same vein as that which made Blood 1 such a joy to play, and one 3D shooter I'll never forget.

DOS · by Satoshi Kunsai (2020) · 2001

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

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 (7182) 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 +

  • 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 +

  • MobyGames ID: 980
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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.