Blood Review by Kevin Carney
Monolith's Blood is aptly named. The Game is quite ‘Bloody.’
After playing the demo, I knew that this was a game that I must have. To my joy the demo just tears at the surface of the full game. This is another one of those games that if you liked the demo, you’ll love the Full.
Blood the Quake Killer?
A lot of people have been asking if Blood is the Quake Killer. My personal feelings are that Quake was not even in the running. Now, before all you Quake lovers start e-mailing me in protest, listen up. We have some Quake lovers here at Game Depot and I had the standard arguments with them, so I heard all of it before. However, I don’t care what type of engine is in a game. If you put a Ferrari Car engine in a Volkswagen Beetle, you still have the same controls and looks of the Beetle. The same goes for Quake. This is not to say I do not like playing Quake. It just that the player interaction and controllability are lacking in Quake when compared to Duke or Blood. Now you are asking how does Blood compare to Duke. Those of you that have read my review before know my passion for Duke. And, well, ummm, well ummm, YES Blood as taken Dukes place in my list of Favs. So, Blood is currently the #1 best action game out there. Duke is now 1 1/2.
Playability
If you are into the First Person Shooter Thang, you’ll be into Blood. Blood has all the standard things that other shooters have, plus some little extras. It’s these extras that set the game apart. One noticeable deviation from the pack is Monoliths idea of what is a good ‘Giblets’ setting. For those of you that are new to the First Person Shooters, ‘Giblets’ are the little bits of body parts that go flying when you kill one of the nasty evil creatures. Monolith's programmers have pushed the envelope a little on the ‘Giblets’ setting. But hey, they called the game ‘Blood’ so they are just covering their butts against suits for false advertising. Some new extras are; a ‘twitching’ foot of a fallen adversary, empty shells bouncing around the room and lots of blood spraying everywhere, to name a few.
Plot
While I have not heard anything from Monolith, I imagine that they made Blood like past Shooters. Get a game that plays well then come up with a plot. While the plot isn’t great it doesn’t suck either. Just like in other shooters you forget what the plot is after a few hours of game play.
(BTW just to plug another game, in terms of plots. The Best game that I have played that worked incredibly well with the plot is "Outlaws" by Lucas Arts.)
Sounds
Blood falls more towards the comic side when it comes to the sounds. While at times I did get a shiver down my spine from the "spookier" sound effects. The game leans more towards funny "one-liners" and they work very well.
Graphics
As I stated earlier there are a lot more ‘Giblets.' This is about the only change (graphically) from Duke. The Graphics are good just like in Duke and they do not slow the game play, even in Multi-Player mode.
Levels
The levels are design well and blend together nicely. The ending of one level looks like the beginning of the next. So you get a sense of accomplishment, instead of just "Mindless Level Completions." The levels feature grave yards, morgues, moving trains, meat packing plants… I think you are getting the overall tone of the game by me naming these places.
Overall
Blood has claimed the number one spot on my list. A Gory, Intense, Trigger Happy, Stress Reliever of a Game. You’ll play it start to finish and then have the Multi-Player portions to keep the game’s blood moistly fresh.
Check out Game Depot's Download Page to do some bleeding of your own.
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Value:
Learning Game Play:
Total Score:
94
Eye Hand Speed:
Very fast, Fast, Medium, or Slow
Visual monitor adjustment:
Yes or No
Requires both hands:
Yes or No
Play with mouse:
Yes or No
| Profile of Reviewer |
| Name: |
Sex: |
Age: |
Occupation:
| Favorite Game Type: |
| Kevin Carney |
M |
28 |
Pilot
| Action/DUKE/Blood |
| |
Computer |
Memory |
Sound card |
Video card |
Disk Space |
Operating System
| CD-Rom |
| Minimum: |
P75 |
16MB RAM |
Sound Board |
VGA |
27MB |
MS-DOS 6.2/Win95 |
2x |
| Recommended: |
Pentium 166 |
16MB RAM |
Blaster 16 |
VGA |
27MB |
Windows 95 |
4x |
| Reviewed on: |
FALCON MACH V |
32MB RAM |
SB AWE 32PNP |
Dmd Stlth 64 3240 |
30MB |
Windows 95 |
8x |
| * Game Facts * |
| Name: |
Developer:
| Publisher:
| Suggested Price: |
| BLOOD |
Monolith |
GT Interactive Software |
$39.00-$49.00 |
