Blood - From the workshop of Kevin Kilstrom, Plus mods/maps/launchers thread

[pippin]

There was a reason this was never released outside of Brazil.

That actually looks more like a Duke Nukem themed Wolfenstein 3D mod.

Oh man

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I'm guessing this is from the same guy who had that pimped out 286.

Tell him to try playing Ultima 8 on that 386. It'll be like a slide show.

 

[Astral Rag]

The official Blood website is was is pretty cool, I particularly like the Bestiary and Screamshot sections.

 

[tormund]

http://xlengine.com/xl-engine-update-3/
Looks like new major release of XL engine is coming closer, believe it or not. And it looks like Shadow Warrior will be fully playable before his work with Blood is done.

"When, in previous updates, I mentioned matching up Blood code with the Build code – I already had this working in the engine. In fact Shadow Warrior is 100% playable, including sound, music, controls, memory management and so on in the engine and has been for a month or two."

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

http://www.moddb.com/games/bloodcm/downloads/bloodcm-v022016

New version of BloodCM has finally all the original 4 episodes, but after playing two levels I can say that it needs a lot of polishing, and the constant graphic glitches don't help either.

Soon we will have a proper source port for Blood.

Soon...

 

[Riskbreaker]

http://xlengine.com/xl-engine-update-3/
new major release of XL engine is coming closer

Capital! My grandchildren will, perhaps, be able to experience Death Wish in glorious HD resolushuns. There is yet some hope left for Man.

 

[tormund]

New version of BloodCM has finally all the original 4 episodes, but after playing two levels I can say that it needs a lot of polishing, and the constant graphic glitches don't help either.

You can eliminate decent number of glitches by switching to classic renderer. It won't be perfect even then TBH, so far he has been mostly focused on finishing all maps instead of polishing existing ones.
But still, even back when I went trough E1 and E2 in old BloodCM, it was better recreation of original game in eDuke than eRampage was for Redneck Rampage.


It will be interesting to see what will come first, BloodCM with the expansions, or XL Engine release with 100% playable Blood...

 

[Astral Rag]

Blood 2 is about as salvageable as Unreal 2, i.e. not at all. There ain't no fixin that, inferior gunplay was just a top of particularly large and rancid iceberg that is Blood 2.

It's like that thing Cleve was talking about

WARNING!!!!!!

-> BLOOD 2

* * ---- R E E K S ---- * *

LIKE A DISPOSABLE DIAPER SITTING IN A LANDFILL ON A HOT DAY IN HAITI

I loved the first game - I have no idea what this piece of s**t is supposed to
be - a sequel? It's junk! Plain and simple! If I could get a refund I'd do it
right now!

DON'T BUY THIS GAME!! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!!!

Gone is the 1930's pulp horror comic setting, replaced by the bog-standard 3D
sci-fi "research lab gone amuck" (ZZZZZZZzzzzZ) plotline ... or lack of
one!!!!! The usual "experiments with the living dead facility"
ZZZZzzZZZZZZZZZZz ... get a clue, people. What do they think was so cool about
the first Blood? Did they even play it?

I thought the original Blood was an awesome and atmospheric game although a
bit weak in story for a shooter (better than most) but this "sequel" is an
absolutely shocker. It is not ready for commercial release AT ALL.

Somebody really managed to bugger up a great idea when they "improved" it
with a modern setting and added this crap new "enhanced" 3D engine. The 3D
looks like a very sad alpha version that has a lot of work needed before it
will make the grade.

As for the bugs - don't get me started. This game has weird strips,
malfunctioning mouse, distorted textures, cruddy resolution, crashes galore
and just plain trashy response and feel. Did they really have to go and fugg
up the unbelievably beautiful Build Engine and replace it with this hi-rez
student's polygon project??!!?!? 3D accelerator my ass, it is slow as hell on
a Pentium 233!! Bring back the Build Engine, it was stable, very well
debugged and fun to explore in. All it needed was high color. This game
doesn't look like it was made by the same people, it's a pass.

Total Score (1-10):

Atmosphere : 0
Graphics : 0
Stability : 0
Playability : 0
Sound : 0
Music : 0
Worth : 0

I would have given the real BLOOD at least an 8 or 9 in all these regards
above, no hesitation.

The programmers and designers need to be marched into the nearest open field
and forced to run a gauntlet of rubber truncheons. This game stinks big time.
I liked the first Blood so much I thought I'd treat myself to this game as a
Xmas present ... whatta load of garbage!! At $89.95 here in Oz this game is
nothing short of fraudulent robbery. I'd feel that way if I paid $9.95 for it
as well.

(Concludes flame post by tossing CD to dogs as a chew toy with a deep sigh of
disappointment)

On Sat, 02 Jan 1999 Pedro Colman-Arrellaga wrote:

P.S. When's Grimoire coming out?

 

[Astral Rag]

Apparently that great "Blood Launcher" has gone the way of all flesh

Had to remove everything due to Google flagging one of the packs as Malware (due to a well-known false positive). Sorry! Hopefully someone will build an alternative that isn't made with duct tape and spit...

 

[ghostdog]

I had Blood 2 from a PC magazine but never managed to play it due to the game crashing when launched. I guess I am one of the lucky ones.

 

[tormund]

You have no idea... I have been attempting to replay it ever since I bought it on last year Halloween steam sale. First with a latest Extra Crispy mod, then with the older version because author is batshit crazy and he increased enemy counts 3-5 times in the latest version (while he reduced number of dropped hearts). Author's reasoning for that on the Transfusion forums thread was:

You're a chosen, why wouldn't they throw tons of enemies at u at one time?

And even with the improved weapons from older Extra Crispy, this game is still trash... One of the most unbalanced and annoying major 90s shooters, with some of the ugliest and most boring levels ever. There is a special part of hell custom built for Blood 2 apologists...

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Unreal 2 or Blood 2, which is worse and why ?

Two great predecessors and so much fail in the sequels.




Now let's read the review of the Blood by Cleve.

https://web.archive.org/web/19991012053343/http://geocities.com/~frpg-grimoire/BludTrib.html

If you don't have much of an appreciation for design craftsmanship in computer games, you've probably long since dismissed this Monolith game as another Doom Clone or meritless 3D shooter like a million others before it. I understand that the game when it was first released did not sell that well and was overlooked by many reviewers as a mere variation on the Build Engine that was used to put Duke Nukem together. Such is often the fate of truly gifted game designers, who may or may not be recognized at first when their product debuts. Since then, BLOOD has gotten much wider distribution after being moved to a budget title category in retail and just like the neglected classic RPG Betrayal at Krondor, the original BLOOD has eventually aqquired a cult following worldwide and a deep appreciation by many admirers for what are the most intricate and engaging levels anybody has ever seen in the 3D shooter genre.



BLOOD from Monolith is with a few reservations the finest action shooter ever produced, possibly one of the best games to come down the beltway since DOOM itself. The premise, atmosphere, setting, game mechanics and general feel are a sophisticated blend of influences from old horror and western comics, victorian science, turn-of-the-century history and good classical Greek tragedy. In a perfect world, all computer games would feature as much attention to detail, painstaking perfectionism and solid player testing. Sadly, BLOOD exists alone on a plateau of technical and artistic achievement with a handful of other games that could be counted on one hand, most of which were only modestly profitable at the time.

Stuff to Avoid:

1. The cutscenes are very poorly done on the BLOOD CD. They're also a bit vulgar in places.

2. BLOOD II, the "sequel," is a non-event. Pass it up, I wasted money on it and have never been more disappointed in a game.

3. Don't waste health or power trying to kill every monster on every level - conserve your strength where possible and live to make it to the next level.

4. There is a grisly lighthearted humor in the game that is appropriate for adults but probably not for younger children or teens.



Best parts of Blood:

1. See if you can locate the "Mall of the Dead" in the last scenario, DEAD RECKONING. It is terrific and presages the discount outlet in the later scenario, POST MORTEM. The mall has piped in sickly sweet shopping music and is kind of like K-Mart except after hell on earth.

2. See if you can find the Life Leech in the discount store in POST MORTEM.

3. Check out the Super-Secret at the top of the elevator shaft in GHOST TOWN.

4. Did you know you can get a Napalm Launcher in CRADLE TO GRAVE, the first level of the first scenario? Yep!

5. Always inspect the insides of flaming furnaces.

6. My personal favorite has to be THE HAUNTING, a gigantic old mansion and hedgemaze similar to Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING in some ways. I've played this level fifty times and never the same way. You can solve the level early quite easily or explore the entire thing, but it is colossal inside and has so many secret places I can't even remember them all.

7. The coolest secret power in the game is the Life Leech. Used as a regular weapon it is not much better than a Napalm Launcher, but try running into a room filled with monsters and using "X" to plant the Skull staff in the middle of the room. It will automatically fire balls of energy at everything there until you pick it up again with the spacebar. The "X" power of the Napalm Launcher is devastating, it spews huge bouncing balls of flame that create a region of certain death where they come to rest.

8. The evil cultists of Tchernobog are at work all over the world, they even have bases in Antarctica. I like COLD RUSH and the secret level called THIN ICE, they made me want a blanket and some hot coffee.

9. Spare the terrified civilians whenever you can. Caleb is a dark lonely hero and a romantic like Faust, not a redneck bad guy or a remorseless killer.

10. Keep a lookout for all the secret graffiti painted around by the game's creators - these guys did a spectacular job on this game and it is obvious they wanted credit for it.

11. The items and many small features are modeled as voxels - incredible, isn't it? BLOOD improved substantially on the Build Engine of Duke Nukem with a ton of strange tricks combining raycasting, polygons and voxels to produce high frame rates and terrific detail. BLOOD runs quite well on a good 486.

12. Don't forget to stop and marvel at some of the vistas - the architecture and geographics of BLOOD is astonishing in places.

13. The only thing BLOOD lacks is a stronger story line to unite all of the scenarios and levels, given this it would certainly have been the greatest action game of all time, period. Still, the wide range of locations provides for a rich glimpse of the extent to which Tchernobog's evil minions have played in world history - the game even hints they may have been collaborators with the Axis during WWII.

14. See if you can find the homages to Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Kimble, Lovecraft and Duke Nukem.

15. The physics are superb in BLOOD, especially when bouncing burning dynamite off a wall into a tight area. With a little practice you can put them just about wherever you want. Notice how well the explosive effects are transferred to nearby monsters and structures when something blows up.

16. The Tesla Coil weapon is a brilliant idea for a weapon limited by the scientific understanding of the 19th century. The only thing I thought it needed was the ability to charge bodies of water with an electrical current and kill everything nearby, this would have been great.

17. Did you know that originally the creators of BLOOD planned to have several additional weapons and powerups which never made it into the final game? One of which was a magic raven that would permit the player to fly? Some of these powerups are used in the 3rd party add-on CRYPTIC PASSAGES. There are quite a few instances like this where you can see that some items never quite worked properly or were rushed out too early to polish. This is amazing considering the overall quality of design in BLOOD ... the sequel made this mistake only to a far worse degree, where they actually released a playable beta version as the "final" product to the public.

18. Check out the vertigo effect when you get bitten by a poisonous spider. Amazing distortion for an engine that primarily uses raycasting. I wouldn't even pretend to know how in the hell they did this considering this means they would have had to rotate either vertical rays or the buffer in real time at a decent speed. Plus fuzzy distortion of lines blurring your "vision."

19, The greatest action sequence in the history of computer games has to be the battle in the dining car at the tail end of the runaway train with the cultists in the third level of the first scenario. This is a wild take-no-prisoners gunfight that puts some of the best western movies I've seen to shame. If you've been wasteful with ammunition you'll find yourself in deep trouble by the time you reach this part of the locomotive.

20. Take a good long last look at this game when you are finished, because things this well done are sadly lacking in our world. 99% of everything the human race does is normally complete crap. BLOOD is an aesthetic and technical triumph and deserves the respect of anybody who considers computer games a genuine critical artform.

 

[Riskbreaker]

6. My personal favorite has to be THE HAUNTING, a gigantic old mansion and hedgemaze similar to Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING in some ways. I've played this level fifty times and never the same way. You can solve the level early quite easily or explore the entire thing, but it is colossal inside and has so many secret places I can't even remember them all.

Cleve's taste is fucking flawless.
"The Haunting" and "Overlooked Hotel" are me favorite Blood maps. Used to get lost in them back in the day, but I fucking loved them more and more with each replay. Fantastic atmosphere, non-linear design and ridiculously rewarding exploration (see how much better "Overlooked Hotel" becomes once one discovers its network of secret passages).

 

[Don Peste]

Apparently that great "Blood Launcher" has gone the way of all flesh

Had to remove everything due to Google flagging one of the packs as Malware (due to a well-known false positive). Sorry! Hopefully someone will build an alternative that isn't made with duct tape and spit...

What about this? http://buildgamedosboxlaunchers.weebly.com/blood-dosbox-launcher.html

 

[Riskbreaker]

Apparently that great "Blood Launcher" has gone the way of all flesh

Had to remove everything due to Google flagging one of the packs as Malware (due to a well-known false positive). Sorry! Hopefully someone will build an alternative that isn't made with duct tape and spit...

What about this? http://buildgamedosboxlaunchers.weebly.com/blood-dosbox-launcher.html

That's the one I've been using for quite some time now. Cool thing about it is that one can easily add additional maps & episodes that can be launched through the launcher's menu, something that isn't possible with nanoaugur launcher.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I played Blood 2 to its entirety.
It was one of the worse FPS games I've played, holy shit.
Unreal 2 was mediocre, and it didn't feel as jank.

 

[DraQ]

Unreal 2 or Blood 2, which is worse and why ?

I... uhh... fuck, no.
Even trying to ponder which one might possibly be better than the other feels wrong and disturbing.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Now for something more optimistic. I've finished Inherit The Earth mini-campaign. Eleven normal levels plus two slaughterfest like maps for those who are stubborn enough to find the secret code for it. The modder Bloatoid made it way before his Death Wish opus magnum. He says that maps were made in different time intervals, which sometimes shows in the quality. Which is overall not bad actually, and shows his potential during the early days.

There are some new maps built from the scrap and modified, like the Phantom Train which you can see just below. Vanilla levels with the destruction of the locomotive was really easy compared to that one. Why ? Because after pulling the switch you need to RUN to the end like crazy. Somehow I felt it coming, since there was no buttons or space to pull the "end of the level" stone. I admit that I failed a couple of times, but it was so fun. There are new sounds, unusual use of build engine scripts and while there are some minor bugs here and there, I've finished it without any problems. Plus the AI of stone gargoyles sometimes behaves strange (not that I complain).

Other than that it was smooth experience. The three main episodes are interconnected and you will start them at the same place as you ended the earlier one. Shame that we didn't get at least 20 maps.

Hint: Conserve ammo in episode 3 for the confrontation with our favourite Tchernobog. I hope you are good with dynamite because you'll be tossing it on him like crazy.

Spoiler

 

[Unkillable Cat]

9. Spare the terrified civilians whenever you can. Caleb is a dark lonely hero and a romantic like Faust, not a redneck bad guy or a remorseless killer.

 

[skacky]

Gonna have to play Inhert The Earth then!

 

[tormund]

9. Spare the terrified civilians whenever you can. Caleb is a dark lonely hero and a romantic like Faust, not a redneck bad guy or a remorseless killer.

To be fair, that is a personal interpretation coming from someone that admitted how story and cutscenes are nothing to write home about (he even downright recommends avoiding the cutscenes).
I like his take on Caleb. And you must at least agree that, from his one liners, he seems to be far more refined than Duke or Wang.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I was actually referring to the "spare the civilians" part, but I see your point.

I disagree with him on one point, though: Caleb is an anti-hero.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I kill civilians because sometimes they have life essences, and in some mods even keys.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I kill civilians because sometimes they have life essences, and in some mods even keys.

Ya had to do it in the base game too. I do remember that you had to kill a civilian in order to get a key he drops early on in that sort of aquarium-themed map. I don't recall exact name of the map right now.

 

[tormund]

^You thought of Breeding Grounds, right?


BTW, I generally avoid killing them unless I have to, or if I I'm really short on health and I really need that potential life essence. And I can't help it if they run into my fire or explosion during the firefight.
I think that even a choice of voice and cries was meant to make players regret killing them instead of being amused by it.