Blood for all intents and purposes is a Doom clone. Kill monsters, navigate map, collect keys, find secrets e.t.c..
Character wise - it treads a line between Dooms bleak hell on earth and Duke Nukems fourth wall breaking pop culture quips and environmental interactivity. The stark contrast in tone weirdly works well.
The steam port is fairly terrible, using Dosbox it won't even reach 60fps, incredibly lazy with no effort on the Publishers part. It's still perfectly playable, but nowhere near as good as it could or should be.
Even though this is an old use driven with sprite enemies, it's art direction is highly detailed and effective. Blood has more atmosphere than most modern FPS. It's sound effects do a grand job of conveying the carnage.
Problems arise in gun wielding enemies. Using hit-scan they will instantly lock on to the player. This coupled with the games difficulty levels will result in instant death multiple times with nothing in the way of avoidance.
Along with other enemies can be incredibly frustrating and outright put people off the game. On the other hand the games difficulty makes it a slower methodical game compared to something like Doom, at times feeling more survival horror than straight up shooter. Resources matter in the game, without them it's almost impossible to proceed.
Weapons are mostly expected fodder. One of the things I liked is that the most boring weapon of any FPS, almost instantly nullified (the pistol) is a flare gun here, which can instantly kill many enemies, causing them to flail around on fire setting off other enemies. If only other FPS were as creative in keeping the lower tier weapons relevant and fun.
Basically if you're willing to put up with some cheap frustrations and want some hell themed FPS, can't really go wrong with Blood, it's cheap and tends to be on discount a fair bit. Even then, it's only £5. You're still getting your moneys worth, even if the condition leaves a lot to be desired.
