Blood pits you against raving monks, rising zombies and all sorts of defiant beings

User Rating: 8.5 | Blood (1997) PC


Blood is part of a bizarre series of games which made the harddisks in the 90ies. FPS games which a theme and/or setting significantly quirky, gorey, surreal and self-ironic. Duke Nukem, Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior and Blood are but a few examples of this. With many "realism" shooters around nowadays, the old games become even more obscure and odd, but not a bit more interesting.

Blood pits you against raving monks, rising zombies and all sorts of defiant beings. At your disposal are pretty much all weapons taken right out of crazy Rambo grandpa's shack, dynamite, flares, a shotgut and so forth, if it's gorey and unnecessary brutal, it's there. The game kind of blurs the line between good and bad, which is fun, and the player does not really feel like the good guy saving the world from aliens (gum anyone ?), but the crazy man who decided to strike first.

The level design is great, with the later becoming steeply harder in difficulty. The graphics sets are very atmospheric and resemble B-movie goodness of outlaw cults and remote US states in the middle of lawless nowhere. Derailed trains, large cathedrals, a sandy, destered feel about everything.

An amazing game which oozes atmosphere and is incredibly fun, while being still intense due to its wacko creepyness.