Blood Review
- November 09, 2005 13:52 PM PST
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Blood is, um, bloody good fun
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You Gotta Have Blood
Blood's premise is simple: You're seeking vengeance on an evil master who sent you to your grave. And while you're character doesn't have Duke's gaudy personality and attitude, he does have some clever one-liners of his own--all spoken with staccato, Clint Eastwood inflections. He also has a demetned, maniacal laugh that usually punctuates large explosions.
Blood pits you against zombies, fire-breathing hell hounds, gun-toting monks, flying gargoyles, and other monsters eager to send you back to the grave. Helpinng you send them there first are several weapons, but they're hardly the usual selection of heavy military firepower you'll find in other corridor shooters. You use a pitchfork, flare gun, dynamite, and even a voodoo doll. Most of these weapons have double functions: you can fire one or both barrels of the shotgun; and you can use the aerosol can as a flamethrower or throw it as a napalm bomb.
Blood Drive
Blood's grisly, violent, and goes over the topit makes Duke and Doom look like a Disney cartoon. Enemies are crushed, dismembered, burned alive, and blown to piecesand that's just for starters. At time the carnage is so out of hand, all you can do is laugh at it all. Yet the game does have a sense of humor, especially with levels and dialogue that play clever homage to contemporary cinema. One level is Camp Crystal Lake from Friday the 13th, and you'll hear lines like "You're going to need a bigger boat" from Jaws.
The game's levels will task even the most seasoned corridor-shooter veteran: They're huge and filled with traps and secrets in a variety of settings. Some of these include a moving train, a city during am air raid, and within the pulsating, bleeding walls of God-knows-what. Blood also features an impressive A.I. Some enemies actually crouch and use walls for cover rather than blindly attack you head-on.
"It Burns! It Burns!"
The visuals and audio do a decent job, but are far from perfect, while the graphics are effective and gruesome. Monsters die in gory detail, right down to streams of crimson that follow exploding limbs. The surroundings are also well-depicted with red skies and foreboding buildings. The biggest drawback is that objects and monsters lose detail and blur into a mass of pixels when up close.
On the audio side, the sound effects are excellent--everything from the monks' gibberish and pain-filled shrieks to the jarring explosions are crystal clear. The music, however, doesn't fare as well: It ranges from creepy and effective to droning and monotonous. Its biggest problem is it overshadows important sound cues--like monsters lurking around corners and traps being sprung.
The controls are almost perfect, impaired only by an imprecise vertical aiming. It's difficult to pinpoint distant targets, and sniper shooting becomes trial-and-error.
Blood is Good Fun
Blood's flaws are easily swept aside when your guns start blasting and the bodies start falling. If you crave a good, violent corridor shooter, this is a great addition to your PC library. It's bloody fun--right down to the last drop.
