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Blood GT Interactive With the Quake and Duke Nukem franchises still lighting up the game market, the world of first-person shooters seems to get more crowded every day. And now that Quake III and Duke Nukem Forever are on their way, it doesn't look like it's going to thin out any. Blood, first released several months ago, fits neatly into this genre. Every new game has to promise more - more gore, more death, a more twisted sense of humor. Blood does promise this. Most of the copycats forget what made Quake and Duke popular in the first place ÷ style. Blood promises this, too, and doesn't do too bad a job of delivering. You are Caleb, a one-time cult member who was killed by his master, Tchernobog, after years of faithful service. Tchernobog is actually a god who purges his followers, along with Caleb and his faithful elite. Caleb wakes up from what should have been his eternal sleep with revenge on his mind and his trusty pitchfork in hand. Personally, I find it quite hard to be fearful of any god whose name I can't pronounce, but fortunately, the back-story is provided to lend more of an atmosphere than a plot. The atmosphere, and a few of the toys, are what make Blood worthwhile. The settings have a timeless feel, the foreboding stone and wood in one scene contrasting with more modern-looking buildings in the next. The hooded foot soldiers will come at you with Tommy guns, but you might fight back with the Incinerator, a gun that lays down a field of napalm, or the Tesla Cannon, which fires an electric field. You could be in a good old-fashioned firefight with the human cultists in a saloon one minute, then step outside onto the paved road to fight gargoyles and hellhounds. Some of the level design is impressive, as well. In one of the more innovative levels, Caleb finds himself trying to stop an old-fashioned freight train in one level. He has to fight off zombies and fanatics while keeping his balance, careful not to fall off the fast-moving train. If you catch a cultist with his back turned and give him a good blast with the shotgun, you can knock him right off the cowcatcher and watch his body disappear in the distance. The new front line in shooters is interactivity with the environment, rather than just with the ghouls and creeps you're trying to kill. Blood takes as much advantage of this as the Build engine will allow, giving you the ability to destroy more of everything around you. You can scrape up the walls, blow up trees and buildings, and punch through to secret places. You can find yourself wasting a lot of time on this kind of thing if you're as curious as I am, throwing around TNT and poking at things with your pitch fork just to see what happens. It almost reminds me of the first time I played Castle Wolfenstein, leaving no flag or slightly discolored piece of wall unpushed. However, that fascination is over with quickly as you are set upon by Tchernobog's snarling foot soldiers, gargoyles, zombies, and phantasms. And while the bosses are average - tough and tricky to bring down - it's the little guys who are most dangerous. When you open up a meat locker, you'll most likely deal the foot soldiers and zombies first, but if you don't look down, you could find yourself swarmed with rats or spiders. While neither of them does too much damage, the spiders' bite can leave your vision blurred and your steps unsteady. And if you walk by a pile of body parts, make sure none of them are moving. There are severed hands, which leap up and grab for your throat, throttling you. You have to shake them off before you can kill them, and that isn't easy. Overall, Blood is a better than average first-person shooter, but it is still a first-person shooter. If you're tired of these types of games, Blood likely won't offer you anything to make you change your mind. You'll want to wait for the sequel to hit the stands in the fourth quarter, powered by a more modern engine with better graphic detail, may get there. However, if the old Duke and Quake are still lurking somewhere on your hard drive, Blood might be just the game for you. -Nick |
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