Blood

"A fresh look with an old engine and showing there's more life to it than Duke Nukem."

Ever felt kill frenzy once a while? But you can not just go out on the street and kill whomever you see in your sight first. Why not let it out in a game of Blood? The name says it all, Blood is a first person shooter where you just run around and kill anything that moves. This is not like your ''hottest'' shooter with a complicating story, kill enemies, save innocents, and go back and forth in one single level. In this game, you are Caleb, a dark general to an even darker god - the Tchernobog (also known as ''The One That Binds''). But you were betrayed and your friends were murdered. Tchernobog thought it eliminated you, but you rise from your grave with a pitchfork with these words in your mouth, ''I live… again!'' Now, your out for revenge and Tchernobog got its little army to stop you at all cost.

Although Monolith used an outdated Build engine, but the SVGA graphics in this game are even more incredible than Duke Nukem 3D, and add several visual enhancements. Blood squirt everywhere, guts flying, head rolling, and some of the most eye popping explosion I ever seen. Every monster has up to three ways of dying. It depends which weapon you use. The game is lightning fast as well. The lighting source is well done. It really brings out the horror mood of a dark room and one little spot of light which you can only see. Some of the level designs are well done too. For example, ''The Lumber Mill'' was so scary, I was hiding in a room scared to go out to explore the rest of the level. The creepy empty lumber mill with empty room, vast field of lumber, saw blade with bloodstain on it, and blood on the floor too. The water is transparent even if you don't have hardware acceleration. There's an alpha 3Dfx patch out for Blood too. Graphically, Blood is the most stunning Build engine game to date, with the best looki ng levels and effects you'll find in any Build engine game.

Monolith gave Blood some of the most deadly weapons in the game. First you only have the primitive pitchfork, later a saw-off shotgun, three different types of dynamite, tommy gun, voodoo doll, hair spray and lighter, Tesla cannon that fires electricity, life leech - a staff that drains life from enemy and give it to you, and a napalm launcher that put Duke's RPG to shame. My personal favorite is the flaregun. You shoot a flare at your opponent and ignite the whole body on fire and watching them running around yelling, ''It burns! It burns!'' All these weapons have a secondary fire mode. For example, voodoo doll's primary fire mode is stabbing the doll with a pin and the enemy on your screen gets hurt. But if you use the secondary fire mode, Caleb will put a curse on the doll and your enemy will die automatically. Bloodbath is Blood's multiplayer deathmatch mode. This was not as much fun as Quake but the weapon selections really made it up for the match.

Blood has the most beautiful sound effect. The game is enriching with audio, it really blends in with the creepy environment of the game. Whistling wind, creaking chains, the sound of the tommy gun fired by the fanatics, the shattering of glass - the sound in Blood is top notch. Caleb would never stop his wise crack comments. If you just leave him there for awhile, he might crack a joke on you. The monsters have extensive speech in the game. The Butchers moan with the words, ''Join us...'' or the cultists yelling with their ancient language. The music is well blend with the game's environment too. It really want you to go kill everything that moves. Sound and music are just as much a part of our world as sight.

Overall, Blood is one gore spilling, blood squirting, people killing 3D shooter. More violence than you can think of. For people who just want violence, violence, and more violence, this is the game for you. But if you are looking for a 3D shooter with a complicating story and not just running around killing people, stay away from this series. Blood may be primitive from any 3D shooters out there, but a little dose of blood and gores in your life wouldn't harm anyone.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/00, Updated 08/07/01