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crazyflyingdonut

"Blood: One Unit Whole Blood" is an AMAZING game that should be noticed more.

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Today, I finished playing Blood (except for Episode 5: Cryptic Passage, but that's because that episode doesn't seem to be on the Steam version of Blood, which is the one I have. So basically I've played Episodes 1-4 and Episode 6), and I seem to be one of the small amount of people in this world that has seen how great the game truly is. Unfortunately, for some reason, it happens to be that one Build Engine game that barely anyone talks about. (Perhaps that's why the source was never released, they probably didn't think anyone would care about it.)

 

Overlooked by the big shadows of Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, Blood's fanbase consists of nothing more than a small cult following, which is really sad in my opinion. Seriously, what made it so unpopular? SOMEBODY, PLEASE TELL ME!

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Around these parts, the game gets wildly praised all the time. I wouldn't describe its cult following as being "small", here or elsewhere. I've only played a little bit of the glitchy DOSBox configuration, and have been holding out on a proper source port for quite some time. 

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8 minutes ago, Ajora said:

Around these parts, the game gets wildly praised all the time. I wouldn't describe its cult following as being "small", here or elsewhere. I've only played a little bit of the glitchy DOSBox configuration, and have been holding out on a proper source port for quite some time. 

The closest we've gotten to the source code of Blood is the source code of an Alpha version, I think. I don't know if it helped much, because an Alpha version of any game is one that's far from complete.

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Cryptic Passage is pretty nice. Although I'd say I recommend playing Death Wish -a mapset by fans- much more than the normal episodes, give it a try and enjoy!

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I absolutely love Blood, my favorite Build Engine game by far. That being said, I haven't really been able to play it decently since I moved on from Windows XP back in... 2007 I think. Which is a shame, I can't stand to play it in Dosbox, it just feels unnaturally laggy, janky, what have you. BloodCM did a really good job however, so I did go back and play it again earlier this year. And I admit, E4 does kind of... suck. Still fun, but not great, seems like they got tired of making it, environments became rather bland. I've tried BloodGDX, but it's really jerky, maybe I need to play around with the settings a bit, but framerate issues and stutters abound when I've used it.

 

But still, I love the game. And I think you'll find plenty of people around these parts that do. It certainly didn't get the credit it deserved when it came out, but most people who've played it appreciate it.

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5 hours ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

Overlooked by the big shadows of Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, Blood's fanbase consists of nothing more than a small cult following, which is really sad in my opinion. Seriously, what made it so unpopular? SOMEBODY, PLEASE TELL ME!

 

 

My best guess? It was the year it came out. Blood was going up against stiff competition in 1997 (not just against FPS games but games in general). It was released the same year as Quake 2, Hexen 2, GoldenEye 007, and Jedi Knight, along with Half-life only being a year away. So Blood just got buried under all those games and Faded Away.

 

That combined with everybody switching over to 3D accelerated cards, people just weren't interested in playing another 2D FPS in the build engine. And what was probably the final nail in the coffin was Blood 2, which crushed any hopes of the franchise having a future. That's not to mention all the legal trouble Blood has been through involving the rights holders. 

Edited by Eligos

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1 hour ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

Is that even possible?

It's been quite a while, but I believe I used the instructions here: http://buildxp.deathmask.net/

It's probably a hit or miss whether any of the download links still work now, since it's been 15 years since that page was created. But it worked back then. It was an ass-ache to get working, but it did work, and it worked very well.

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12 minutes ago, Eligos said:

Blood was going up against stiff competition in 1997. Blood just got buried and Faded Away. That combined with everybody switching over to 3D accelerated cards, people just weren't interested in playing another 2D FPS in the build engine. That's not to mention all the legal trouble Blood has been through involving the rights holders. 

 

Wow... Makes me sad, that people are so obsessed over games with "DA NU GRAFEEX" that some of the best games that just so happen to be behind a little technology-wise, get ignored by a lot of people.

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5 hours ago, Ajora said:

Around these parts, the game gets wildly praised all the time. I wouldn't describe its cult following as being "small", here or elsewhere. I've only played a little bit of the glitchy DOSBox configuration, and have been holding out on a proper source port for quite some time. 

Just use BloodGDX. It's accurate enough that it runs demos recorded in the original game without ever desyncing. Which to me means it's close enough to 100% accurate gameplay-wise. The only complains I've heard regard its' not entirely accurate lighting (due to using OpenGL).

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Blood is fun. But truly though, the first episode has some great set pieces and it's all down hill from there. Is there any reason at all to play episodes 2+? *that* is one reason I don't think it had the staying power of the other games mentioned in the same breath.

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My opinion of Blood is similar to my opinion of Heretic: 5 episodes of maps and maybe 3 episodes of decent content.

 

EDIT SIX Episodes wow

Edited by Marcaek

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Blood's alright. Ran through it multiple times recently via BloodGDX. I have some big issues with it though, like it using obtuse key hunting to pad out its length, along with its over reliance on hitscan enemies to create an irritating sense of "difficulty". It lacks that naturally fun, easy to pick up and play, smooth flowing action you get with more polished efforts like Doom or Quake. It's a good game, but I think of it much less now as an adult than I did as a teen when I first finished it in the '90s.

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 along with its over reliance on hitscan enemies to create an irritating sense of "difficulty".

 

Tip: The hitscanners in this game are punishing but they're "fair": they can't shoot you if you circle around (u have to get very close for the ones with tommyguns, though) and they won't attack if you're currently hitting them with a hitscan weapon.

 

IMO the hitscanner in this game is too much maligned, more than they deserve. I think this game enemy design has some problems (nonhuman enemies and bosses are too easy in my opinion) but the hitscanners aren't a problem... to be honest I like them more than Doom's hitscanners (RNG pain chance and damage is just plain unfair really), their threat level is high but you can still run in and mow them down if u know what you're doing.

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7 minutes ago, xdarkmasterx said:

 

Tip: The hitscanners in this game are punishing but they're "fair": they can't shoot you if you circle around (u have to get very close for the ones with tommyguns, though) and they won't attack if you're currently hitting them with a hitscan weapon.

 

IMO the hitscanner in this game is too much maligned, more than they deserve. I think this game enemy design has some problems (nonhuman enemies and bosses are too easy in my opinion) but the hitscanners aren't a problem... to be honest I like them more than Doom's hitscanners (RNG pain chance and damage is just plain unfair really), their threat level is high but you can still run in and mow them down if u know what you're doing.

 

I don't understand how this can do any good when played on the fourth and fifth difficulties, as the moment you so much as look around the first pixel of a corner they hit you.

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Why are you fighting them head on? TNT, Spraycan and flaregun are way safer. Voodoo Doll and Lifeleech staff are also great vs them. Trying to play blood with nothing but hitscan weapons will just end horribly. 

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