“I live… Again!”
Blood is a masterpiece of what 90s first-person shooters were all about. The culmination of the shock value that defined the time, gameplay that is as smooth as butter, and level design that is non-linear and rewards exploration and learning. It’s also a game I can’t recommend for any FPS fan that came around in the post Call of Duty generation, because Blood will absolutely kick your ass and laugh at your suffering.
I grew up as a Duke Nukem 3D kid; god only knows how I got my hands on it. In an age before the internet, first-person shooters were were you got your shock value fix. The 90s were a simpler times of demon killing and irreverent anti-heroes that dripped in this weird 90s masculine energy. Duke 3D, and by extension what fans call the build engine holy trinity, are games that are parodying the hedonistic male fantasy of that were action and horror movies in the 1980s.
Duke 3D was the pinnacle of this, running on Ken Silverman’s Build Engine. But while most people played that game, myself included as it helped form my early gaming years, in retrospect it’s probably the worst of the holy trinity. Shadow Warrior featured better gameplay and an improved Build Engine, while Blood pushed the engine to the extreme and featured one hell of a unique setting and weapons.
Blood took no prisoners and reveled in your suffering. Now that original game is back in Blood – Fresh Supply. While Blood may be the best of the holy trinity of Build Engine games, and one of the best FPS games of all time, it often gets overlooked, probably because it wasn’t from 3D Realms. Over the years Duke has thrived (for better or worse) and even Shadow Warrior got a series reboot with a couple of solid games.
And while Duke Nukem Forever was a joke and Shadow Warrior 1 and 2 were solid, the original Blood is still better than the modern takes on those classic first-person shooters. Running on Nightdive Studio’s KEX Engine, Blood Fresh Supply looks and feels like its Build Engine original. I only got a taste of the first chunk of Blood back in the day, so I’m not expert, but it feels pretty good. Your movement feels a little slick, but it’s damn close.
Now, there were a number of issues when this remaster launched, but by the time we got to playing everything seems to have been addressed. Again, I’m no Blood perfectionist and it didn’t define my youth like Duke 3D did, but I have no complaints about this remaster. Blood – Fresh Supply is hard, brutally so on anything above the first two difficulty levels, but that’s not why most people came, and come back to Blood.
What set, and still sets the game apart is its horror theme, setting and incredible weapons that still feel unique in 2019. Hell, Blood might just have the best shotgun ever coded into a video game. Each of the game’s weapons are a blast, and unlike other FPS titles of the day you won’t be sticking to one. Each has unique properties that work better depending on the enemy that you are taking on.
My favorite has to be the dynamite, and all its variations. While you might think it just explodes, and it sure does, it’s technically far ahead of anything else of the time, even putting to shame some FPS titles of today. It explodes like an expanding sphere, meaning it will push enemies in an outward manner, something you didn’t see back then. It also means damage is lessened the farther away an enemy is from the blast.
But don’t get attached to any one weapon because if you die you are stripped of everything on restart. Quicksaving will be you your friend in Blood – Fresh Supply, but starting from scratch in a new area can really mix up how you play. And when ammo can feel a little scarce, this can really ramp up the tension. Things can be going your way only for you to turn a corner and get ripped to shreds by cultists before you know what happened. It sucks, but you learn.
Gameplay is fantastic. Movement and jumping actually makes sense in a strategic sense. But the really innovation, and something not even really done today, is how crouching changes how you fight. Build Engine games, and most FPS games then and through today all feature a crouch button. This is used to travel under things, but back in the day it was used alongside your jump to enter vents. Duke Nukem 3D did it, Half Life did it, and pretty much any FPS does it.
But Blood is different as crouching is a vital tactic in dealing with cultists and any gun-totting enemies. You see, if you enter a firefight against tommy-gun carrying baddies, couching allows you to better avoid their fire. Being crouched makes you harder to hit. Add in jumping to surprise enemies and you have a pretty deep FPS experience. There are games today that aren’t even this deep, the trend now just giving you regenerating health and having you hide behind cover.
Action is intense and brutal. You are going to die a ton, but the game is just so good and wickedly fun that you’ll always eventually be drawn back. This is why the Blood community is a crazy bunch, keeping the game alive in a couple of forms over the decades before this remaster. Add in functioning mulriplayer and you have a full-fledged experience. Look, PC gamers from the 90s will publicly say that DOOM is the best FPS of all time, while privatively telling friends it’s actually Blood.
This remaster does everything it needs to and is an important piece of history. If you grew up in the 2000s I’d really recommend you picking this one up to see how the FPS genre came to form. Your hand will not be held, the maps are huge and open without you being shuffled from one set-piece to another, weapons are insane, health and ammo are scarce and death will be your constant companion. It’s all how god intended it to be.
Blood is a masterpiece. It’s the sort of game that is as good today as it was when it released decades ago, and will be just as good when your kids start playing video games in the decades to come. Nightdive Studios has put together something really special. They are also really involved with fans and have addressed a ton of issues the initial released faced. But the real kicker is that all this will cost you as a paltry $10 over on Steam.
That’s a crazy low price on what is objectively the greatest FPS ever created. Oh, and be sure to play on the hardest level at least once to see all your modern MLG Pro shooter skills crumble into dust. All your Overwatch and Fortnite skills won’t save you. Nothing will.
One of the best FPS games of all time is back and as good as you remember
Final Score:
4/5
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