In the mid to late 90s I didn’t have a “modern” PC, so a lot of games were experienced at friends’ places. And somehow, despite loving Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, everyone in my circle was far more into Build Engine games. Duke Nukem 3D was the obvious choice, but we also played Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, Witchaven and, of course, Blood. Every game in this list was unique, going for a specific mood, using the engine capabilities to create something memorable. And Blood, the first project of Monolith Productions, was going for horror. Back than, it was a dark, yet extremely stylish and explosive FPS with all the best Build features. Lots of scenery could explode, levels could change based on player input and despite having a rather horizontally-focused design, levels could have a lot of vertical depth as well.
Today… Well, despite being available for a while on GOG in its most complete official release (One Unit Whole Blood), I was waiting for a good engine port of the game, which could introduce at least some of modern quality of life features. For the longest, BloodXL looked most promising, but then the project went quiet. Thankfully, Nightdive Studios, who has already proven themselves in reviving classic FPS titles, announced their take on the project. And Blood: Fresh Supply is the result. For all intents and purposes, the game is as good as it was back in 97, making this an “o tempora” category post, yet the additional features are so good that Blood can be enjoyed as a completely fresh FPS, without the need for a lot of tinkering.
Blood doesn’t really have a story in terms of modern conventions. Neither it actually needs one. You’re Caleb, a nasty Chosen of dark god Tchernobog. Your god betrays and kills you and the rest of The Chosen. You awaken some time later and start killing your way back to him. There are cutscenes, of incredibly low quality even compared to Duke Nukem 3D, at the start of the game and the end of each of the non-expansion story campaigns, but you don’t really get more story than this.
Which could be a problem in a modern FPS title, but back then, shooters spoke through guns, monster variety and level design. And these still kick ass. I was afraid nostalgia gave me rose-tinted glasses, but no – the levels are actually really well made and extremely fun to explore. Just as was norm for the time, it’s a focused linear progression within sprawling interconnected structures on the level, which sometimes can be explored in a very non-linear fashion via secrets. Some of the secrets are a bit ridiculous, but often times just looking for an odd texture or a weird place is enough.
Same goes for the guns and monsters to use them on. Just like in all best first person shooters, every weapon has its use throughout the entire game, with enemies being more or less susceptible to different types of damage. Probably, only two of ten weapons were underused by me, and even those had a place and time. Enemies and their placement is spot on as well, though I’d say that hitscan cultists can become annoying in bigger groups, while the stone gargoyles have way too much health. And everyone, and everything, can spectacularly and beautifully explode to pieces or burn down, with blood and gibs flying everywhere. It’s the right kind of over the top cartoonish violence, that feels good and fits the tone – something that a lot of violent action titles tend to struggle with nowadays.
I had a lot of fun playing through the main game and the second expansion pack, but the first pack, Cryptic Passage, is considerably weaker. Levels feel a bit too long and the game employs the cheap enemy spawn upon events, instead of having some sort of hidden monster closet. Oh there are occasional moments of not knowing what to do because of some hidden switch that is required to proceed or what not. In addition, somehow some of the buggy elements of the original version of the pack are still in this new release, unchanged.
Speaking of the new release itself – it’s amazing in general, but at the moment, right after release, not ideal. It works in 4K, supports OpenGL, DirectX 11 and Vulkan (latter is the preferred option, I’ve noticed), adds a few extra visual features which can enhance the presentation. For example, I did enable the ambient occlusion as it did fit the tone of the game perfectly, but did not use any form of anti-aliasing, because I always loved the jaggy look of Build-based games. Which in itself is also subtly enhanced since some sprites are now voxel-based objects, giving them depth that perfectly fits the look. You can enable the CD tunes instead of midi, though, unfortunately, at the moment these stop playing as soon as you reload any save. Thankfully, the midi-tunes are amazing on their own. There’s also a bunch of helpful features that make the game feel amazing without the need for mods. Though, the mod support is also here, along with the multiplayer and the rest of cool things the original game could do.
There are some slight blemishes, on both the original game and this version, that can still be improved upon. But even in its current state, it’s definitely worth playing. I went into Blood: Fresh Supply slightly afraid. Of that the game didn’t age well, of that I will get bored playing it. Instead, I postponed all of my other gaming plans just so I could play Blood and find as many secrets as I can. If you’ve enjoyed the game back in the day, this is a great reason to revisit. If you’ve never played it before and love a fun FPS, this is one of the best examples from the 90s that was made even more enjoyable today.