jim-jam bongs
Member
Every time this game is mentioned it becomes pretty clear that there is a reasonably sizable group of GAF-ers who hold it very dear, myself included. After the latest Blood-related thread I decided it was time to officially convene the Blood Appreciators Society and arrange our first event; GAF Plays: Blood.
Prologue
In an age and a region renowned for cruelty and violence, Caleb was legendary. Born in western Texas in 1847, he had sealed a reputation as a merciless gunfighter by the age of 17. But it was seven years later when he met Ophelia Price that his hunger for bloodshed took on a menacing new timbre.
She was already well beyond the bounds of sanity when he found her cowering in the charred ruins of the burned out homestead where her husband and child had perished only days before. It was neither her tattered beauty nor her plight that compelled Caleb to take her in, however-it was the words he picked out of her virtually incoherent mumblings.
He learned that her husband had attempted to rescind his membership of the dreaded Cult of Tchernobog and in return cultists had set fire to the house in the night. Ophelia was filled with rage-not at the cult but at her husband, whose cowardice she blamed for the death of her young son.
Ophelia was Caleb's doorway to the Cult and its dark purpose. He could not have known that in time he would come to love her, nor that their service to the Cult would find the two of them beloved among the Chosen, elite servants of the dreaming god Tchernobog, the One That Binds, Devourer of Souls.
In the Hall of the Epiphany, a temple that spans the chasm between the worlds, the four remaining Chosen stand at the forefront of a procession of worshippers. Tchernobog's presence is felt more than seen-the great, frigid weight of a hunger that spans millennia. He speaks in a cacophony of voices stolen from the dead, summoning the Chosen to the center of the sacrificial ring. They stand before the Dark God, united by a sudden, inexplicable sense of doom.
A wordless cry rises up from the seething shadows, one voice swallowed up by many until the hall resounds with them. The members of the procession behind the Chosen melt away in a gust of ethereal wind, extinguished like so many candle flames. There aren't even ashes to indicate they ever existed.
The Chosen look to one another in confusion and dread. They can already feel the ties that bind them to Tchernobog fraying. Why? How have we failed you?
But there is no answer other than the shattering scream that threatens to tear the universe to shreds. Darkness swells around them, swallows them. Their cold, abandoned souls fall through the abyss.
And they burn.
Caleb awakens in cold and damp in a body he no longer knows. It has long lain as a corpse that refused to rot, protected from putrefaction by some unearthly link to its master. The pain of protesting muscle and flesh invigorates and awakens him. He welcomes it. It distills his hate into the maelstrom raging in the center of his mind.
An agonizing cry breaks out of him, shattering the stone lid of the tomb in which he lies, knocking loose sediment, cobwebs, and the small, unnoticed creatures that have shared his grave with him. A single word rings out through the darkness, echoing Tchernobog's lingering howl: "Why?"
Gog.com: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/one_unit_whole_blood
Join Us...
So why should you join this cult and play a game from 1998? When there are so many amazing other choices out there?
Weapons
Blood has the best weapon selection of any FPS. It features direct hit-scan weapons like the tommygun and shotgun, projectile weapons like the napalm launcher and tesla cannon, and more... unusual weapons such as the voodoo doll or the life-leech.
It also has a selection of thrown weapons, including timed, remote and proximity detonated dynamite bundles, and a flaming can of hairspray which functions as an incendiary device. All explosives can be thrown or dropped once activated, and can be detonated with force.
Each weapon has both a primary and secondary fire mode. The latter is generally a big investment of ammunition which hits stupidly hard. Take the flare-gun alternate fire for example; it launches a corona of flares which spread out as they fly, igniting everything in their path. Fire too close to an obstacle however and youll be the one who gets grilled.
A discussion on the weapons in Blood isnt complete without making mention of the excellent power-ups which compliment them; the reflective shots orb, which deflects enemy fire, and everyones favourite power-up of all time: guns-akimbo. Many a bloodbath match has come to an abrupt end because someone locked down the napalm-launcher and guns-akimbo right away.
Classic Horror Mystery Tour
While the story behind Blood is a fairly run-of-the-mill tale of revenge and the elder gods, the game features some of the most memorable levels you will see in an FPS. The train and carnival in the first episode are both great examples, as is the hellish hospital in episode three. Its worth noting that these are all standard tropes from horror movies.
In addition to these horror-film staples are the direct homages littered throughout the game; such as a trip to the Overlooked Hotel, a sojourn to Camp Crystal Lake and Calebs dry quoting of the classic Jaws line were going to need a bigger boat.
The levels arent just there to be appreciated, either. Theyre huge, living and breathing -- literally in at least one case. New paths are paved by blowing up half a building, or punching a hole in the side of a dam. There are secret tunnels and rooms everywhere, and on the hardest difficulty settings you will need to find all of them if you want to have any chance at all.
Enemies
As with the levels, the enemies in Blood are generally homages to tropes from horror films. The bread-and-butter enemies are cultists and zombies, who behave more or less as youd imagine (though cultists do have an amusing habit of blowing themselves, and any nearby allies, up when they try to use dynamite).
In addition to these standard foot-soldiers however is a posse of ghouls who would be right at home partying down with Vincent Price; fire-breathing pitbulls, reanimated gargoyles, creatures from the black lagoon, dismembered hands which try to choke you to death, wraiths which shift in and out of our dimension and can only be damaged when they try to attack, and a few more surprises later in the game.
Unrivaled Combat
There are so many ways to kill in this game its almost disturbing.
For starters, there are multiple damage types and associated resistances. You might be totally sorted on fire protection but get slammed by a wraith because your spirit damage resistance is non-existent, or vice versa. Its particularly interesting in bloodbath matches for obvious reasons; smart players remember resistance item locations and their corresponding weapons, control them and dominate.
Then theres the potential for creating traps with remote and proximity detonators, which speaks for itself. And being able to drop a lit bundle of dynamite at your feet as you run around a corner makes pursuing an opponent in multiplayer a dangerous prospect.
Its actually quite difficult to put into words, but basically youll rarely find yourself without a whole range of killing tools, and the enemy variation and level-design makes most of them genuinely useful for one purpose or another.
Its also worth mentioning the... feedback the game gives you. Setting enemies alight causes them to burst into flames and run around screaming ah it burns! OH GOD IT BURNS AH AHA AH AAAAAH. Blowing dudes up yields epic gibbage, and theres usually a good number of incidental destructible props which will shatter and fly about when you explode something.
And taking it even further is the announcer in bloodbath matches, who was apparently voiced by Jace Hall. Theres nothing like blowing up your friend and hearing Jace Hall yell SODOMISED at the top of his voice.
Cheesemints
So for fun I decided to make up some forced challenge modes so that people who played the game already have some motivation to get into it.
Challenges
Good? Bad? Im the guy with the gun: Complete the game on Extra Crispy.
You wouldnt like me when Im angry: Kill every enemy in the game.
But you cant hide: Find every secret in the game.
What is dead may never die: No quick-saving, you must complete each level in one sitting.
Texas Pitchfork Massacre: Kill a standard gargoyle with your pitchfork.
Expert Pitchfork Massacre: Kill a stone gargoyle with your pitchfork.
Arachnophobia: Kill a mother spider with hairspray.
Secret Levels
House of Horrors: Find the secret level in The Way of All Flesh.
Thin Ice: Find the secret level in Even Death May Die.
Catacombs: Find the secret level in Farewell to Arms
Mall of the Dead: Find the secret level in Dead Reckoning.
Forgotten Catacombs: Find the secret level in Post Mortem.
Dead Detective: Find every secret level in the game.
Easter Eggs
Quoth the Raven: Find the grave of emo-Caleb.
The Lady Doth Protest: Find a spot that wont go away.
Simpsons Did It: Get prank called.
I Dont Care: Find an orange jumpsuit.
Always Bet on Death: Find a dead American hero (either appearance).
Heres Johnny: Find a man who died from exposure.
Spelling Bee: Find a gruesome murder from a misspelled movie.
Drop Dead, Fred: Find a killers coat-rack (either appearance).
The First Jace: Find a sporty disguise for a murderer.
Han Ordered First: Find the final resting place of a space Beast.
Clever Girl: Find a terrible lizard.
Random
I <3 Cultists: You may only heal by consuming the hearts of your enemies (no Doctors Bag)
Who do ya voodoo bitch: You may only use the primary fire of the voodoo doll, and must switch to it whenever you find one until its used up.
Demoman: You may only use explosives (including hairspray) and your pitchfork.
Sadomasochist: If you have the life-leech you must use it regardless of whether you have any ammunition for it.
If anyone thinks of others Ill add them to the list. Obviously this is more of a merit system than anything else, though feel free to screenshot your level completion screens if youre trying to get all kills or secrets, and likewise with secret levels. The easter eggs section will be interesting, if you think youve found one but arent sure then just spoiler tag it and ask the thread.
The Plan
Blood levels can be completed extremely quickly if you know them well, however this isnt just for veterans. As such well be aiming to play the first five episodes (i.e. no Cryptic Passage) over the next 5 weeks, starting on Wednesday the 8th of August. Each episode is roughly 10 levels, and the average level takes around 15 minutes to complete, so Id expect no more than 30 minutes of time needed 5 out of 7 days a week for the next 5 weeks. Not too taxing at all.
Having said that, lets keep tagging any potential spoilers so that people dont have to worry about sharing their experiences even if theyre lagging behind the pack a bit.
So whos in?
Prologue
In an age and a region renowned for cruelty and violence, Caleb was legendary. Born in western Texas in 1847, he had sealed a reputation as a merciless gunfighter by the age of 17. But it was seven years later when he met Ophelia Price that his hunger for bloodshed took on a menacing new timbre.
She was already well beyond the bounds of sanity when he found her cowering in the charred ruins of the burned out homestead where her husband and child had perished only days before. It was neither her tattered beauty nor her plight that compelled Caleb to take her in, however-it was the words he picked out of her virtually incoherent mumblings.
He learned that her husband had attempted to rescind his membership of the dreaded Cult of Tchernobog and in return cultists had set fire to the house in the night. Ophelia was filled with rage-not at the cult but at her husband, whose cowardice she blamed for the death of her young son.
Ophelia was Caleb's doorway to the Cult and its dark purpose. He could not have known that in time he would come to love her, nor that their service to the Cult would find the two of them beloved among the Chosen, elite servants of the dreaming god Tchernobog, the One That Binds, Devourer of Souls.
In the Hall of the Epiphany, a temple that spans the chasm between the worlds, the four remaining Chosen stand at the forefront of a procession of worshippers. Tchernobog's presence is felt more than seen-the great, frigid weight of a hunger that spans millennia. He speaks in a cacophony of voices stolen from the dead, summoning the Chosen to the center of the sacrificial ring. They stand before the Dark God, united by a sudden, inexplicable sense of doom.
A wordless cry rises up from the seething shadows, one voice swallowed up by many until the hall resounds with them. The members of the procession behind the Chosen melt away in a gust of ethereal wind, extinguished like so many candle flames. There aren't even ashes to indicate they ever existed.
The Chosen look to one another in confusion and dread. They can already feel the ties that bind them to Tchernobog fraying. Why? How have we failed you?
But there is no answer other than the shattering scream that threatens to tear the universe to shreds. Darkness swells around them, swallows them. Their cold, abandoned souls fall through the abyss.
And they burn.
Caleb awakens in cold and damp in a body he no longer knows. It has long lain as a corpse that refused to rot, protected from putrefaction by some unearthly link to its master. The pain of protesting muscle and flesh invigorates and awakens him. He welcomes it. It distills his hate into the maelstrom raging in the center of his mind.
An agonizing cry breaks out of him, shattering the stone lid of the tomb in which he lies, knocking loose sediment, cobwebs, and the small, unnoticed creatures that have shared his grave with him. A single word rings out through the darkness, echoing Tchernobog's lingering howl: "Why?"
Gog.com: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/one_unit_whole_blood
Join Us...
So why should you join this cult and play a game from 1998? When there are so many amazing other choices out there?
Weapons
Blood has the best weapon selection of any FPS. It features direct hit-scan weapons like the tommygun and shotgun, projectile weapons like the napalm launcher and tesla cannon, and more... unusual weapons such as the voodoo doll or the life-leech.
It also has a selection of thrown weapons, including timed, remote and proximity detonated dynamite bundles, and a flaming can of hairspray which functions as an incendiary device. All explosives can be thrown or dropped once activated, and can be detonated with force.
Each weapon has both a primary and secondary fire mode. The latter is generally a big investment of ammunition which hits stupidly hard. Take the flare-gun alternate fire for example; it launches a corona of flares which spread out as they fly, igniting everything in their path. Fire too close to an obstacle however and youll be the one who gets grilled.
A discussion on the weapons in Blood isnt complete without making mention of the excellent power-ups which compliment them; the reflective shots orb, which deflects enemy fire, and everyones favourite power-up of all time: guns-akimbo. Many a bloodbath match has come to an abrupt end because someone locked down the napalm-launcher and guns-akimbo right away.
Classic Horror Mystery Tour
While the story behind Blood is a fairly run-of-the-mill tale of revenge and the elder gods, the game features some of the most memorable levels you will see in an FPS. The train and carnival in the first episode are both great examples, as is the hellish hospital in episode three. Its worth noting that these are all standard tropes from horror movies.
In addition to these horror-film staples are the direct homages littered throughout the game; such as a trip to the Overlooked Hotel, a sojourn to Camp Crystal Lake and Calebs dry quoting of the classic Jaws line were going to need a bigger boat.
The levels arent just there to be appreciated, either. Theyre huge, living and breathing -- literally in at least one case. New paths are paved by blowing up half a building, or punching a hole in the side of a dam. There are secret tunnels and rooms everywhere, and on the hardest difficulty settings you will need to find all of them if you want to have any chance at all.
Enemies
As with the levels, the enemies in Blood are generally homages to tropes from horror films. The bread-and-butter enemies are cultists and zombies, who behave more or less as youd imagine (though cultists do have an amusing habit of blowing themselves, and any nearby allies, up when they try to use dynamite).
In addition to these standard foot-soldiers however is a posse of ghouls who would be right at home partying down with Vincent Price; fire-breathing pitbulls, reanimated gargoyles, creatures from the black lagoon, dismembered hands which try to choke you to death, wraiths which shift in and out of our dimension and can only be damaged when they try to attack, and a few more surprises later in the game.
Unrivaled Combat
There are so many ways to kill in this game its almost disturbing.
For starters, there are multiple damage types and associated resistances. You might be totally sorted on fire protection but get slammed by a wraith because your spirit damage resistance is non-existent, or vice versa. Its particularly interesting in bloodbath matches for obvious reasons; smart players remember resistance item locations and their corresponding weapons, control them and dominate.
Then theres the potential for creating traps with remote and proximity detonators, which speaks for itself. And being able to drop a lit bundle of dynamite at your feet as you run around a corner makes pursuing an opponent in multiplayer a dangerous prospect.
Its actually quite difficult to put into words, but basically youll rarely find yourself without a whole range of killing tools, and the enemy variation and level-design makes most of them genuinely useful for one purpose or another.
Its also worth mentioning the... feedback the game gives you. Setting enemies alight causes them to burst into flames and run around screaming ah it burns! OH GOD IT BURNS AH AHA AH AAAAAH. Blowing dudes up yields epic gibbage, and theres usually a good number of incidental destructible props which will shatter and fly about when you explode something.
And taking it even further is the announcer in bloodbath matches, who was apparently voiced by Jace Hall. Theres nothing like blowing up your friend and hearing Jace Hall yell SODOMISED at the top of his voice.
Cheesemints
So for fun I decided to make up some forced challenge modes so that people who played the game already have some motivation to get into it.
Challenges
Good? Bad? Im the guy with the gun: Complete the game on Extra Crispy.
You wouldnt like me when Im angry: Kill every enemy in the game.
But you cant hide: Find every secret in the game.
What is dead may never die: No quick-saving, you must complete each level in one sitting.
Texas Pitchfork Massacre: Kill a standard gargoyle with your pitchfork.
Expert Pitchfork Massacre: Kill a stone gargoyle with your pitchfork.
Arachnophobia: Kill a mother spider with hairspray.
Secret Levels
House of Horrors: Find the secret level in The Way of All Flesh.
Thin Ice: Find the secret level in Even Death May Die.
Catacombs: Find the secret level in Farewell to Arms
Mall of the Dead: Find the secret level in Dead Reckoning.
Forgotten Catacombs: Find the secret level in Post Mortem.
Dead Detective: Find every secret level in the game.
Easter Eggs
Quoth the Raven: Find the grave of emo-Caleb.
The Lady Doth Protest: Find a spot that wont go away.
Simpsons Did It: Get prank called.
I Dont Care: Find an orange jumpsuit.
Always Bet on Death: Find a dead American hero (either appearance).
Heres Johnny: Find a man who died from exposure.
Spelling Bee: Find a gruesome murder from a misspelled movie.
Drop Dead, Fred: Find a killers coat-rack (either appearance).
The First Jace: Find a sporty disguise for a murderer.
Han Ordered First: Find the final resting place of a space Beast.
Clever Girl: Find a terrible lizard.
Random
I <3 Cultists: You may only heal by consuming the hearts of your enemies (no Doctors Bag)
Who do ya voodoo bitch: You may only use the primary fire of the voodoo doll, and must switch to it whenever you find one until its used up.
Demoman: You may only use explosives (including hairspray) and your pitchfork.
Sadomasochist: If you have the life-leech you must use it regardless of whether you have any ammunition for it.
If anyone thinks of others Ill add them to the list. Obviously this is more of a merit system than anything else, though feel free to screenshot your level completion screens if youre trying to get all kills or secrets, and likewise with secret levels. The easter eggs section will be interesting, if you think youve found one but arent sure then just spoiler tag it and ask the thread.
The Plan
Blood levels can be completed extremely quickly if you know them well, however this isnt just for veterans. As such well be aiming to play the first five episodes (i.e. no Cryptic Passage) over the next 5 weeks, starting on Wednesday the 8th of August. Each episode is roughly 10 levels, and the average level takes around 15 minutes to complete, so Id expect no more than 30 minutes of time needed 5 out of 7 days a week for the next 5 weeks. Not too taxing at all.
Having said that, lets keep tagging any potential spoilers so that people dont have to worry about sharing their experiences even if theyre lagging behind the pack a bit.
So whos in?
