Diablo

  

         The dawning of the new 3D era has brought among many new design challenges and possible directions I hadn't seen in this blog until Quake. However the older Duke Nukem and DOOM inspired generation of FPS games wasn't done yet. Redneck Rampage was decent and more importantly funny. But just a year ago in blog time 3D Realms blew me away with Duke 3D. The level of interactivity, movement, vertical space in the level design fundamentally changed or at least challenged all conventional FPS design. Despite all that Duke did I still can't help feel there was more left on the table. Quake seemed to jump ahead and in many ways that's good but what had been presented before was never really perfected or replicated with design choices of say Turok or Quake. It's at this point Monolith enters the scene and creates what is easily among the top games on this list. Blood is phenomenal. It's every design aspiration we've seen in shooters pre full 3D perfected. It features some of ,if not the best in certain cases, level design of any game on this list. Quake included. It's spooky horror movie theme and look make the presentation my favorite of any game yet on this blog. Caleb's sadistic and slightly humorous goth personality charms me in a different yet just as effective way as Duke did. The combat loop involves one of my favorite weapon arsenals with my favorite enemies in a shooter so far. By summer 1997 Monolith had created an instant classic while proving that perfectly crafted and atmospheric game play could always find room at the top despite the dawning of the polygon era.
             Blood thrives on the ultra video game violence of the 1990's. With companies like id Software being blamed for acts of real world violence, Blood throws itself right into the cliche to great effect. Blood earns its name sake with just as much if not more than Quake. Blood literally fountains and sprays out of the undead and their demonic comrades, zombie heads can be kicked around to great effect, monks can be set on fire and watch as their flesh melts away. I'm sure playing this in 1997 would have shocked with its imagery. Blood's levels and tone is derived from era horror movies. The Hotel from the Shinning is one of the most impressive levels I've ever seen designed in an FPS game so far on this blog. Rising from the grave to find Crow references, and plenty more. Caleb is pale with red eyes and in some impressive for the time pre-rendered CGI cut scenes he as a cult leader is betrayed by the demon he and his lover worships. If Quake and the NIN contribution embraced 90's alternative edge Blood lived and breathed it. The enemy designs are fun and well thought out video game enemy pulled form the Living Dead or Buffy. The soundtrack with children occasionally singing rhymes or loose horror ambience could be played at a Halloween party. My favorite track a sick take on carnival music in one of my favorite levels, a haunted carnival.Caleb offers sadistic commentary taking pleasure in gore and making the occasional joke.  The atmosphere Monolith created is the best I've played in an FPS on this list. I adore it.
              Blood's many aspects are all extremely well executed. The excellent and fun environments are brought to life by Monolith's outstanding level design. The only studio to challenge them would be id at this time and even then I'm not sure who wins. The game starts out in a creepy and beautiful cemetery and quickly has you on a train ride through the apocalyptic hellscape of Blood's reality. Gargoyles and ghost fly at you, zombies and zealots. All with differentiating attacks and usually some variation particularly the monks. The enemy encounters take more from Duke than they do id created games. Blood's enemy's though remain largely unique and interesting in multiple ways not seen before. The arsenal in which they are gored with really ties into how you fight them and they react. Its very violent but rewarding. The player can literally stab a voodoo doll to gore and turn to dust enemies....its sadistic and I love it. Caleb makes sure he has plenty in common with

the player.
               The flame thrower is a spray can and lighter, the machine gun a Tommy gun, the shotgun is DOOM II levels of good, the throw-able dynamite straight from Duke and a napalm launcher in place of  a traditional rocket launcher. These weapons, ammo and enemy encounters are designed around the way the level flows in a near perfect way. While some levels like the haunted carnival, train ride, garden maze or hotel straight blew me away more than any levels in any other games on this list. Hallways and vertical spaces are all used to the extreme much more so than any other Build Engine game so far. The ambition in creating real world places or life like areas while making them fun and fast to blow your way through is impressive. The secrets are taken to another level as well a great example being the Hotel with its many secret passages and movable book shelves. I have to say Blood stands toe to toe with Quake when it comes to how fun and fresh combat and level traversal can be. Monolith using a technically outdated but more than capable engine are on an equal but different footing of genre leading level design, shooting and enemy encounters.
Despite not using polygon rendering Build Engine by the middle of 1997 still held up extremely well and while the design of a game like Blood must have been pushing it to the limits, the engine is plenty capable of wowing me and delivering some of the most ambitious designs seen in a shooter yet (97). The design direction 3D realms took by having interactivity and physics be so much of the simulated environment is a choice I wish every game took. The amount it adds to the player experience cant be understated and I'm happy to say Blood embraces this just as much. Destructible environments give way to supplies and secret areas. Gore bounces around in meat chunks when disposing of enemies or in the case of ghost their eyes pop out of their skull. Flesh burst and burns off of creatures with fantastically animated and detailed sprites. Blood is probably the second best looking game behind Quake on this list in my opinion. It's easily the best looking Build Engine game I've seen and far beyond what id Tech 1 was not so long ago offering in games like Hexen. The texture and color work are fantastic and while the lighting distance has limitations not seen in polygon rendered games the cohesive art style and more inherit artistic freedom of sprite use give way to a very great looking game. It really brings to life my favorite levels in a game. I think Monolith stands beside RavenSoftware when it comes to delivering excellent art in the FPS genre at this time.

While the game is good in some levels it can be brutally hard .After playing so many games from this era I've found myself not struggling as much but Blood has changed that for the worse again. I found supplies laid out pretty well but not to the near perfect balance Duke Nukem 3D did. I do more frequently in Blood find myself in some near impossible situations no matter how much I've explored the level before hand. Though it's hard to complain much about the game. It really is limited by its older design take while at the same time achieving greatness because it perfected those design choices. The movement and mobility may not be as good as Quake but is much better than anything else. The arsenal while not wholly original is largely fresh and always fun. The way enemy's react and attack is very predefined and varies only between a small set of things but the strength in this is Monolith has balanced all these dependent variables near perfectly when it comes to how player driven interaction is. I remember in my blog about DOOM II and the games following how movement in 3D space was challenging both because of tech but also because of content creators figuring how just what the right way of doing something was. Blood feels like a genre culmination of that. Monolith has obviously learned plenty of the lessons involved in the FPS genre growing pains while not being afraid to be inspired by the kind of things something like id Tech 2 allow. Like other games on this blog Blood and largely the Build Engine family of games have been unplayed for me.
                    However the unifying interactivity and immersive sandbox they tend to provide the player hit a note that makes me particularly fond of them. I think I would have been that edgey nerd in 1997 talking about how Duke and Blood did great, amazing things that Quake didn't. I'm sure I would have regarded id as the top tier studio and they certainly where even considering that now, but I do think my fondness of the Build Engine and the overall immersive sim design choices would carry beyond time. I would have seen Blood in 1997 as further maturing of the genre because of the way it showed how effective different approaches to the FPS genre could be. Blood is easily one of the best games I've played for this blog. I have no doubt in 1997 I would have been floored by how good it was even if I was still eating up polygon rendered Quake. Monolith executed a near perfectly designed game. Blood honestly deserves every bit the same recognition Quake, DOOM or Duke get for being a well designed and timeless game.
                     The gore and look of the game along with a fantastic sound track further cements the fact that the FPS genre no longer solely belonged to id or their tech. Variety and alternate ideas had not just been expressed but now strongly and forever taken root into what was now a full expanded genre of video games not beholden to the design principals of one or two titles. Blood is one of the best shooters I've ever played, for this blog or otherwise. It will forever be a favorite I return to especially on Halloween. This blog gives great insight and I keep finding treasures I never played or properly appreciated before. Blood is a testament to this. Monolith in 1997 made a classic.While not bringing anything ground breakingly innovative it still pushed the bar of quality and excellence to new heights. So much ambition in the horror movie inspired areas to the enemy encounters and gameplay mechanics made Blood some of the best FPS fun I've ever had bar none.