Blood II: The Chosen Review

8.8

Format PC

Developer Monolith

Publisher GT Interactive

Genre Unknown

If you want blood, you got it. Richie Shoemaker paints the town red

About a week before a certain game recently hit the shelves, a package arrived at PC ZONE addressed to Chris. He shook it knowingly, and by the tone of the rattling contents it was obvious to everyone that he had himself a game. Now this in itself is no unusual occurrence, considering new ZONE Editor Chris was then our Deputy Editor. So with the enthusiasm he generally holds out for his credit card bills, Chris prized apart the sealed flaps and peered inside. 'Ooh,'he said, 'Half-Life' (PCZ #71, 95%).

Suddenly all hell broke loose: 'Where's mine?' demanded Steve. 'Why didn't I get one? I reviewed the bloody thing. Look, Mallo's got one.' And indeed Mallo had, the fluorescent box held aloft in cup-winning fashion. 'Bastard.'

I searched through the shreds of paper on my desk, hoping I might have missed a bloody great padded envelope in my morning post. Nothing.

'What are you crying about, you've both completed it,' argued Chris.

'Well we haven't got a boxed copy,' moaned Steve, 'or a manual.'

'It's a nice manual,' chipped in Mallo as he flicked nonchalantly through the accompanying booklet.

And indeed it was a nice manual. It was also Mallo's manual. And we wanted it. Everyone wanted it. In fact, not since Quake II (PCZ #59, 97%) had everyone been so looking forward to getting a copy of a game. We'd all played Half-Life, most of us had even finished it. The point is that up until then none of us owned a copy.

'Cheer up,' said Chris, 'here's Blood II.'He handed me a CD in a grubby cardboard sleeve, followed by a photocopied manual. Just to rub salt into the wounds I had to take Half-Life off my PC to fit Blood II on. It was either that or Quake II. Not an easy choice, I can tell you.

Anyway, it's a choice I'm glad I made. First things first though: Blood II is not as good as Half-Life - in my opinion nothing is - although it does have a few subtle differences that set it apart, not only from Half-Life but also from every other first-person shooter out there. The simple rule I'm trying to state is: if you want the best, get Half-Life; if you simply want a great game, read on.

Busy bodies

Developers Monolith have been busy this past year and a half. Not only have they been hard at work on the sequel to Blood (PCZ #53, 84%), they've also been developing Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (PCZ #71, 92%) at the same time, as well as their own LithTech 3D engine that powers both games. Such a crushing work schedule makes other developers seem positively catatonic. Epic's Unreal (PCZ #65, 93%) took nearly five years to complete, while Ion Storm have delayed Daikatana so many times that when it eventually does arrive it's in danger of looking passe next to Valve's seminal effort, itself a year overdue. Conversely, Monolith have more or less stuck to their schedule. But such strict adherence to the calendar has not been without cost. Instead of working on the game until it's finished, Monolith have opted for the 'let's patch it up later' option. Fine if you're American, but more than a pain in the arse if you have to pay BT for the privilege of downloading files that should've been there in the first place.

Bring out the Branson

Give or take a few decades, Blood II picks up where the first game left off. Now in the future, the Cabal of old has developed into a worldwide organisation, Cabalco, whose purpose is to serve the dark god Tchernobog, as well as make lots of money selling processed meat products to the masses. Caleb, the original anti-hero, makes a welcome return, and brings three new members to the cast list: Ophelia, Ishmael and Gabriella. Choosing one of the four Chosen, your aim is to run around the 30 or so levels in search of Gideon (the Richard Branson of Cabalco) and eventually destroy him.

Choosing Caleb is definitely the better option for one simple reason: the entire storyline revolves around him finding and recruiting the other three members against Cabalco. Choose Caleb, and the game contains a wealth of cut-scenes that drive the story forward. Choose any of the other three, however, and the game progresses level by level without any narrative at all. Thankfully, each character is very different in both ability and in style, so unlike other games there's enough motivation to play through it more than just once.

Like the original Blood, a lot of thought has gone into the weapons. For one thing there are nearly 30 of them, many of which have dual modes. Favourites from the first game are back, along with an arsenal of new weapons. My particular favourite was always the sawn-off shotgun - a stalwart of every Quake clone perhaps, but Caleb's weapon of choice made more mess than most and always preceded a healthy dose of one-liners from the man himself. Other weapons are the flare pistol, which eventually turns the enemy into flailing torches; a voodoo doll; a sexy looking Tesla cannon; and a napalm launcher. It has to be said that the range of weapons and their effects are probably the best aspect of Blood II.

Ammunition for magical weapons is dealt with differently to conventional weapons. The voodoo doll, life leech and the orb use 'focus', which is gradually recharged at a rate dependant on which character you control. The current trend is towards location-sensitive shots, and Blood II includes them. Unfortunately though, there's no automatic weapon-switching, and the remote-switched bombs are way too ineffectual. For multiplayer games though, the range of objects and weapons - and the fact that you can alter the stats of your character - makes for some fast-paced and highly amusing games. Maybe not quite as instantly satisfying as Quake II, but definitely just as diverse as Jedi Knight's deathmatch games, if not more so.

Like the rest of the game ,the creatures look and sound superb. Animation is smooth, surpassing even that of Half-Life. And if you've got a decent machine the real-time shadows add greatly to the effects. The AI is nowhere near Half-Life's standards though.

Like all games of this type, Blood II has the usual mix of monsters, from the slow-moving Bone Leeches to the fast-moving Shikari. Special mention has to go to the zealots, creatures whose demonic laughter and ability to phase in and out of existence makes them one of the few that can send a shiver down the spine. Shoot one and it disappears, only to fade in behind you.

Each of the four chapters that divide the missions have boss characters fitted as standard, but here they're something of an anti-climax as you strafe left and right in the usual manner, expending ammo like there's no tomorrow. They look good enough, but take away a sense of continuity from the normally well-paced story. A massive firefight with more of the standard creatures running about would have been preferable, for it's the more open areas that create the best battles.

CULT CLASSIC

Although for the most part the levels are well-designed, it isn't until about a third of the way through the game that the pace picks up. Until then there are too many corridors and small rooms, and not enough open spaces. The distribution of weapons is also slightly awry, although the fact that you always have at least one or two weapons out of ammo makes the game more tactical. There are certainly times when you have to use your knife just to conserve ammo.

As a sequel to a criminally underrated game, Blood II is more than worthy. With the choice of characters and weapons on offer, there's certainly enough to keep both single players and deathmatchers (at least when the patch arrives) occupied for quite a while. Some of the graphical effects are breathtaking. And although the levels are for the most part involving and well-designed, there are two major faults that keeps this game from achieving a Classic status: the first is the lack of pace, and the second is the AI. You can thank Valve for moving the gaming goalposts. A few months ago things would have been different, and if Unreal, Klingon and SiN had all just arrived this month then they would also have problems scraping a Classic rating.

Simply put, Blood II is more of the same: more guns and more enemies. Although it's not quite as pant-browning as we would've hoped, it's a stunning achievement considering the time Monolith have had to put it together. If, like Valve, they had decided to take another year to overhaul the AI, we'd be looking at what could have been the best game of Christmas '98.