Reviewed: November 22, 1998
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Atari
Developer
Monolith
Released: November 20, 1998
Genre: FPS
Players: 16
ESRB: Mature
8
8
8
8
8.0
System Requirements
Recommended System
1998 has provided the gaming community with a virtual sea of 3D shooters to choose from. While most of these games are based on existing 3D engines which have been tweaked and refined, Monolith chose to make a bold step forward in technology and develop their own 3D gaming engine from the ground up.
LithTech is the name of this revolutionary new game engine. We got our first peak at the power of LithTech in Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Then along came the one level playable demo of Blood 2, which upped the ante and showed us exactly what Monolith had in store for us. Somewhere between the release of Shogo and Blood 2, Monolith made some serious modifications to their new 3D engine taking it to even greater heights.
Blood 2 picks in the near future (2028) with Caleb fighting the evil forces of the Cabal who aren't too happy about their defeat in the original game. The Cabal have organized themselves into a corporation known as Cabalco and are intertwined into this futuristic society pretty deep; so deep you will be fighting their evil agents every step of the way.
While your objective is pretty straightforward - chase Gideon (the bad guy) through 30 intense and deadly levels - there are some slight variations of the traditional 3D genre. First; you can choose from one of four player characters. Caleb is the intended leading character and has the largest library of one-liners in the game. The cut-scenes are based around playing as Caleb, so while choosing anyone but Caleb will get you a new set of abilities and weaknesses; you will also be removing the linear game play and story-telling elements out of the game.
The second variation seen in Blood 2 is the sheer number of available weapons; so many in fact that later in the game you are forced to make some painful decisions about which weapons to leave behind when you stumble across the elusive Howitzer or an even more powerful weapon.
Each of the weapons have realistic and excellent sounds, and all of them are rendered beautifully with reflection mappings and idle animations such as tweaking the focus on the sniper scope, etc. Their devastating effects are also rendered with extreme detail from the Flare Gun which sends your victim running around on fire until he collapses in a pile of ashes, to a futuristic weapon which opens a black hole and sucks all the nearby enemies inside.
Some of the more unconventional weapons include the brain-sucking Orbs made famous in the movie Phantasm, and a Voodoo Doll which you can stick needles into to inflict damage on nearby enemies. The latter can be dangerous as it temporarily saps your strength as well.
Another twist to the genre are the various power-ups like Anger and Willpower which increase enemy damage and reduce damage to you respectively. While these are not new to the genre, their implementation is unique. Level design is excellent. Gone are the ancient and often boring structures of the first game.
Solo play is spread out across 30 challenging levels. Enemy AI is above average. Cultists, soldiers and aliens from another dimension will offer realistic challenges rather than just rushing into your gun sight. Be extremely careful of the suicidal soldiers who will shriek a terrible death cry as you are filling them full of lead and charge directly at you while detonating a small nuclear device. It won't take long to figure out the best strategy is to survey the upcoming areas and take out as many targets as possible with the sniper scope before rushing headlong into a possible ambush.
Blood 2 features modern real-life architecture, environments, and even some futuristic concept design stuff like an entire level on a massive flying airship. The textures, lighting, and overall detail of each level is simply fantastic. With proper 3D acceleration, you are treated to rendered lighting and atmospheric effects, crisp and detailed textures, and virtually no clipping problems.
There are several options you can tweak to get the best performance. You are initially presented with a choice of Low, Medium and High Detail levels before the game ever starts. Medium is usually a safe choice, but if you have a Voodoo 2 card or an AGP video card running on a P2-300 or faster with 64 or more megs of ram then you may want to try the High setting. If your machine can keep up, you will be in for a visual feast of textures and colors. This was the first title I ever got to play on my new Diamond Viper 550 AGP card, and I was amazed at the quality and detail of the graphics that even surpass the Voodoo 2.
Blood 2 features incredible sound effects, which are properly placed within the 3D environment. If you have the supported 3D audio hardware you are in for a real audio-treat. Caleb has a large library of one-liners, which he delivers, with the expertise of Bruce Willis and the timing of Arnold Schwartznegger. Most of these wisecracks are scripted during solo game play, but you can always force the quips anytime you want using the handy Taunt command.
The music in Blood 2 (or often lack of it) fits perfectly. Sometimes there is nothing quite as scary as silence, and the Blood 2 designers know when sinister sound effects in an otherwise silent room can really get your trigger finger twitching. When the music does kick in, it always fits the level and sets the mood. Perhaps one of the scariest levels in the game is the dark and sinister Temple complete with chanting background music and flashes of lightning which cast ominous shadows on the stone floor.
For those of you wanting to spill a little blood online; Bloodbath is the ticket, but only if you have a really fast connection to the Internet. Monolith is working on a patch to make the game more playable at speeds the "home user" has access to (28.8-33.6).
For me, Blood 2's Internet modem play worked flawlessly out of the box with only minor lag on my 56K connection. The first time you hear the sinister voice announce, "Let the Bloodbath begin!" will send shivers down your spine. The multi-player maps leave you no time to plan strategies or elaborate ways to kill your opponents; simply get in there and let the blood flow. The frag counter will increment like a real-time clock in some of the fastest and bloodiest battles I've ever encountered online.
My only complaint is that Blood 2 suffers from MOTS (More of the Same), but unlike most games where MOTS means that the game is just like another game in the genre; Blood 2 starts to suffer MOTS syndrome based on itself. About 20 levels into the game you will start to see repeating textures and uninspired level design.
The dozen or so various enemies you have been fighting are soon replaced with sub-boss characters that appear with the frequency and numbers of normal monsters. This makes combat frustrating and keeps ammo levels at an uncomfortably low level in the later levels. Not until the end of the game, when you finally reach the final "other dimension" levels of the game do things pick back up.
Despite this one weak point, and the Internet lag-time, the game is brilliant and loads of fun to play. The game is playable on a modest system, but if you have some serious hardware this can easily become a showcase title to show your friends how good your system really is.
So it would seem that Blood 2 offers everything a 3D action gamer could want, and for the most part it does. There are incredible graphics, intense action, a moderately compelling story to move us along, rich sounds, great one liners and mood setting music.
Blood 2 is conclusive proof that LithTech is a 3D engine to be reckoned with. Monolith has opened the door for a whole new era of 3D interactive gaming, and I eagerly await their next title. Meanwhile I will defend the innocent population against the evil minions of Cabelco while I wait for future Blood expansion packs or possibly a level editor.