Blood is a First Person Shooter released in 1997 and often overlooked due to its two older counterparts that use the same engine, namely Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior that released only a few weeks before it. Both of those titles would later become franchises receiving multiples entries afterward and are well & alive to this day. Meanwhile, while Blood pleased most that played it due to it’s over the top violence, creativity, and tons of references to horror films, it ultimately ended up in one heck of a legal limbo with its source code never being released as a result. Time and time again dedicated fans have tried to drag it into the modern era using various different engines and with mixed results. This project simply named “Blood fan remake” seeks to recreate it in the Unity engine and has recreated the first level of the game so far.
We start off in our grave and rise from it with the protagonist’s famous introductory line having been included here, alongside the rest of the original’s audio & sound effects. Getting ourselves out of that ditch and we are greeted with quite an impressive view of the now fully 3D environments and objects. The first corpse we would usually see has been upgraded into a ghastly scene of him now only having a torso and a single arm remaining on his tortured body. For those familiar with the game, the secret to the left of it is still there and allows us to replace our pitchfork with some TNT right from the get-go. Opening the door leading outside shows us a massively improved world, though we’ll have time to gawk later as a zombie is all too eager to put us right back into a grave. And boy, do our rotten friends explode nicely.
Soon we’ll get our hands on the iconic flare gun that functions as always and will set your foes on fire after a short time of being hit with it. It also retains its alt fire which is very devastating and fun to use in this remake. Setting someone or yourself on fire still results in that iconic screaming of agony occurring, making it that much more satisfying. With all the sounds and most of the enemy placements being just as how you remembered it, it is quite the nostalgic trip. I was pleasantly surprised to see there were rat enemies already in place at such an early stage of development and ready to chew on your ankles should you let them near. The secret found behind the altar hasn’t been added, and in a few other places, there are other things missing as well. A majority of the secrets are already implemented and ready to be rediscovered, however.
One feature that has yet to be implemented is the fan favorite ability to be able to kick decapitated heads around. Yes, it’s rather morbid for those reading this that are unfamiliar with the game but with a title like Blood, far what I’d call surprising. With the new and improved visuals brought to us here, the original scenes are even more gruesome. This remake is very faithful to its source material and doesn’t add anything to it that wasn’t there before, which has been a “problem” in other projects that add something new to the formula. Well not counting your insanely high jumps you can pull off in here, making it feel like you are on the moon. That is less of a feature and more of a quirk of being so early into its the development I assume.
The explosive barrel that destroys a portion of the wall giving you a grand view of the graveyard is here and functional while the one that blows a hole that takes you back into the opening area isn’t. I can go on and on about every small detail of this single level, but the fun lays in exploring and seeing for yourself. As good as a game that the original still is, this project is one that will only interest fans as it truthfully isn’t the way one should be introduced to Blood with its single, incomplete level. It also has some other issues such as mouse sensitivity being far too high even on its lowing settings and the fact that menus don’t work once you are in the game. Nonetheless, this is prime nostalgia for those us with fond memories of Blood, which makes it even sadder that this remake has been abandoned for reasons unknown. It seems Blood has a genuinely cursed existence, but hey, in a world where even Bubsy gets rebooted, one can hope.
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