SHOW YOURSELF! SHOW YOURSELF!!!

[Krypto]

It's long gone, the insides burnt out around 2001 or so, it had Windows 95 and we used a 56K Modem card for Dial-up in the mid 90's. My brother was highly resourceful and was able to find a full copy of Ultimate Doom, Doom II and Hexen on an obscure website even in those days, I remember using Getright to download Hexen late in the evening and we were reverently waiting to see if it worked. In those days UK stores were awful at stocking early 90's PC games at that time, it was extremely rare to find any DOS games with the exception of Duke Carribean and Nuclear Winter at PC World. Which is why I visited America in 2000 and brought back a horde of goodies, even in that year they still stocked original boxed copies of Quake and Duke Nukem 3D.

I'd say the picture is from around 1998-1999, and yes it does look incredibly snazzy and sharp doesn't it? Old cameras for you

[Panoptic Blur]

I remember using Getright

Ah, the good old days! I later progressed onto DAP (Download Accelerator Program). The last time I downloaded Quake was back in 2003 when a colleague and I wanted to see if we could get it running on a very old machine.

We could, but the mouselook issue was a pain.

[MoonStalkeR]

The rig on which I began Blood is visible.

[Krypto]

I hope it didn't use Windows ME :>

[MoonStalkeR]

Fortunately I never got to use Windows ME. This was one Windows 98 on an IBM Aptiva. Although it has not been in use since 2004 or so, I still keep it due to attachment reasons. The monitor was quite bulky but had a flat screen, unlike many at the time.

The days of looking at the blue installation screen which signified an exciting new game was being installed...

[Panoptic Blur]

Ah, Boxing Day 1999. If I recall correctly, I was spending that day playing through a NEW AWESOME GAEM!!! that I'd bought at the EBGames at the mall: Blood 2 - The Chosen.

It was meh.

[Krypto]

And yet I eagerly tracked down a rare copy of the Nightmare Levels expansion on Ebay many years back, then discovered it was abysmal and couldn't save the already dismal product.

[MoonStalkeR]

I remember using my mother's Ebay account in 2002 to successfuly hunt down a copy of Blood 2.

I was very excited when it arrived. As the installation commenced, I eagerly examined the manual's contents. Running the game, my first feelings were of confusion rather than disappointment which came later.

[Panoptic Blur]

And yet I eagerly tracked down a rare copy of the Nightmare Levels expansion on Ebay many years back, then discovered it was abysmal and couldn't save the already dismal product.

I got up to Ishmael's level. I think that means I finished Caleb's level (ice floes) and Ophelia's level (the sorority). I remember having to get out of a circus cage and there were a couple of armed dudes right outside with clown faces.

Such a waste. The game had a lot more promise and could have been something really good - a mix of Clive Barker's Undying in terms of the magic system, and the future dystopia of System Shock or Deus Ex.

[Daedalus]

My discovery of Blood 2 was entirely coincidental. I was in a mall somewhere, wandered into the shop and was like, 'OMG ThUR's A BlooD sEUQELN!?"

Little did I know what horrors awaited.

[Krypto]

Running the game, my first feelings were of confusion rather than disappointment which came later.

Who in the hell is Gideon? He was nowhere in the original, nor in the back story or plot. Why in god name's are we on this god forsaken Train with blaring techno music with clearly no dark horror ambience, shooting down delusional Men in Suits! Where are the Cultist's? The witty and macabre one liners? The unique arsenal of sinister looking and deadly weaponry? Where is the ominous and foreboding opening, what kind of pseudo fuckery opening to the cult classic is this?

Why are the graphics abysmal polygon abominations with no warmth of detail or touch like the original, also this cobbled excuse for a game engine makes the world seem fake and plastic, let's not forget it's not entirely stable to begin with. Clearly the would be distributor's were drunk at the last stage of development and accidentally associated this with Monolith's Blood, why does it share the same name? :<

[Daedalus]

... techno music

Oi, it's not techno.

[MoonStalkeR]

The exotic new setting... a modern/near-future urban location with distant police sirens and Mr. Smithoids. At first, I was curious to finding out how the haunting world of Blood will adapt to this new home. Almost nothing was relevant to the original game, aside from Caleb, rare hands, and a few weapons following a classic design. What caught my attention more were the glaring, irrelevant cliches straight out of some low budget anime - namely Gideon and The Chosen. Caleb's confusing new quest crawling with bugs. I began walking on the ceiling when I entered the museum! Risks of crashing were numerous too.

Blood II was quite poor, but still worth a go from those who have not experienced it. At least it contains a very high quality soundtrack. Just forget it has anything to do with Blood. The archaic polygons which populated it have aged very badly by now whereas Blood's graphics will always pleasant to look at.

[Krypto]

Interestingly, KISS Psycho Circus used the same Lithtech engine but it was far more stable in my experience, as it must have been sufficiently updated considering it was released in 2000 compared to Blood II in 1998. This game shared a similar macabre, dark setting but was more well received.

[Drakan]

I wonder if it would run well enough on Windows 7. I'm tempted...