BLOOD 18th Anniversary Special

[Krypto]

Now with 100% more playlist! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... troLx6qFum

At last my Deathmask victory over the Icy wastes! Share it your friends, your fellow few remaining Bloodites, your neighbours, the postman, your local international newspaper, The world must know!

This is my Deathmask run through Episode 2 – Even Death May Die.

Caleb finds himself in the far north stranded in the icy wastes, low on ammo and hunted by Cabal patrols. Can he fight his way through the cold hedge mazes, survive a visit to the odious Overlooked Hotel and enter deep into the bowels of the earth to discover the lair of the monstrous Shial?

What is Deathmask Style?
This is a term coined among the BLOOD community and is a challenge to complete an entire episode on Extra Crispy (the hardest difficulty) without using saves or dying once.

I could easily write a dissertation on each level and my experience but the gameplay shown easily surpasses this.

For convenience I have posted time stamps for the start of each level in the event you are unable to view the run in one sitting or need to take a break:

E2M1: Shipwrecked – 0:00
E2M2: The Lumber Mill – 8:41
E2M3: Rest for the Wicked – 16:00
E2M4: The Overlooked Hotel – 25:33
E2M9: Thin Ice – 44:29
E2M5: The Haunting – 54:11
E2M6: The Cold Rush – 1:12:48
E2M7: Bowels of the Earth – 1:19:55
E2M8: The Lair of Shial – 1:35:00

Of importance to note is this original release (1.00) is very prone to crashing on E2M8 - Bowels of the Earth, what causes it is a theory but it's something to do with killing to many enemies at once and being in their line of sight, unfortunately it occurred regardless of my caution. As such the game crashes at 1:21:45 so I just restart and warp to the level beginning from 'Pitchfork only' and complete the rest after 7 damn crashes!

Audio de-syncs again blah blah blah, I did some research into the program (Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate) I use to convert the video from my .AVI format after compressing it with Sony Vegas and the H264 codec into WMV format, otherwise it's over 2GB and theirs no way I can upload that with my connection. The problem lies with an 'Audio bit rate' setting, so I learnt you should use the 'Bitrate Calculator' so the program can work out the optimal values you should use for both video and audio settings respectively, and.. it still fudged up after 2 attempts so I'll have to manually set it as close as possible to the original AVI which will take some experimentation.

[Krypto]

Finally fixed the audio de-sync audios, thank fucking merciful God, Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate is shit and can't do it's job properly so I thought why didn't you use the WMV codec in Sony Vegas in the first place? Sure enough it worked but it's a very inefficient method and codec to use as it takes x5 of the time to render compared to h264, ending up taking nearly 7 hours but the file size is under 2GB which is the most important requirement. This is not a problem however and is only for the sake of uploading footage over an hour in one video.

This is my Deathmask run through Episode 3 – Farewell to Arms.

Caleb returns to the city skirts to battle the Cabal in a war torn city making his way through more industrious environments but not before paying a visit to your local Sick Ward!

What is Deathmask Style?
This is a term coined among the BLOOD community and is a challenge to complete an entire episode on Extra Crispy (the hardest difficulty) without using saves or dying once.

I could easily write a dissertation on each level and my experience but the gameplay shown easily surpasses this.

For convenience I have posted time stamps for the start of each level in the event you are unable to view the run in one sitting or need to take a break:

E3M1: Ghost Town – 0:00
E3M2: The Siege – 09:08
E3M3: Raw Sewage – 23:20
E3M4: The Sick Ward – 32:08
E3M8: Catacombs – 45:42
E3M5: Spare Parts – 1:01:09
E3M6: Monster Bait – 1:12:53
E3M7: The Pit of Cerberus – 1:31:46

When you reach 1:20:37 skip to 1:24:39 if you don’t want to watch me tediously work out a door puzzle I’m also aware I missed most of the secrets on E3M6 but they are of little use at this point being armed to the teeth.

[Dimebog]

Oh this is going to be a pleasure to watch.

[Daedalus]

Superb thread. I am pleased.

[Krypto]

Considering the rarity of this new discovery I have decided to post it here being unable to find a suitable thread. I was shared this link regarding 'Leaked internal complaints from the Blood team about dealing with Ken Silverman. showing a text file within the BLOOD Alpha titled 'GEORGE.TXT' stating the engine used by BLOOD ultimately went through various phases of being gutted due to Ken's poor coding which is the main reason why Q-Studios/Monolith dissolved their contract with Apogee/3D Realms, with an additional text document showing a termination contract

https://tcrf.net/Proto:Blood/Alpha_Demo ... s.27_Notes

[Corvin]

yup, that's in the full Alpha archive, plus a bunch more text.

[Krypto]

I find the most striking and defining feature of BLOOD is it's amazing and synchronous combination of a real, vivid, immersive world and a fast paced shooter like DOOM. It's just the most outstanding example pulled off so eloquently that manages to completely remove any semblance of playing a video game with it's evocative, real world locations yet still manages to play at the pace of an oldschool shooter.

I'm literally unable to break the continuum that I'm journeying through a dark, nightmarish realm rather than oh it's just another Dungeon or Temple themed level. This is of course in reference to the retail game, by contrast most custom maps fall from this grace immediately given their flawed and mediocre design. As such I often consider why I mapping for BLOOD must be a true art form and fiendishly difficult as your not just creating a gaming playground but a real, believable world, which certainly creates a highly arduous task as a result.

[Daedalus]

You can put me in front of any game with any level of atmosphere, made many years after Blood if necessary and I'll observe it for what it is and admire it as a compelling map in a video game. Put me in front of a good Blood map and there's something enchanting about it. It takes you in and makes you a participant in its incomparable world.

[Krypto]

In the event anyone has been reverently crying girly emo tears in intrepid anticipation for the next installment, I've been very busy in real life and had a moment of opportunity to Deathmask 'Dead Reckoning' today, only for the game to crash on E4M4 due to using my trademark tactic of first setting Remote Detonators to reverse the ambush back onto the Choking hands in the wooden cabin after grabbing the Moon key.

1.00 doesn't like killing an excessive number of enemies at once with explosives but I'm adamant with recording with the original release, partly for authenticity for the sake of this special event and the fact only one anomalous Youtuber has played the game with 1.00, but more for my own personal satisfaction and glimpse into the first retail incarnation of BLOOD. That and more importantly I get to take advantage of the Life Leech's health siphoning ability before it was axed, on the flip side it hasn't done much health recovery given my dexterous abilities

[Krypto]

lol Tcherie is overpowered in 1.00. Takes 70-80 napalm shots to put down

[Krypto]

About bloody time! =D



This is my Deathmask run through Episode 4 – Dead Reckoning.

The final road to Tchernobog is more dangerous then one initially suspects, it's easy to mess up at most points due to the entire beastiary being used in ambushes.

What is Deathmask Style?

This is a term coined among the BLOOD community and is a challenge to complete an entire episode on Extra Crispy (the hardest difficulty) without using saves or dying once.

I could easily write a dissertation on each level and my experience but the gameplay shown easily surpasses this.

For convenience I have posted time stamps for the start of each level in the event you are unable to view the run in one sitting or need to take a break:

E4M1: Butchery Loves Company – 0:00
E4M2: Breeding Grounds – 04:31
E4M3: Charnel House – 13:41
E4M4: Crystal Lake – 25:20
E4M9: Mall of the Dead – 38:49
E4M5: Fire & Brimstone – 49:18
E4M6: The Ganglion Depths – 1:01:48
E4M7: In the Flesh – 1:19:42
E4M8: The Hall of Epiphany – 1:28:26

[Krypto]

This is the first and only release of The Plasma Pak expansion by Monolith – Version 1.11, and was compiled on August 19th 1997.

It contains a total of 4 demos with the following levels shown:

• E6M1 – Welcome to your Life
• E6M7 – The Dungeon
• E6M3 – Public Storage
• E6M5 – Ruined Temple

The first demo is an all carnage run and gun shootout, thoroughly clearing out the level and showing you a number of vital secrets to get you started and the abundance of Life Essences to balance the huge number of enemies. No doubt the best demo for not ending in an actual death!

The second demo shows the central path in a three way possible choice which makes E6M7 brilliantly replayable and non-linear. The centre contains horde combat showing off the great effectiveness of the Aerosol Can’s secondary fire to incinerate groups of enemies, then gets into trouble with the ambushes after the key.

The third demo does a good job of clearing out of the starting area although haphazardly with clumsy movement resulting in being exposed too much and not using ammo efficiently.

The fourth demo doesn’t mess around with getting out of start and knocking the inhabitants into the watery depths then proceeds into the main grounds and does battle with the undead, then a Hellhound toasts the player.

[Corvin]

There was a v1.10 plasma pak cd. but I totally forgot what was changed, may have been an installer problem, not sure, no memory of the details without digging.

[Krypto]

Ha! I knew you'd mention that. I actually deliberately didn't mention the fact this (August v1.11) is an early v1.10 because the updated (September v1.11) actually breaks the first demo as they didn't update all of them which is the best of the bunch and the entire demo loop series. Furthermore the others cannot run as the game crashes out after the first unless you remove the offending demo completely, gosh darn it Monolith!

That and their are no obvious distinguishable differences and it depends where you purchased your copy of Plasma Pak from.

[Krypto]

One Unit Whole Blood (OUWB) is a special compilation featuring the original BLOOD, the Plasma Pak expansion, the unofficial Cryptic Passage expansion and Wizardworks Unlock the Secrets interactive game guide.

What makes it distinct in comparison to other FPS bundles such as Duke Kill a Ton Collection, Quake The Offering or The Depths of Doom Trilogy is those bundles came with the original game disks bundled into one big box.


One Unit Whole Blood is an exclusive version of the game, updated to 1.21 and comes on one unique disk. It was released on July 15th 1998 and marks the last official release of BLOOD in history.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/one-unit-whole-blood

It contains a total of 4 demos with the following levels shown:

• E1M1 – Cradle to Grave
• E3M2 – The Siege
• E6M1 – Welcome To Your Life
• E2M1 – Shipwrecked

The major difference with this version is the opening cinematics with the Monolith and GTI logo have entirely been cut from the game, although it could be skipped in previous releases using the -quick command via command line.