Gameplay
A first-person shooter in the spirit of schlock horror/slasher flicks, the gameplay of Blood is witnessed through the eyes of the player-controlled character, Caleb, and consists of fighting the hordes of various enemies as he traverses the levels of the game. In single player mode, the objective of the player is to lead Caleb in his quest of revenge against his former master: this is achieved by navigating the levels of each separate episode, looking for an exit, until the "boss" level is reached and a showdown against a large opponent takes place. Each episode can be played separately, in no particular order, albeit these are organized to follow the game's storyline.
Blood's gameplay is similar to other classic FPS games like Doom, in that the player is required to activate switches and/or seek keys to proceed through the levels; on larger maps, finding up to six different keys may be required. A classic FPS feature which is rarely employed in Blood is the teleporter. The player's progress is further complicated by different types of traps, including the classic crushing blocks, explosive barrels, or lava pits, the occasional jumping puzzle, and combination lock doors.
Blood was also one of the first FPS games (along with Marathon, Heretic, Strife and Star Wars: Dark Forces) to feature "alternate" or "secondary" attack modes for its weapons; most weapons in Blood have two different methods of dealing damage, in contrast to previous games in which each weapon had only a single type of attack. Another concept added in Blood are the "super secrets", very hard to find and hard to reach areas which merit large rewards.
Weapons, artifacts and bonus items appear in Blood. Firearms include a flare gun, sawed-off shotgun and a Tommy gun, explosive weapons like dynamite and a napalm launcher, a shock rifle named after inventor Nikola Tesla and several dark magic artifacts, including a Voodoo doll, and most uniquely, aerosol canisters that can be used as flamethrowers or bombs. Many of the weapons in Blood have a secondary attack mode. It also features a pick up known as "Guns Akimbo", that allowed the player to dual wield projectile weapons.
The game features a large quantity of creatures throughout its levels and most of them are absolutely hostile to Caleb, including human members of the Cabal and creatures fighting for the dark god Tchernobog. The most common of these enemies are various types of zombies, undead obese butchers that throw meat cleavers, and tommy gun wielding, dynamite tossing cultists. There are also more difficult enemies such as fire breathing hellhounds, gargoyles, giant spiders and powerful sub-bosses. The game also features a lesser class of enemies (bats, rats, eels, possessed hands) often referred to as "nuisance enemies" that are not considered threats individually, but will try nonetheless to harm Caleb and can be deadly if encountered in large numbers.
Blood features multiplayer options. When it was released, Internet play was not well established, therefore Blood relied upon the standard modem, LAN or serial cable connections for multiplayer. Modem and serial cable connections only allow two player games, while an IPX network connection can support up to eight players. This can easily be achieved on a variety of platforms that support DosBox and its IPX modes, coupled with VPN software such as Hamachi or similar. Setup may take a short while; guides for doing so are available online.
The multiplayer modes consist of the classic deathmatch, which is known in Blood as "Bloodbath", and cooperative play. Bloodbath matches can be played on specifically designed multiplayer maps or on the levels of the various episodes; the "frag limit" or "time limit" options are available to end matches, as well as the possibility to control respawn mode for weapons and powerups. A feature of Bloodbath is "The Voice", an audio comment heard upon each frag, that punctuates the death of an opponent often in gory and irreverent terms. "The Voice" is that of Jace Hall, who was CEO of Monolith Productions at the time.
Cooperative gameplay follows the lines of the single player campaign, allowing several players to work together against the computer controlled opponents on the levels of the different episodes.
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