So what of Multiplayer Blood II then? Well, it may have been great except that trying to find a server after Half-Life, SiN and Shogo have all come out is like looking for a needle in the haystack. We checked the Blood2 forum and it was much the same story, it seems as though gamers were pretty enthused and willing but will have to wait until the Half-Life hiatus dies down. This is actually a great shame since we've tested the game's 14 Bloodbath maps across a LAN here in the Sharky Extreme labs and we've got to say that a lot of fun can be had. Although none of maps can touch classics such as 'The Frag Pipe' in Quake2, they're more than adequate small-to-medium sized maps. And with some of the more outrageous weapons at your disposal, Fragging Season can officially be declared 'Open'.

However, those endowed with a LAN can bathe in kinky 32 player bloodbath orgies, capture the flag scenarios and Monolith's own version of the Rocket Arena. The only foreseeable problem during multiplayer is that the LithTech engine does seem to chew up your systems resources harder than the Quake 2 engine. Thus speed with the LithTech engine speed is sacrificed and that's not a good thing. The need for speed in multiplayer is immense and fundamental. As with Shogo: MAD, Monolith has stated that a patch for Internet and Modem play is imminent (we'll keep you posted on the developments) and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

This is one weakness in Blood II, which really doesn't help to do the game (and at times an extremely fun one) any justice. The AI of the enemies in most cases is terrible, buggy and downright flawed. Yes the 'Fanatics' roll around like gymnasts (who yell, which eventually gets annoying) when you fire at them but they along with most of the other 'visible' enemies just come straight for you in almost Titanic proportions. Sure there really are that many of them so why bother making them intelligent? No we don't buy it. And to make matters worse there were far too many instances of them running up against walls or jogging on the spot (due to bugs?). They're easy to kill as it is and having them served up like that is unforgivable. Occasionally a 'Fanatic' might redeem himself by blowing up in your face in a Kamikaze styled attack. But this isn't an often enough occurrence.

Some of the other enemies, such as the Soul Drudge (a human infected by a parasitic Bone Leech), are plain dumb. But one can allow for that fact, as they don't carry anything other than a crow bar and for the purpose of the game therefor they seem Expendable. But why on Earth does the Shikari (a spiky predator) simply jump upwards in a rabbit-like fashion every few seconds? Is that the best enemy AI that today's games can muster? Even the larger enemies are worthy of being told to re-sit the year in 3rd Grade! Drudge Priests just float around and dilly-dally like they don't have a care in the world. Sure they posses magical abilities and in between dilly-dallying they might let loose a few Bone Leeches but they don't ever seem to be reacting to any type of strategy that you the player might be using. The End of level nasty in Chapter One may well be on the big side but he doesn't have much of a clue either. Being a Slug-like creature we can understand that he's cumbersome but to stand there like a lemon and take punishment?

Monolith has tried to redeem the enemies' AI by burying any need for it under full waves of enemies attacking all at once, therefor making it so difficult that it really doesn't matter if any of them have AI anyway. If any of the 12 conventional enemies actually confront you one on one, the odds are too highly stacked in your favor due to their lack of AI. With the high powered weapons found within the game, a quick shot to the head and it's all-over. Lights out baby.

The only other ways that some of the enemies make up for their poor AI is by being blanketed by darkness or partial-invisibility. Bone Leeches and other parasites found under ground and under the water and/or where there is little or no light, can be hard to spot.

Whether or not the enemy AI improves depends upon how many patches Monolith lets loose in the next few months. Clearly the game needs one urgently to fix multiplayer issues but once that is done we really hope that enemy AI takes precedence. Fixing the AI would really give the gameplay a much-needed boost in the 'player strategy' and 'learning curve' departments.