Developed By: Monolith
Published By: GT Interactive
- Excellent use of the LithTech engine, with clean textures and snazzy graphics being the norm
- Caleb's tongue-in-cheek commentary from Blood remains unchanged
- The game features interaction with several NPCs, including a few characters from the original Blood
- Blood 2 shows no advancement from the now prehistoric "See Blue Door, Find Blue Key" level objectives
- Poor artificial intelligence
Monolith's proudest achievement in 1998 came in the form of their LithTech 3D engine. Currently, it is hailed as a competitor to Epic's Unreal engine, is licensed by a number of independent developers, including Bloodshot, the ex-Daikatana designers, and powers a pair of Monolith titles: Blood 2 and Shogo: MAD.
Of the two, Blood 2 makes better use of the engine graphically. Put the graphics aside, however, and Blood 2 doesn't have much else to offer.
And that's a shame.
The original Blood hooked us with its brash humor and gratuitous violence. The game was driven by the classic motivation of finding the next key, but at the time, first person shooters had just started to explore new ground in this area, so nothing was held against Blood. Since then, however, the genre has undergone an evolution of not only flashy special effects, but frightening AI, story driven plots and immersive environments as well. Unfortunately, Blood 2's AI is poor, story lacking and environments unconvincing.
Blood 2 would have placed higher, however it stood still as the genre moved forward.
Be sure to check out our review of Blood 2.
