Blood

Sometimes, you just want to blow everything up. Sometimes you want to play the hero and save the world, beat the bad guys and just be all that is "awesome". Sometimes, you just want to cause as much misery and suffering on everything standing in your way through physical, electrical, magical and incendiary manifestations and as many of those combined as possible.

Welcome to Blood, please wipe your ichor-stained feet.

Built using the same engine as Duke Nukem 3D, with a few bonus features in the engine such as seeing through sector teleporters, Blood offers 4 episodes of chaotically filled levels with enemies, weapons, power ups, gore, keys and horror references. Yep it's one of those games. If Duke Nukem took the hero genre through sexist tones of adrenaline and muscles in gaming, Blood takes the horror genre through guts, gore and some of the blackest humour to grace a computer game.

It's hard to tell where the references stop and where the originality begins at times, even the enemies pay homage to zombies everywhere, evil dead films with the dismembered hands running around trying to choke you, cultists in garbs firing shotguns and tommyguns at you while tossing dynamite back and forth, gargoyles of various ilks from basic to boss standards, fire breathing dogs, spiders, rats, fish creatures, mimes, innocents (unarmed idiots), malevolent spirits and more await to be dealt with in many, many guises.

The plot and premise of the game is very simple. You're a former badass bastard in a Demon-God's army; you get thrown out along with your 3 pals and killed. Sometime later you awaken and go on a revenge spree against the creatures that took your place in the army and the God/Demon of the cult you had previously signed up to, while not realising the severance plan was rather harsh. Starting off by quoting straight from Army of Darkness with "I live, again", before running outside to stab a zombie to death with a pitchfork. There's no messing about here, if you down it, it will likely get back up again and attack, which if you're not expecting this, can be a killer. It's a quick and fast lesson on the subject of "Watch out, this game might be slightly more than you're expecting".

Blood does boast quite the assortment of ass-kicking and pain inducing weapons one could expect to find in a game. Pitch forks for the melee stabbings, flare pistol to light up enemies and have them running around screaming in various guises from pseudo arabic-latin to the hilarious "it burns it burns", shotguns and tommyguns for the bullet and pellet crowds, Napalm Launcher for the rocket fans, dynamite bundles for grenade fans, prox mines and remote mines for the wankers in multiplayer, aerosol can and lighter for a flame thrower or explosion of fire, Tesla cannon for the electric fans, the life leech which takes health off enemies or yourself if you've no ammo for it and the Voodoo doll while hits enemies when you stab or can kill them outright with obscure effects. There some extra items in there for scuba gear, health packs, reflective shields and so on though some of these cause a game to crash depending on the patch you have in the software.

The potential for causing mayhem and pain is nothing short of over kill. Blow enemies up and watch their flesh get ripped from their bodies, set them on fire and have them running around, use magic to disintegrate them in ways that the Nazi’s from Raiders of the Lost Ark would be proud of. Though the real interest comes when you're up against enemies that are outright immune to specific attacks or just very resilient to them. The Cerberus dogs and boss is a fire breathing monster group, so flame and explosions aren't going to be useful against them. While the Stone Gargoyle is rather resilient to bullets, and guess what you're only really going to be armed with the first time you fight one. (Though an alternative attack with the voodoo sorts the men from the boys on that one)

It still gives me a chuckle to have someone run out from cover, on fire, screaming.

The game's enemies also have a selection that not only cause damage but can mess your visuals up. Dismembered hands, if they get close to you, can choke you and turn the screen black; green spiders blind you with poisons while the red spiders make your view shake slowly back and forth. Sadly, that's it, which leaves you feeling there were some ideas and greater potential that just wasn't utilised to the fullest, even in the update/add-on pack where there's newer enemies but no newer effects.

Oddly for such a game, the music within it is rather fitting, suitably haunting within specific levels and even catchy to the point of becoming an ear-worm and having you humming along to the music while you set about murdering everything in sight.

The levels within Blood are a little disjointed in presentation. Some of the levels are rather generic and a few of them blend together too well in such a way that you can't help but feel "oh great, another fucking demon church" but the ones that stand out more are significantly more appealing to the player. From graveyards and churches, to churches and temples, to cathedrals (I'm not selling this well am I). Yes there's a gothic theme in the majority of levels but the variances can be rather vast. The most memorable levels are the Train, where falling off will get you killed; A theme park and secret level of a whole rollercoaster (yes you get to blow most of it up), frozen hotels that look like they're straight from the Shining (even has Jack frozen solid in a hedge maze at one point), War zone cityscapes, industrial complexes, maniacal genius' castles, a level of living flesh, and the final level... another fucking cathedral.

You cannot help but feel that there's something not quite heart-felt about the game when you're crawling through another frozen tundra, or another cave system. Yes, ok, plot wise the 4 big nasties aren't exactly holed up in cities and such but even so, why do the bosses reside in a mountain top cathedral, a cave, another cave and another cathedral? As you progress through the levels you start to realise at about level 7-8 that it's aiming towards the boss and it's getting SO very generic.

That said, the shopping mall level is hilarious with that muzak playing which later become elevator music in Blood 2. Given the music is so cheerful and upbeat, it somehow becomes more appropriate to the character and the game when butchering armies of zombies and cultists, watching them explode, burn and scream, to the sound of this piece of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY#

It just happily fits the game, giving me the idea that Caleb, our hero-antagonist, is gleefully just butchering people left and right and it just so happens to coincide with defeating a greater evil. There's no real "good vs. bad" here, it's just "Which is more evil?" I suppose it could raise questions of what is the definition of "bad" and "evil", is it merely relative to the situation or circumstance and is someone automatically good if they oppose evil? But ultimately it doesn't do that, we could pretend it does but it's just a kill fest with a nutcase character butchering everything else in his path. You don't root for either side, but you sit back and just go mental on anything that sticks its head up for the purpose of being gunned down.

As with any good single player fight fest of guns, there are bosses and a final boss. (Halo 2... can I see you over here please for a moment). The culmination of level after level after level of conflict resulting in a one-to-one showdown with the big bad of that episode. The Stone Gargoyle (later just an annoying shit you can find in the first level of some episodes), A giant spider (spawning more little spiders, annoying now and later) A 2 headed fire breathing dog (incorrectly named Cerberus, which had 3 heads, come on people do your fucking research!) and the final boss being the demon god that started the whole cult, Tchernobog, which has the ever-so-lovely ability to just set you on fire as soon as look at you. While launching fireballs.

Of course with any boss battle, the higher the difficulty, the more health it has. In some cases having nearly 5x as much health from easy mode to insane mode, though with the same ammo available as there was in easy mode, players can find themselves running out of ammo, meaning you'll fight the boss with weapons that won't do any damage, or have to use the pitch fork, which is an instant death if you're against the final boss as it kills upon contact.

The game is certainly entertaining but it does have need for a little of what one might call, an acquired taste. Particular with the pop-cultural references to horror films, and while the game gets older, the references of course, become more obscure to the younger audience. But that's not a criticism of this game, but any game that uses pop-cultural references. In this case, the game becomes a sort of treasure trove of hidden snippets of referential material, a bonus for finding it and even more of one for understanding the origins.

But then, in the case of this game, take away the humour, the references and the aesthetics and you're left with a Duke Nukem mod. Yet in Blood's case, this is such a heavily adjusted game that it does stand up in its own right and actually plays and feels more like a different game than just being a Duke3D modification. It's rare given the high population of modifications being nothing more than a few tweaks and adjustments, but Blood stands proud as a game apart, a sick sense of humour, claret pissing from every crack and orifice with a huge grin on its face inviting people to come and take part in the insanity.

I'll be there every step of the way.

Bloody Roar

Continuing a trend for fighting games at the moment, one does have to wonder what the appeal is with a genre of games that glorifies the repeated and brutal attacking of one individual by another in a competitive sport-like capacity. We manage to enjoy it in UFC (apparently), Boxing (apparently again) and harkening back to older days where drunk "all-outers" were held in squalid locations where working class individuals and the more sturdy upper class ponces would beat the shit out of each other to the amusement and betting of others.

Even through history there's been the duel, where two individuals have agreed to fight to settle a disagreement (often permanently) chose a location and method in which to have such combat and then murdered one another in the name of "something" that nobody else really gave a toss about. "You sir! Have dishonoured my toast!" "Indeed, I refuse to spread more butter upon such heat-imbued bread." "Then you sir have a duel!" "I accept your duel, just after I have devoured this succulent bread-laden breakfast" "Indeed!" "Quite" and so on and so forth with about as much relevance today as it had back then.

So with the idea in mind that fighting brings about a sense of "I'm better than you" while most parents try to instil a thought along the lines of "Fighting is the last act of a sensible individual" it still doesn't bring about the satisfaction of defeating someone with nothing more than your own physical presence for those of us with more base needs and testosterone than we know with which to do.

This game is another of such mimicry as to try and encourage two individuals to batter the shit out of each other in a virtual ring of combat where might is right, weak is meek and someone is going to have their throat ripped out by a wolf... then get back up and keep fighting... Perhaps a realistic fighter would be boring by that reasoning. But still, here we go anyway.

Bloody Roar sets 8 individuals with their own reasons and oh my fucking god it's another beat em up game. You've 8 characters, which have various bullshit reasons for fighting each other in sequence before taking on the boss of the game. As expected for some it's pride, for some it's finding a cure (Science was usually a better approach) for some it's a DREAM before school, for others it's about protect their children (Which... you end up fighting 2 of them... great parenting there, Mitsuko) And for others, they are the experiment and die at the end... hopeful outlook there but the only one that conveys the message that fighting is pointless and we all are going to die anyway and achieve nothing, a sort of nihilistic approach to a fighting game. You win but so what? We all die anyway so what's the point?

Your characters range from a bouncer guy, large army guy, skinny school girl ninja super fighter (aren't they all?) circus guy, large mother woman...guy, cross gender guy/girl, ninja guy and Chinese modern philosopher guy. Will all beat seven shades of shit out of each other (and themselves in a mirror fight) to get to the final boss, another kid that becomes a floating flying super goddess and then something else later in a truly fair representation of final bosses, i.e. not very fair at all. Nobody really cares on the back stories, it's all about how it plays and how quickly can you launch someone across the room and into a wall, or through it.

The key difference here, is that the game is based upon the idea of anthropomorphism, in which every character is imbued with the magical ability to become a were-creature of sorts that allows for harder hitting moves, new moves, more combos and other such specials such as faster, quickly, agile, (yeah I know, the same thing) and more special effects when the round is over and showing replays.

Every character has a punch button, kick button and a special/transform button which can only be done when your transform bar is full enough and that's done by getting your head caved in repeatedly. Not quite sure when having your body broken up made someone stronger... but it seems to be an industry standard for games featuring super special moves. Likewise causing damage builds the power up bar a little less quickly than having your ribs shattered, legs broken and skull weaved into the ground.

Each character has a full salvo of combos and moves that can be pulled off fairly effortlessly in a way button mashers will gain a few moves but lose out on timing. Each character has 6 specials of the quarter circle forwards and button, and quarter circle backwards and button, variety. Some will be hard hitting moves, some will be unstoppable moves but easily blocked, some are dodge moves, some are holds/grabs and such. Blocking in this game is by simply (wait for it...) standing still. Or crouching for the low attacks.

In this game at least, each character looks unique, is voiced differently and no two characters fight or act the same with regards to combos (specials are ALL that little QCF or QCB combo) while actual button presses and combinations can lead to apparently a variation of 40-70 per character. Underneath the core of the game, is a very complex and very thorough combat system that sadly is ruined by the simple theory of "Find a good combo and repeat it ad nauseam" which can see you through the vast majority of fights and battles. Until you slap the game onto hard mode and then you'll need to start actually doing some fighting and thinking about it.

Combat is held within a standard 3D arena of a floor and 4 walls, the walls are of those magic variety where damaging them is impossible but breaking them happens either at the end of the round or during the fight, usually once someone is put through them though not always. Once the wall is down, the combat opens up to either beating their life bar down to nothing or knocking the opponent out of the arena. Each character has a series of moves that when they connect with an opponent, can launch them straight out of the area or at least slam them against the back walls (unless on the long hypotenuse/diagonal across the arena, then only the stronger chars can do that due to the extended distance).

The norm is to win 2 rounds then fight the next opponent in most combat games, this is no exception so I'll move right along.

The final boss is about as clichéd as a anime/manga boss could possibly be. Starting off as a little school girl much younger than any other character you could play as, she immediately starts off with a transformation into a floating vixen (not literally like a fox, that's already done by the character called fox) who can chain in combos and special moves like there's no tomorrow and has a few long range ones that can hit almost anywhere unless you're blocking. Once her special bar is damaged enough, the final transformation takes place that looks like something between a Minotaur and the H.R.Geiger Alien creature and everything gets pushed up to 11 on the damage scale. Though if you managed to break some walls in the prior fight, the battle can be over rather quickly and make for an incredibly anticlimactic boss fight.

Options with the game can be unlocked for every time the game is beaten and for every character with which the game is beaten. Added to replay and self challenge factor though it does leave one asking, what's the fucking point if I already beat it? Some of the changes include the oft done and now oft missed, big heads mode. A first person view of the fight, a tiny arena, a MASSIVE arena, regenerating health (not advisable on the final boss that can regenerate it back FULLY at all times), change whether walls break quickly, later, not at all, or are already missing (begin the launch fest!) But all of this adds to the game and doesn't represent the core of it.

As responsive as the game is, the game is fast with later editions of the game getting faster and more fluid as the machine architecture became more powerful. This game however is very quick, especially for the faster characters (most are lightning fast at the slowest of times) and will require some impressive reflexes (or in the case of blocking, doing nothing), before countering with various moves and mixers to throw the opponent off guard and then propel them from the arena.

The music tends to set a pace and tone while in the PSX version there are both sets of musical accompaniments, both at least can help set a tone for the fight, with both using rather much more intense compositions for the final boss, but otherwise the fights are the main focus of the game and a few of the tracks will be memorable from the stages that are made.

The game for the time, runs on the gimmick of the transformations, otherwise it's very similar to games like Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden and such with a 3D arena, 2D movement and combat changing the plane of combat and the arena approach of knocking people through walls and out of the area, done as well in Virtua Fighter. But what Bloody Roar does bring, is an almost tactical fighter with the Furry gimmick that, with the right players and settings, can be a powerhouse exercise of reflexes and reactions.

Beyond that though, it's a 3D fighting game with walking animals, but given that, it's done well and better than a large number of similar games competing for the 3D fighter crown.