Simple, bloody fun... Blood 2: The Chosen is an exercise in gory, old-school gameplay, based on the premise of 'Shoot first, ask questions later'. The sequel to the Duke 3D-powered 'Blood', set a hundred years after the original, delivers just what it says - blood, and plenty of it! The gameplay itself is standard fare blowing the crap out of everything in your path gameplay, but what it lacks in originality it makes up in style and the smart ass quips that your chosen player makes as he/she reduces enemies to a shower of blood and entrails.
Playable characters include Caleb, the vicious main character from the original Blood, his cold-blooded love Ophelia, the ruthless Ishmael, or warrior Gabriela. Depending on who you choose will determine how you play the game, as certain players have different abilities including magic powers.
Blood 2: The Chosen uses Monolith's LithTech engine - one of the most advanced next-gen 3D engines in gaming. Well, at least it was at the time when it came out in 1998. Nowadays computer graphics have come a long way, but even still, the graphics are rather impressive, with great mood lighting and cool effects. Think Half-Life, but not quite as advanced. At least it is much more aesthetically pleasing than the first Blood, thank god the sprites are gone in favour of the more realistic 3d models of enemies!
And speaking of enemies... there are plenty fortunately. Although sometimes I began to wish there were a few less to kill, as at times the game's difficulty soars through the roof and not enough enemies will yield health upon slaying them, but that is a minor point. Back to the enemies - there are a wide variety of all sorts of enemy to mutilate in this game, from infantry, to axe-wielding monsters with strange barcodes on their chest, spiked creatures with one eye that jump around and so are immensely hard to kill, to the downright scary monsters of later levels which I cannot begin to describe...
So all in all, a great game with plenty to offer, even multiplayer modes (if you can find someone on the net who is still playing this game online or if you get a LAN party going), and plenty of player customization available. Get it... NOW!
Written by:
~dorento1
