Blood II: The Chosen

Overview

Blood II: The Chosen is an ultra-violent horror-themed FPS with an appreciation for black humor. The game was once again developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive in 1998. In this game, the player once again controls Caleb, or one of the Chosen, to take out hordes of enemies with an arsenal of seventeen different weapons, many of which can be dual-wielded.

In single player, the player can choose his character among one of the four Chosen (Caleb, Gabriella, Ishmael or Ophelia Price). However, major plot holes occur if any character other than Caleb is selected, such as in-game cinematics not being shown and the story not properly developing. Each of these Chosen have different abilities. The game is divided into chapters, each of which is accessible only if the previous one is complete.

Unlike the original Blood, which was a sprite-based shooter not too dissimilar from the likes of Doom, Blood II is an early polygonal first-person shooter in fully 3D environments. Blood II was one of the earliest games to use Monolith's Lithtech engine, which would later be used on games like No One Lives Forever and the F.E.A.R series.

Plot

The game takes place in the year 2028. Caleb, the protagonist, has spent the last century since the events of the first game searching for a way to resurrect his comrades,

The Chosen, who were killed in the previous game by the Cabal, a cult dedicated to the worship of the evil god, Tchernobog. The Cabal, in the meantime, has spent the century since Tchernobog’s death by Caleb's hands turning the cult into a global mega-corporation called CabalCo, which uses its economic influence to control the world’s populace, all thanks to Gideon, the Cabal's current leader who has been raised to restore Tchernobog and destroy Caleb, now called the “Great Betrayer”.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Blood II is relatively simple and fairly standard for first-person shooters of the time: hectic and extremely bloody combat encounters with some extremely light puzzle elements. The gameplay generally has a fairly frantic pace to it, in large part due to the player's rapid move speed, excessive firing rate and sheer lack of reloading.

As with the first Blood game, this game is known for its large selection of wacky and ridiculous weaponry, ranging from futuristic-looking Uzis to a skull on a stick that shoots fireballs. As is the standard for that era of first-person shooters, every weapon in Blood II has an alt fire function that is lost when a weapon is dual-wielded.

Much like Soldier of Fortune, Blood II had some controversially excessive dismemberment tech that featured bodies exploding in a variety of hilariously over-the-top ways.

Multiplayer

Although Blood II is primarily focused on the single player experience, it also features a multiplayer component. it's deathmatch component is the aptly titled "Bloodbath" mode for better reflects the game's title. Each player can choose one of the four Chosen to control during the match - Caleb, Gabriella, Ishmael and Ophelia. Since every character has different abilities, the weaponry they receive at the beginning of the game varies.

Legacy

An expansion pack was released in August 1999 that provided background information on Caleb, Gabriella, Ishmael, and Ophelia as narrated by the deceased Gideon. As the Chosen continue to walk home to their world from the invading reality, they encounter a psychic beast known as the Nightmare. The Nightmare captures Caleb as a result of the Chosen attracting it by telling scary stories in which the player then has to relive some of the most horrific moments of the Chosen's lives. The expansion adds new enemies and re-introduces old ones and two new weapons - the combat shotgun and the flayer. The game also added new multiplayer modes and models, most of which were created during the development of Blood II, but never made it into the final project until the release of the add-on.

Minimum System Requirements

• Windows XP / Vista
• 1.8 GHz processor
• 512MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
• 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
• 2GB HDD
• Mouse
• Keyboard