Blood - Drained the Supply

When listing the original first person shooters, a lot of people will give them reverence as i they are legends. In many ways, they are. Obviously, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Duke Nukem 3D will be the first ones to come up, but then there will always be that wonderful one syllable title that comes up with such a mundane name: Blood. This will come with a bit of a polarizing reaction. Now, it's not quite as polarizing as Hexen, but it's also not quite as universally loved or even known as Duke Nukem. Blood came out in 1997, a year after Quake and it kind of got lost among the other titles of the time. 

Blood is extremely difficult for a number of reasons. The level design is very macabre, but also very imaginative, as there is an entire level where you derail an entire train and end up at an evil carnival. One very shining reason that this game is hard are the cultists. These hooded cultists come in the very first level and they carry machine guns and TNT. Put them on top of zombies with axes that may or may not die the first time you take them out, and you've got a sandwich that is very delicious but also quite hard to take a bite. 

This is nothing to mention the two crawling creatures, both rats and hands. The hands, by the way, are very possibly one-hit kills as they clamp onto you and strangle you. We haven't even gotten into the bullet sponge enemies! One guy with a white undershirt just spits green goo at you and then two types of gargoyles. Giant spiders, hellhounds, you get the picture, this game is a bit of a daunting task with the enemies alone. 

Then there are puzzles and secrets in the levels that cause a few complications, obviously. The great thing is that the secrets come in the form of spooky mansions, graveyards and crypts. Horror elements in this game have made it iconic among some of the more gothic fans of the FPS genre. You need to make sure you click on every gravestone and tomb you come across, as some of them slide in and give you ammo and health powerups. 

The weapons are quite unique among the original first person shooters as well. There is a machine gun, of course, but your melee weapon is a pitchfork. The mechanics also favor explosives, as they come in the form of TNT, remote mines, and even a can of hairspray that you can also use with a lighter for a flamethrower. The shotgun, however, is one of the better weapons in the game, especially when you get the guns akimbo powerup to have two shotguns. It has a good aim and damage distribution, being able to kill many of the smaller enemies with just one shot. 

One element where this game shines is the story and the boss battles. Now, does it make sense that the main badguy tried to kill you and failed only to make you more powerful to absorb you later? Not really. With so many henchmen and followers, he probably should have estimated that Caleb would grow more powerful than him. The Cerberus dog enemy, the boss gargoyle and the giant spider queen are all just flat out awesome to play and struggle against. It's a fairly safe bet that they can be defeated with the lightning gun, but these are where you expect them to soak up bullets like Officer Murphy. 

The graphics, for the time, were amazing. Early computers couldn't quite play it very well, but that was overcome rather well, as Quake was far more taxing to systems. Blood was still loved enough to invoke the remaster gods... twice. Yes, that's right, it came out again, twice. In fact, one of them came out just a few weeks before this article was written! Blood: Fresh Supply only came out in 2019, just six years later and boom! Blood: Refreshed Supply is released November 2025. 

Now, this is not a complaint, as it is clear that they did this in order to take all of the work they did from Fresh Supply. This allowed them to bring about versions of the game that includes all of the downloadable content and even some of the game mods they decided to make official. Marrow and Deathwish by themselves are well worth getting the new iteration of the game. This newest version is also quite a bit more stable than Fresh Supply, so this is a must have for all of you old school shooters. 

Blood is considered among the best in the genre. Among the original Doom Clones, it has a very steady fanbase. Well, now you can play it online again, and even get to know some of the new features. Blood is an acquired taste for some, but if you really want to get a taste of the original first person shooters, this is required playing. Just be sure not to turn the difficulty all the way up right away, not unless you want to be punished for something very bad. In that case, crank the Blood up to eleven! Virtua Blam!