Let the blood fall
The original Blood was a pretty solid slice of first person shooter mixed with copious amounts of horror and its appeal has largely been lost in this sequel. There's a fairly convoluted story here so if you haven't followed the tale from the beginning, you might be a little confused but it's all easily ignored if you just want to get on with the action. This is actually a double pack as it contains the sequel plus some extra content in the form of new levels, weapons and creatures, but most of your time is likely to be spent with the base game itself. This one picks up 100 years after the events of its predecessor, and finds the undead gunslinger hero from that game waking up to continue along his path of vengeance, as he seeks out his power-mad nemesis with the goal of putting him down once and for all. As before, this takes the form of a first person shooter, like Doom or Hexen, and which is drenched in horror trappings. As ever, there are several vastly diverse levels to explore, and which are pretty impressive, taking players through creepy science museums, research facilities and even a futuristic flying machine. There are heaps of cool weapons to discover and some suitably nasty enemies to unleash them on but unfortunately, you might wonder why you're bothering with it all as the game itself is almost entirely lacking in interest. There's nothing technically wrong with things, it's just that Blood 2 is so by-the-numbers that it is hard to enjoy it. The visuals are fine, as are the controls and weapons, but the gameplay is uninspiring to the point where only hardcore shooter fans or followers of the series will much to entertain them here. Disappointing.
