Review – Blood: Refreshed Supply
Back in the 90s, there was Doom and Doom clones. After that, the world was then introduced to the bombastic, outlandish Duke Nukem 3D, which gave the FPS genre just a little more character and parody. Shadow Warrior then took that formula and leaned heavily into a more kung fu direction, and to finish off this holy trinity there was Blood, horror dialled up to 11 with the interaction and level design of the prior too and just a smattering of snark and parody, lost in a legal struggle for decades the game has laid mostly dormant. That is, until Nightdive came along and gave the game a refreshed supply of blood.
Let’s get stabby!
Blood: Refreshed Supply is a remaster package containing the original Blood title, the two official expansion packs, Plasma Pak & Cryptic Passage, as well as the unofficial episode Marrow, and soon to follow in a free update, Deathwish, plenty of the red stuff just flowing around for avid FPS fans to dive headfirst into. The game stars the wise-cracking Caleb, formally a follower of the demon god Tchernobog, who is given powers by his Demon Lord with the end goal of absorbing the souls of his “Chosen” and starting a reign of terror. Caleb rises from his grave with revenge on his mind after seeing his love killed in front of him, and being the kind of person to take betrayal very personally.
There are little smatterings of story told throughout a few remastered cutscenes, but the bulk of the narrative is: Tchernobog is a bad guy, but Caleb is badder, so it’s time to put boots to butts. It was the 90s, and we really didn’t need lengthy cutscenes and narrative dumps to give us a reason to pick up arms and take on the armies of the undead.
Choo Choo!
The thing all that Blood and the previously mentioned games have in common is that they all run on the “Build Engine”; whereas a majority of FPS games at the time ran on the Doom engine, what set this other piece of software apart was the ability to make more “real life” settings, an insane amount of interactivity, set pieces, and as such, making levels feel less like mazes and more like actually lived in and truly unique spaces. It’s something that Blood does exceptionally well, mimicking some iconic horror locales and making the game truly feel like it’s set on Earth in the 1920s, in the midst of an apocalyptic event that is ever slowly going from bad to worse.
Smile!
You have stages set in spooky mansions, graveyards, towns, swamps, and more. Hell, there’s even a carnival fair and a high-speed train for Caleb to tackle before he gets to the temples of worship where he’s planning to hand his notice in to Tchernobog, while quite literally burning bridges. Out of all the classic Build Engine games, this, for me, has the best selection of levels that are just designed so well, with some outstanding secrets and some brilliantly placed set pieces, it’s absolute perfection.
Now, the levels are fantastic, and the parody is on point, but does all that matter if the moment to moment gameplay is like William Shatner’s: TekWar?. Fortunately enough, Blood absolutely nails its visceral combat with an exceptionally violent array of weapons ranging from pitchforks and flare guns, to the best 90s FPS shotgun, voodoo dolls, Tesla cannons, and the brutally gratifying sticks of dynamite, which you’ll need to get painfully proficient in throwing around to dwindle down the hordes of horror constantly descending on you.
Wanna catch a flick?
Blood: Refreshed Supply is a horrifically tough game even by 90s standards; single enemies can melt your health down in seconds, you’ll die a lot and you’ll quick save and quick load so much, but it never feels too cheap as long as you realize quickly that Blood doesn’t suffer fools lightly. You’ve got hit scanner enemies everywhere, dynamite being chucked in every direction, and poison spiders and evil hands that love to be just out of your eye sight making your day even worse, but when you finally hit that end of level, the feeling that you are just the most undead badass to ever have unlived is just unrivalled.
The game runs at a smooth 60fps with zero slowdown throughout. It doesn’t quite handle quick save and quick load spamming as well, however, as there were a few times when I was in tricky areas where I’d have to reload a handful of times and the game would eventually flash up and error and boot to Home Screen. Fortunately, it doesn’t remove your save so nothing was lost, it’s just something worth pointing out.
Cracks emerging.
Since Nightdive have been awesome enough to include not only two expansion packs, but also a fan-made one and another creeping on the horizon, you’re going to have quite a bit to chomp on from the getgo, but you also have online co-op or deathmatches to get your rotting butt handed to you, alongside an absolutely staggering amount of beta levels and cut content; it’s all married perfectly with a healthy museum full of concept art and music. If you’re familiar with the team at Nightdive, you know they tend to fill their games with a staggering amount of great extras, and Blood: Refreshed Supply is no exception.
Visually speaking, Blood: Refreshed Supply is very much a 90s-looking game with tweaks to make it look much better on a bigger screen. The up and down look on the camera has been tweaked so it feels a lot more natural, and the animations still look just as good as they ever did. The real strength in this department is the art direction, which really does carry the game to the finish line of great boomer shooters, especially if you have a love of the macabre, like yours truly does.
Sound design is fantastic as well. Caleb cuts one liners like they are going out of fashion. You can tell what monster is attacking you, and even when it comes to the generic zombie foes who have different screams depending if they have been knocked down or killed. It all works and helps complete the deadly ballet that is this game’s combat. I will say there were a few instances where lines wouldn’t activate properly, or at all, but those are looking at being fixed in upcoming patches.
Boom Shoot.
If you are coming at this a PC player, you may already have the previously released re-release of Blood by Nightdive, that was sadly cut short due to the licensing issues with the franchise. It’s a tougher recommendation in this case, as yes, they worked directly with the source code on this one, so it is much closer to the original version of the game, but outside of the compilation of extra goodies, you’ve already had access to the same game for years, including the additional campaigns. The main bonus here is that you’re getting a game that is actively being supported by patches.
Blood: Refreshed Supply was always a highly anticipated title by the boomer shooter crowd, and it was seemingly an impossible task due to some copyright issues. Now that the proper paperwork has been taken care of, it’s time to rejoice. Yes, the game is slightly harder on consoles as expected, but that detail aside, it is still as addictive and playable as it has always been, and it is amazing to know that Caleb’s undead charm can now take on new life with an entirely new crowd, and hopefully bring more eyes onto a franchise that was killed far too early. Who knows, we might even see Blood 2: The Chosen picked up soon and fixed as much as it can!
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Graphics: 9.0 It stinks of 90s boomer shooter and we love it, if you’re a horror fan you have so many little nods to spot and even then the levels and enemies are just so iconic it’s hard not to love
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Gameplay: 10 It’s my all time favourite boomer shooter, standing toe to toe with the greats of Doom and Quake, everything I love about classic FPS games is here, combat is quick, kinetic and deadly and the sheer amount of content is staggering |
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Sound: 8.0 The sound effects and music are great, the voice clips are a little compressed and sometimes drowned out and missing, but all in all, it still hits just the way they should |
Fun Factor: 9.0 Equal parts challenging and fun, the weapons all feel awesome, the enemies are great to turn into squishy gibs and the only real let-down is the boss fights but even then it manages to do them better than other games of the era. |
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Final Verdict: 9.0
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Blood: Refreshed Supply is available now on PC, Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch 1/2 and X Box Systems.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2
A copy of Blood: Refreshed Supply was provided by the publisher.