History Main / Blood

** ''VideoGame/Blood1997'', the FPS running under [[Creator/ThreeDRealms Apogee Software/3D Realms's]] Build UsefulNotes/GameEngine.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', a 1997 FirstPersonShooter.

[[redirect:VideoGame/{{Blood}}]]

[[quoteright:192:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caleb-blood-small_8770.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:192:Our [[VillainProtagonist "hero"]]]]

-->''I LIVE... AGAIN!!!''\\
- Caleb, ''Blood''

-->''Everybody dies!''\\
- Caleb, ''Blood II: The Chosen''


In a region renowned for cruelty, Caleb was legendary. Born in western Texas in 1847, he got a reputation of a merciless gunfighter by the age of 17. His bloodthirstiness got on a menacing new timbre when he entered the Cult of Tchernobog. But the real massacre started when he was betrayed and discarded by his master, the Dark God Tchernobog himself...

A 1997 FPS based on a Build engine, Blood was one of the most unusual shooters of its time. It featured a mix of horror and deadpan humor, a charismatic AntiHero, an arsenal of exotic weapons and, of course, lots and lots of the eponymous red liquid. Playing as Caleb, a former pet murderer of an evil deity who was betrayed and transformed into an undead monstrosity, you go on a quest to avenge/harvest the powers of your former TrueCompanions who did not manage to rise again and use them to wreak all kinds of unholy hell upon Tchernobog.

In 1998, a sequel was created; Blood II: The Chosen. Running on the new [=LithTech=] engine developed in-house by Monolith, it took place exactly one century after the first game, featuring the Cabal's attempts to kill Caleb and take back the powers of Tchernobog, while Caleb's disuse of the dark god's powers accidentally summons abominations from another dimension. It was critically received as lacking the spirit or fun of the original game.

For tropes about blood, see BloodyTropes.

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Tropes include:

* AbnormalAmmo - From the relatively-speaking mundane (pesticide grenades on the M16's attached grenade launcher in Blood II) to the freaky (trapped souls for the Life Leech in the first).
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer - [[SarcasmMode "Ooh, what a wonderful smell I've discovered."]]
* AerosolFlamethrower - One of the weapons is a spray can, which can be combined with Caleb's trusty lighter for this effect, or lit on fire and thrown as an impromptu bomb.
* AmusementParkOfDoom - the secret level of the first episode, "House of Horrors", complete with a "fun" ride on a water slide, and caged enemies.
* AnachronismStew - For ''The Nightmare Levels'' expansion, Monolith had apparently completely forgotten the Chosen were originally from the 19th century.
** There's also the various {{Shout Out}}s, most of which in the first game are to things that wouldn't exist until decades after the events of the game, though that's more for RuleOfFunny most of the time.
** For that matter, guessing WHEN these games takes place is a chore... Blood 2 implies that Blood started out around 1928, but the presence of wall switches and outlets, jukeboxes and many other "modern" items stick out. Plus that one level that seems to take place during world War II.
* AndIMustScream - The Soul Drudges in the second game are living humans whose bodies are controlled by Bone Leeches but who are still conscious and aware of what they're doing. The leech forces its host to sew its mouth shut to keep it from screaming.
* AntiHero - Caleb is definitely this, being an undead revenant and a former basherboozook of an evil cult and all.
** Not to mention the extreme sadism.
*** In fact, he might belong more in the VillainProtagonist category, except that most of the civilians are already dead by the time he arrives.
**** [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Not]] ''[[VideogameCrueltyPotential all]]'' [[VideogameCrueltyPotential of them, though.]] [[EvilLaugh Heheheh]].
* AttractMode: there's a couple of demos playing on the title screen.
* {{BFG}} - Originally, the Tesla Cannon and the Life Leech were the 8-inch cannons of Blood. The expansion pack added an alternate fire mode to the Incinerator that made it into the new, ultimate BFG of Blood 1. Blood 2 added a new, literal BFG, as in Doom, called the Singularity Generator.
* BadAss - All four of the Chosen, most especially Caleb.
** BadassLongcoat - Caleb. Ishmael also has some sort of long coat.
* BallisticBone - Gargoyles fling them at you for a ranged attack.
* BatmanGambit - Tchernobog fully intended for Caleb to return from the grave and seek vengeance, gaining power with each kill he made along the way. The intent was to then [[GrandTheftMe take over Caleb's body and use the new power to take over all realities]], though this fails when Caleb kills him. Gideon was supposed to have his own gambit in Blood 2, but most of that that subplot beyond "kill Caleb" was cut before the game's release.
* BigBad - In Blood, Tcherno. Blood II has Gideon, though he's not the final boss.
* BlackAndGrayMorality - More like Black and Blacker Morality. Caleb is only the "hero" because he's trying to avenge his fallen comrades and not trying to take over the world.
* BloodBath - A magazine ad for the game featured a man, presumably Caleb, in a bathtub full of blood with this tagline:
--> Blood? You're soaking in it.
* BloodyHandprint - On the game's box.
* BossRush - ''Blood'' makes you refight the earlier bosses before Tchernobog finally shows himself. ''Blood II'' makes you fight undead versions of the other three Chosen before fighting the Ancient One.
* BottomlessMagazines - The only weapon with an actual reload animation is the sawed-off shotgun, and even then said animation is skipped entirely in the first game when you have the GunsAkimbo powerup.
* CallBack - ''Blood II'' features ringing telephones that you can answer. One phone in the third level does the same [[TheSimpsons Hugh Jass]] joke a phone in the third level of the first game did. An elevator in the first chapter also has elevator music remixed from the secret level of ''Blood'''s last retail episode.
* CastFromHitPoints - The Life Leech in Blood 1 would use HP as ammo if you run out of trapped souls.
* CherryTapping - The pitchfork. Killing an opponent with it is sheer humiliation. Killing zombies with it is often necessary to save ammo.
* CircusOfFear - The Dark Carnival levels in the first game, with the appropriate CreepyCircusMusic (made especially creepy by the calls of the barkers and the laughter of children).
* CliffHanger - The four Chosen are left in an alternate reality at the end of Blood II, and make no real progress towards getting out in the expansion. The end text for Blood II even lampshaded this:
--> ''"Does Caleb really close the rift? Does Ophelia get her two-minutes of gift? What the heck happened to [[GenderBender Gabriel... er, Gabriella?]] What if Ishmael can't get home? And, where did he get those tattoos? Tune in next time on: As 'It burns, it burns'. Enjoy these answers and more soon... we promise."''
* CopyAndPasteEnvironments - The first chapter of Blood II goes all out with this, with a laundromat and the surrounding area from level 2 being revisited twice before the chapter is over. On top of that, Chapter 2 begins with basically the same map Chapter 1 did.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive - Considering [=CabalCo=] is essentially a public face for the evil, mystical cult of Tchernobog, Gideon couldn't be anything else.
* {{Cult}} - The Cabal and, to a lesser degree, [=CabalCo=] 100 years later.
* DarkIsNotEvil - Well, [[BlackAndGrayMorality most]] [[CompleteMonster of]] [[VillainProtagonist it]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential is]], but Tchernobog is technically a neutral force who assumes the personality traits of his host.
* DeadCharacterWalking - ''Blood'' has a glitch where, on occasion, enemies who are killed by being set on fire would continue to run around in their on-fire animation indefinitely, unable to damage you but also invulnerable to everything but splash damage.
* DeadWeight - Bloated Butchers.
* DeadpanSnarker - Caleb, most definitely.
** More like an ''[[IncrediblyLamePun un]]''[[IncrediblyLamePun deadpan snarker]].
* DeathIsNotPermanent - Ophelia, Ishmael, and Gabriel die alongside Caleb in Blood's intro. Caleb inexplicably comes back in the first game, and the other three are revived during the course of Blood II through use of the Singularity Generator. There's also Tchernobog, who due to the nature of his reincarnation, has died and come back at least 15 times before Caleb permanently killed him.
* DegradedBoss - The stone gargoyle, giant spider, and Cerberus are first introduced as end-episode bosses before becoming common enemies in later episodes.
** Another interesting variant: there are also smaller, more common versions of those three bosses. Normal gargoyles are around from the beginning, while smaller spiders and hellhounds are sequentially introduced in the later episodes.
* {{Determinator}} - Even death did not put Caleb down for good.
** Nor Tchernobog, whose method of reincarnation technically means [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Caleb is Tchernobog now]].
* DidntSeeThatComing - The [[{{BFG}} Singularity Generator]] manages to be unpredictable enough that it revives the rest of the Chosen, even [[GenderBender turning the first one from a man to a woman]]. By the time the scientists who created it have it working the way it should, Caleb bursts in, kills them, and steals it.
* DifficultyLevels - Unlike many other Build engine games, Blood 1's difficulty levels don't just determine the placements and amount of enemies on each map, they also determine various properties and the [[HitPoints vitality]] of monsters.
** Best example is the brown-robed Cultist. On the first difficulty level, they have 40 HP, no ability to toss dynamite sticks and [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy terrible accuracy, so bad they can]] ''[[ImperialStormTrooperMarksmanshipAcademy miss you with their shotguns up to five times in a row]]'' '''[[ImperialStormTrooperMarksmanshipAcademy at point blank range]]''' if they really suck on that playthrough. On the second difficulty, they get 60 HP, still no dynamite sticks, and slightly less sucky accuracy. On the third, they have 80 HP, will toss single sticks of dynamite which do moderate damage, and have average accuracy (sometimes hitting and other times missing at close range). On the fourth, they are 100 HP tough, have good accuracy, and will toss full TNT bundles. Fifth difficulty? 125 HP, TNT bundles, and the ability to almost perfectly hit you with their shotguns, even across large open areas.
* EldritchAbomination - Tchernobog in the first game, the Ancient One [[spoiler:and Gideon's second form]] in the second.
* EveryoneHatesMimes: "Ugh, I '''hate''' mimes."
* ExplodingBarrels - Literal barrels, filled with TNT.
* EyeBeams - Stone gargoyles have them.
** Tchernobog has a different variant: he can set things in his line of sight on fire.
* EvilLaugh - At least a third of Caleb's lines are various sinister laughs.
* FateWorseThanDeath - Gideon is reduced to nothing but his skull after he fights Caleb. At the beginning of the ''Nightmare Levels'' expansion he reveals his soul was trapped within it. He's surprisingly not bitter about it, though.
* FieryRedhead - Ophelia Price.
* FirstPersonShooter
* FlippingTheBird - When they spot you, the Hands in ''II'' will gleefully stop, "stand" on their wrists and give you the one-finger salute.
* GameBreakingBug - A glitch in certain versions of ''Blood'' had the Choking Hands not getting off no matter what is done.
** [=E4M5=]: Fire and Brimstone was also missing a key in one version of the game that prevented the player from finishing the level without cheats.
* GameMod: User levels exist, with the usual variety of quality. The most stand out one is Bloody Pulp Fiction, which is 3 episodes long and has cutscenes with a complete story, pitting Caleb against the remains of the Cabal in the 1990s.
* GenderBender - Gabriel somehow gets brought back to life as a woman in ''Blood 2''.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom[=/=][[GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath Undeath]] - Even before their resurrection, all of the Chosen's eyes glowed a bright red.
* GrandTheftMe - Tchernobog reincarnates by allowing someone to kill his current form and then taking over the body of the one who killed him. His new form often influences the direction the Cabal takes, such as a monk turning it into a religious cult.
* GunsAkimbo - The first game featured it as a power-up that only worked for about a minute; the second game let you dual-wield certain weapons indefinitely by picking up a second one, at the cost of the alternate firing mode.
* {{Hellhound}}s - Regular ones, and Cerberus. Both have [[BreathWeapon fiery breath]].
* HeyItsThatVoice - Caleb's voice actor, Stephan Weyte, gave the character the same voice he used for Monolith's earlier platformer, ''{{Claw}}''. More generally, he also acted in some of HumongousEntertainment's games, as well as in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' and ''MetroidOtherM''. The other Chosen in the second game are voiced by Michael Shapiro [[VideoGame/{{Half-Life}} (Barney Calhoun and the G-Man)]] and [[ManOfAThousandVoices the woman of a thousand voices]], Lani Minella.
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Still Kicking (easiest), Pink on the Inside, Lightly Broiled, Well Done, and Extra Crispy (hardest).
** The second game has Genocide, Homicide, and Suicide.
* InterfaceScrew - If the poisonous spiders bite you, the visuals become all distorted and blurry, more so the more Caleb gets bitten. It gets to the point that the HUD even lies to you about how much health and ammo you currently have while you're poisoned.
** When your breath runs out from staying underwater too long, the screen begins to darken slightly. When the Choking Hands are choking you, the screen darkens ''very'' quickly. In addition, the Hand blocks your view of the HUD while choking you.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall - There's a phone call in the second level of Blood II in which a lady asks "Mr. Cal-Eeb" if he is or has ever been a character in a video game. Caleb replies "You've gotta be kidding" and hangs up.
* LegacyCharacter: "[=JoJo=] the Idiot Circus Boy", the main attraction of the first game's Dark Carnival. Ishmael in ''The Nightmare Levels'' states that he was once [=JoJo=] before he left and joined the Cabal.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: There are no good guys. On one hand you have a cult trying to summon a dark god, murdering anyone they want to and experimenting on the rest. On the other side you have one of their failed projects, a sadistic revenant named Caleb who was one of those cultists and also is murdering anyone he feels like. At least Caleb is fighting to avenge his wife and best friend and has a sense of humor.
* LockAndKeyPuzzle - The game is chock full of them. Some levels have ''all six keys'' in them.
* LoveMakesYouEvil - Subverted. Caleb had quite the taste for bloodshed long before he met Ophelia or that she died; she just added fuel to the fire.
** LoveRedeems - Caleb is initially only fighting the Cabal in Blood 2 because they keep preventing him from killing Gideon. His priority shifts to rescuing Ophelia once he learns she's being held at [=CabalCo=]'s headquarters.
* LudicrousGibs - Plentiful. You can even attack the gibs.
* KillItWithFire - Usually the best way to get rid of strong enemies like the Bloated Butcher. For that, ''Blood'' has the flare gun, the spray can and the napalm cannon. ''Blood II'' sees the return of all of these, with the exception of the spray can, which gets replaced by the Die Bug Die sprayer.
* KillItWithWater - Hellhounds die instantly if submerged in any liquid.
* MadeOfExplodium - Even by regular FPS standards, some rather unusual things in Blood 2 explode in a burst of flame when damaged enough, such as vending machines and refrigerators.
* MadScientistLaboratory - Starting point of the fourth episode. There's also a level late in Blood II that qualifies, if only because you get to kill the MadScientist in question and steal the {{BFG}} he's been working on.
* ManaMeter - Focus in Blood II, used to power supernatural weapons like the voodoo doll, Life Leech and [[{{Phantasm}} The Orb]].
* ManOnFire - The Flare Gun and AerosolFlamethrower make Blood one of the masters of this trope.
* MeaningfulName - Tchernobog (Чернобог) is a (German-style) rendering of the Russian for "Black God".
* MegaCorp - The Cabal becomes this between the two games, gaining control of pretty much everything on the planet.
* MistakenForGranite - There are gargoyle statues that sometimes turn into live gargoyles. Much ParanoiaFuel ensues.
* MookMaker - The Drudge Priest in Blood II is the final stage of evolution for a human taken over by a Bone Leech. Shooting the bloated stomach of the original host often rains more bone leeches on you.
** The giant spiders in the first game spawn smaller spiders to attack for them, as they can't attack directly.
* NightOfTheLivingMooks - Zombies. Lots of 'em.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot - Caleb is an immortal undead Old West gunslinger.
* NoNameGiven - Of the four Chosen, only Ophelia's last name (Price) is made known.
* NostalgiaLevel - The expansion to Blood II begins with ''Cold, Cold Grave'', which combines at least three levels from Blood's Episode 2.
* NotQuiteDead - The axe zombies. If damage past a certain threshold, but not enough for a OneHitKill, is dealt to them, they'll just be knocked to the ground.
* OminousLatinChanting - Common in later levels of each episode.
* OneManArmy - Caleb.
* OurGargoylesRock - Flesh and stone versions, stones being much harder to kill.
* OxygenMeter - Both games, though it's only visible in the second game, considering all the GoddamnBats that try to kill you by depleting it.
* PaletteSwap - Brown and black robed cultists. One official expansion went crazy with blue, green and maroon robed cultists. Besides that, red and green spiders and regular and stone gargoyles. (though spiders and gargoyles are also resized and use different attacks)
* PersonalSpaceInvader - Bone Leeches, Thieves and Hands.
* PreMortemOneLiner - The games feature lots of really good lines to use while dispatching someone, such as:
** ''When you get to Hell, tell them I sent you; you'll get a group discount!''
** ''I hope you weren't a procrastinator, 'cuz you just ran out of tomorrows.''
** ''Red is '''definitely''' your color!''
** ''Time to open you up, and take a look inside...''
** ''There are chunks of people like you in my stool!''
** ''Get off my train!''
* RedEyesTakeWarning - They're red ''and'' [[GlowingEyesOfDoom they glow]]!
* {{Retcon}}- Blood 2 and its expansion seem to ignore much of the first game's details.
** Blood 2 says Blood took place in 1928, yet one level takes place during WWII as France is being bombed by German war planes. There are also light switches, wall outlets and jukeboxes everywhere.
** Caleb looks like a 70-year old man in Blood 2. Going by much of the backstory he should look rather young.
** Nightmare Levels sticks Ophelia in a 1950s college dormitory. Caleb met her in 1864!
** Despite the Cabal having all but been wiped out by Caleb previously(between Blood and 2 expansion packs), they are now the major world superpower and continue to exist without their god.
* {{Revenge}} - Both ways: the first game, Caleb's revenge on Tchernobog; the second game, the Cabal's revenge on Caleb.
* SawedOffShotgun - Caleb's signature weapon throughout the series, even used as the GunsAkimbo icon.
* {{Shareware}} - The first game, at least.
* ShoutOut - Way way way too many to mention, mostly to horror classics such as Stephen King's books or NightmareOnElmStreet, gothic literature... and ArmyOfDarkness for deadpan snarkery.
** [[http://www.blood-wiki.org/index.php/References_in_Blood See here]] for an extensive list.
* SinisterSubway - Three levels in ''Blood II'' place Caleb on a subway train. Two of the three end with the train in question crashing.
--> ''[[LampshadeHanging "They just don't make 'em like they used to."]]''
* SlasherSmile - ''Blood II'''s box art is a close-up of Caleb sporting one.
* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: The whole concept of the games is based around this, constantly going between comedy and horror. [[LightmareFuel Often both at the same time]].
* UpdatedRerelease - One Unit Whole Blood, which contains all six episodes and extra features.
* SoftWater - Provided the water is deep enough to slow your fall, landing in it will lead to no damage being taken.
* StandardFPSGuns - Notably averted. While the shotgun and machine gun are typical, the pistol is a flare gun that shoots incendiary projectiles that set enemies on fire; the rocket launcher is replaced by a napalm gun, and there are bizarre weapons such as the hairspray and lighter, [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo doll]] and the Life Leech staff.
** Sadly, not the case in Blood II, which padded out the weapons with a lot of standard-issue FPS guns and weakening the more flavorful original weapons. Part of the reason why Blood II was widely panned.
* TakeThat - ''Blood'' riffs on ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' by stringing up Duke's own corpse in a hidden room at the Dark Carnival.
* TheIshmael - Gideon serves the role of this for the ''Nightmare Levels'' expansion.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential - Where, oh just where do we begin? The most cruel ones may be unarmed civilians that will sometimes drop health if you kill them, or ''must'' be killed as they carry a key. There's also head-soccer: in ''Blood'', you could decapitate zombies and kick their heads around (it was even used as a carnival game in the first game's Dark Carnival level). ''Blood II'' expands this so you can kick the head of ''any humanoid enemy'' around.
** Caleb hates mimes with a passion. In fact, mimes in this game exist only to be used as platforms and to be brutally killed. Even the help screen of the registered version shows a mime getting killed by some monsters!
---> '''Caleb:''' ''[after killing one mime]'' Ugh, I hate mimes.
---> ''[after killing a few more]'' Oh, I shouldn't have done that... Wait, I'm evil! I can kill whoever I want! ''[maniacal giggling]''
* WaterIsAir - mostly averted; Caleb can swim really quickly, and there's relatively clear view even in the sewers, but sounds are very distorted underwater.

<<|FirstPersonShooter|>>

''[[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes hiva ruineudo mesco lifeux!]]''

** [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Ticket, please...]]
*** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Hey, stop him! He didn't pay!]] '''*ZOMBIES*'''

* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: The whole concept of the games is based around this, constantly going between comedy and HighOctaneNightmareFuel. [[LightmareFuel Often both at the same time]].

[[caption-width-right:192:Our [[HeroicSociopath "hero"]]]]

* HeyItsThatVoice - Caleb's voice actor, Stephan Weyte, gave the character the same voice he used for Monolith's earlier platformer, ''{{Claw}}''. More generally, he also acted in some of HumongousEntertainment's games, as well as in ''[[FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' and ''MetroidOtherM''. The other Chosen in the second game are voiced by Michael Shapiro [[VideoGame/{{Half-Life}} (Barney Calhoun and the G-Man)]] and [[ManOfAThousandVoices the woman of a thousand voices]], Lani Minella.

''[[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes hiva ruineudo mesco lifeux!]]''

* ''{{Cult}}'' - The Cabal and, to a lesser degree, CabalCo 100 xears later.

** Level E4M5 Fire and Brimstone was also missing a key in one version of the game that prevented the player from finishing the level without cheats.

* HeyItsThatVoice - Caleb's voice actor, Stephan Weyte, gave the character the same voice he used for Monolith's earlier platformer, ''{{Claw}}''. More generally, he also acted in some of HumongousEntertainment's games and recently appeared in ''MetroidOtherM''. The other Chosen in the second game are voiced by Michael Shapiro [[VideoGame/{{Half-Life}} (Barney Calhoun and the G-Man)]] and [[ManOfAThousandVoices the woman of a thousand voices]], Lani Minella.

* LoveMakesYouEvil - Subverted. Caleb was a sociopathic serial killer long before he met Ophelia or that she died; she just added fuel to the fire.
** The manual describes him merely as a skilled gunfighter, not as a deranged killer.

** Interestingly, The red and green spiders are just smaller, palette-swapped variants of the Giant Spider.

** E4M5: Fire and Brimstone was also missing a key in one version of the game that prevented the player from finishing the level without cheats.

** Both games feature shout-outs to ''TheShining'': the first featuring an expy of the Overlook Hotel as a level (complete with a hedge maze that contains a frozen corpse holding an axe), and the second with an apartment door with a fire axe sticking out of it. ''Blood II'' also feature the ghost twins, who disappear when you try to get close to them.
** The Cultists look like the undead Templar mummies from the old Spanish horror film "Tombs of the Blind Dead".

* TakeThat - ''Blood'' riffs on ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' by stringing up Duke's own corpse in a hidden room at the Dark Carnival. You also find a partially dismembered [[StarWars Luke Skywalker]] hanging upside down in an icy area.

* CrossesTheLineTwice - the game's main selling point.

* MookMaker - The Drudge Priest in Blood II is the final stage of evolution for a human taken over by a [[DemonicSpiders Bone]] [[PersonalSpaceInvader Leech]]. Shooting the bloated stomach of the original host often rains more bone leeches on you.

* PersonalSpaceInvader - [[GoddamnBats Bone]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Leeches.]]