Blood

Blood
Developers: Monolith Productions, Sunstorm Interactive (Cryptic Passage) Publishers: GT Interactive, Eidos Interactive (Europe), Atari, SA (Digital, current) Platform: DOS Released internationally: June 30, 1997 (Cryptic Passage), July 15, 1998 (One Unit: Whole Blood) Released in US: May 31, 1997 Released in EU: June 20, 1997 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has revisional differences. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: Pixelated nude woman.

To do: Lots of sprites in here and no GIFs, please animate some of them.

Blood is a story about a man known as Caleb, a former member of "The Cabal", a cult worships the obscure Germanic god Tchernobog. After being betrayed and killed by his former allies, Caleb rises from his grave seeking vengeance all the while finding sadestic joy in killing his enemies with explosives and making lots of Army of Darkness jokes along the way.

Basically, a gothic horror Duke Nukem 3D.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Revisional Differences

Unused Graphics

A leftover image from the shareware version. In the Plasma Pak expansion, this graphic is used on some of the monitors in the Monolith Building 11 Bloodbath map.

Unused sprites for a fly.

Weapons

BloodLust

Graphics for the cut BloodLust mechanic. This mechanic was described on the Blood Website,

One of the innovations we conceived early on was the idea of BloodLust. Each time you as the player kill a minion of the Dark God, your BloodLust meter climbs a notch. If your BloodLust climbs high enough, you metamorphose into the Beast. As the Beast, you are stronger and faster than a human, but you are also limited in your choice of weaponry. There's a compromise between raw physical strength and tactical flexibility. Of course, BloodLust wanes with time--if you don't kill frequently, you revert to human form. That way, methodical players can generally progress through the levels without ever taking Beast form, while "kill and collect" types can romp around as Beasts all they want.

Pitchfork

Graphics with blood on the pitchfork. These would probably would have been overlaid on the actual sprites after killing an enemy, similar to Shadow Warrior. The Fresh Supply remaster repurposes the first graphic for the weapon selection.

Voodoo Doll

Unused graphics and an unused animation for the Voodoo Doll falling apart exist, likely intended to be shown upon running out of ammo for it. The animation gets re-used in the Fresh Supply remaster.

Flare Gun

Two unused ammo boxes for the Flare Gun.

Tommy Gun

Early graphics for ammo pickups.

Characters

Caleb

Our favorite gunslinging protagonist has some unused graphics. There exist graphics of Caleb teleporting away or dissolving? Who knows.

As part of the cut BloodLust mechanic, there exist unused graphics of Caleb transforming into a Beast.

Cultist

The Cultist enemies have a series of jumping graphics that go unused. While the Help screen does use the side-facing graphics, rotation sprites for every other angle are present which aren't used.

Beginning to leap. Most of the side-facing graphic is obscured in the Help screen.

Apex of the jump.

Falling after reaching the apex.

Landing.

Beast

There is no water in levels with the Beast in the Plasma Pak, so these aren't seen in the base game.

The Beast also has unused electrocution pain sprites. In the DOS version, these sprites can be seen under unusual circumstances. The sprites can be seen by firing the Tesla Cannon's alt fire at the Beast, then firing the shotgun at it.

Likely as part of the cut BloodLust mechanic, the Beast has some crawling animations.

Bone Eel

Electrocution pain sprites, likely caused by Tesla Cannon shots.

Gargoyle

Unused gliding graphics.

An unused attack frame is also present.

Graphics for a Gargoyle Statue coming to life. Statues immediately turn into regular Gargoyles, so these don't get an opportunity to shine.

Electrocution pain sprites. These would become re-used in the Fresh Supply port.

Gill Beast

An unused pain state.

An unused death animation. The first frame uses the same pose as the pain state.

Electrocution pain sprites. These would get re-used in the Fresh Supply port.

Phantasm

Electrocution pain sprites caused by Tesla Cannon shots.

Spider

Graphics for the underside of a spider. Each graphic has the chelicerae oriented slightly differently.

Tchernobog

Tchernobog has some pain graphics which go unused.

Unused Music

• PESTIS.MID (Pestis Cruento)

Some levels (particularly E1M3: Phantom Express, E3M2: The Siege which plays no music at all, E4M6: The Ganglion Depths and E4M7: In the Flesh) have a song option to play this music track per the BLOOD.INI file, only every line has been commented out leaving the track unused when either MIDI or AdLib/Soundblaster is setup. Discounting during CP02: Old Opera House in the Cryptic Passage expansion, only the RedBook CD version of the song is used in the final game.

Unused Items

To do: Doppelganger, Raven Flight, and Shadow Cloak. Also, in-game screenshot showing off the Asbestos Suit HUD sprite.

Most unused items have their coding intact and they can be placed in maps using an editor.

The Asbestos Suit protects the player from damaging floors, as well as minimizing damage from the Napalm Launcher. There is also an unused HUD sprite associated with the suit.

Red Potions provide 2 health upon walking over them.

A blue outline in the shape of a key. When tagged to doors, it will function like a normal key.

The "Decoy" item has no effect in-game. In the Plasma Pak expansion, this graphic is used on one of the monitors in the Monolith Building 11 Bloodbath map.

The Delirium Shroom causes the screen to distort upon pickup, mimicking the effects of being bitten by a spider. Its effect lasts for approximately 8 seconds. In the Plasma Pak expansion, this item is placed in the bathroom of the Monolith Building 11 Bloodbath map.

Upon pickup, Feather Fall causes the player character to fall slower and take less fall damage.

The Medicine Pouch restores 50 health. While this item is unused in the base game, it was later used in the Cryptic Passage expansion.

The Gas Mask negates choking damage.

There's a handful of items which can be picked up but don't do anything.

• 

  Question Mark?

• 

  Grow Shroom

• 

  Rage Shroom

• 

  Shrink Shroom

• 

  Scroll

• 

  Wooden Chest

• 

  Black Chest

Developer Challenge

A plain text file in the install folder, MONOLITH.TXT, includes a message by then-Monolith CEO Jason Hall, thanking the development team for their hard work and challenging players to take him on in online multiplayer.

Hello, 

I'm Jason Hall, the Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Productions Inc. 
I just wanted to say that I speak for all of us here at Monolith when I say 
that we appreciate you playing our latest game, BLOOD.

Many here have made sacrifices to bring this awesome product to you, the gamer.
It is very important to us to deliver the type of quality game play players of 
today demand. We will continue to strive for the best in the name of good 
gaming, and perhaps product by product, we can ever-so-slightly help to bring 
our whole industry into a new level of immersive experiences.

Monolith's intent is to support the gamer. We are listening to the industry 
and will act upon what we hear. We understand clearly that without gamers,
game companies would not exist. You can rest assured that we won't forget this
fact, which is why you can expect Monolith to give all of our products the 
attention they deserve in order to make them an excellent experience.

Here are some special thanks I'd like to say:

1.)	As with any game project being built, there were tons of things the 
Blood team would have loved to add. Time being the deciding factor in all 
cases, they only were able to add some of these things. I would personally 
like to thank them for making the tough decisions. The cool features that 
didn't make it into BLOOD will go into BLOOD 2...

2.)	Thanks to the Blood team--I am not picking a specific person or 
persons to thank in this text file, but I do want to personally thank the 
entire Blood team for all of their incredible work. You have all been true to 
the Monolith spirit of "I-will-work-my-ass-off-until-it-is-the-best-damn-
product-ever." All of your fellow "Lithers" think that you are awesome (we 
are playing Blood all the time) and we are proud that you are part of the 
collective effort that IS Monolith. I am sure that the gaming world will 
appreciate you and your efforts as well.

3.)	Thanks to Monolith itself--I'd just like to thank everyone here at 
Monolith for rallying together to support our internal teams (especially the 
Blood team). It is this kind of spirit and togetherness that will make the 
difference in our products and work environment. Keep the excitement!

Now for some final words:

[WARNING: the opinions expressed below are not necessarily those of Monolith 
Productions Inc. But since I'm the C.E.O, I'm going to rant for a second.]

As you play BLOOD and get better and better, you'll start getting into
BLOODBATHING... you know, calling up your friends and going head to head for some 
frag sessions. It's quite possible that you could become the best Blood player
on your block. Heck, you might even be he best in your neighborhood... or 
city... or state... or WORLD!!!!!! 

<<< STOP RIGHT THERE >>>

Before your "I'm the best at Blood ever" fantasy goes too far, make sure that 
you track me down and ask for a game. I'll be MORE THAN HAPPY to bring reality
to you by way of guns akimbo shotgun.

That's all I have to say about that...

Currently, the top players at Monolith (not in order) are:

Jason Hall (MESSIAH) hall@lith.com
Craig Hubbard (CROWEATER) craigh@lith.com
Jay Wilson (SHADE) shade@lith.com
Mike Dussault (GUTTERMOUTH) dussault@lith.com
Scott Pultz (PULTZAR) scott@lith.com
Spencer Maiers (MR. ELITE) spen@lith.com

Of course, before you even bother facing the gods of Blood, you'd better prove 
you're worthy by stepping into the arena with some of the archangels.

Daniel Leeks (SHADOW) daniel@lith.com
Nathan Hendrickson (DOGMAN) nathan@lith.com
Matt Hayhurst (DETHDEALER) matt@lith.com
Paul Butterfield (MAI) paulb@lith.com
Israel Evans (WOOD) israel@lith.com

When you are ready to learn the meaning of a proper BLOODBATH come see us.

Now for the Monolith GREETS to our friends at their many companies (in no 
particular order)

What's UP: LucasArts, Hipnotic Interactive, Microsoft, 3D Realms, Eclipse 
Software, GT Interactive, Mindscape, Broderbund, Zombie LLC, WhizBang!, The 
Silvermans, Activision, Reality Bytes, Nvidia, 3dFX, Rendition, Enix, 
HappyPuppy, SEGA, Nintendo, NEC, Intergraph, SoftImage, Maxis, Accolade, MGM 
Interactive,  Kinesoft, Tusker Corp., Takarajimasha, Computer and Net Player, 
Computer Games Strategy Plus, KALI, TEN, Mpath, DEC, Bad Animals, Wallace 
Creative, Intel, OGR, NANI, The Future Crew, Renaissance, Remedy, Strategic
Simulations, Inc., and TRITON.

Sincerely,

Jason Hall
Chief Executive Officer
Monolith Productions Inc.
Hall@lith.com
www.lith.com