Blood II: The Chosen is a 1998 computer game falling into the FPS category, developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive. It is a sequel to Monolith previous game Blood featuring a completely new, fully 3D engine that was developed in-house by Monolith, the LithTech engine.
Story
The year is 2028 and Caleb, the undead anti-hero from Blood, after the final confrontation with his old master, the god Tchernobog, has spent the last century trying to figure out a way to resurrect his fallen comrades, including his lost love Ophelia, but to no avail. During these years he has grown somewhat more tolerant towards other people, so much that he can actually avoid killing everyone he runs into, but not that much to stop him from bringing along a weapon wherever he goes. However the Cabal, the cult of Tchernobog, is not dead, but has undergone a radical change that transformed what once was a dark, secret cult into CabalCo (short for Cabal Company), a powerful and wealthy business company. The Cabal in its new form still seeks to dominate the world, but rather than using magical means, it employs the power arising from its preheminent economical position, penetrating into the everyday life of the people thus controlling it. Apparently the Cabal has decided to briefly forget about Caleb (labelled as the Great Betrayer), but it has not forgiven him: Gideon, the man behind the Cabal's change and current head of CabalCo, wishes to bring back his cult to its full, former glory by slaying Caleb and getting back from him the Tchernobog powers the Chosen has absorbed after defeating the god.
Gideon appears to Caleb, goading him into a chase across some of the most dangerous CabalCo controlled locations. Contemporarily a growing number of dimensional rifts are opened, allowing creatures from another dimension to cross the border and reach our world. Caleb is therefore tasked both with the necessity to stop Gideon and CabalCo from dominating the world and to close the dimensional rifts with the Tchernobog powers he owns, to avoid a fatal collapse of the fabric of space and time. During his quest Caleb receives the help of the other Chosen, Gabriella, Ishmael and Ophelia brought back to our reality by the dimensional rifts.
Gameplay
Singleplayer
In single mode the player can choose to undertake the game's quest against the Cabal as one of the four Chosen. However only when playing as Caleb the in-game cinematics are shown and the story developed (playing as Caleb will therefore be considered as the standard choice throughout this article). Blood II gameplay is influenced by the character choice at the game start-up because every Chosen has different weapons marksmaship levels and different amounts of maximum hit points and armor level. For instance Gabriella can deal out the maximum damage when using firearms, but she is not skilled in the usage of magical items. She also has the strongest armor level available. Conversely Ishmael and Ophelia are more dangerous when using magical weapons, such as the Voodoo Doll or the Life Leech. Caleb is the most balanced character being able to use with good efficacy both firearms and magical means.
The game is divided in chapters: each chapter can be reached by the player only completing the precious one. During the first chapter Gideon appears on a Cultist filled underground train, taunting Caleb and starting the chase that will take Caleb across the city, into a museum, through the steam tunnels, to CabalCo's Center for Disease Management, an airship, then again across the city and to an ald cathedral in ruis for the showdown with the first boss. During this chapter Caleb is reunited with Gabriella, who used to be Gabriel in the first game. As she witnesses Caleb's perplexity at her change the only answer given by Gabriella is: "It's a long story." The second chapter starts again on an underground train, filled with more dangerous enemies leading back into the city. Caleb will storm across entire districts, wreck havoc in a CabalCo Meat Packing plant until he reaches some catacombs and the second boss. During his wandering Caleb will also meet Ishmael who informs his that only by using the Tchernobog powers the dimensional rifts can be closed. Back on an underground train for the third chapter (with even more deadly foes) Caleb travels to the top CabalCo facilities such as their Research&Development building and the company HQ for a first fight with Gideon. When Gideon cowardly flees using a dimensional rift Caleb can finally meet with Ophelia, but any celebration for their coming back together has to be postponed, since Caleb decides to enter a rift himself to get finally rid of Gideon and to repair the fabric of space and time.
Multiplayer
Blood II multiplayer features some of the common game modes seen in the most recent first-person-shooters. Bloodbath is the equivalent of deathmatch and is the most widely played multiplayer mode. Each player can choose one of the Chosen to control during gameplay. Every character starts equipped with the weapons he excels with, so this means Gabriella will have all kind of firearms in her arsenal, while Ishmael will carry mostly magical weapons.
Weapons
Blood II features a wide arsenal of weapons including both firearms and magical items. Some of the weapons were featured also in Blood while others have been implemented specifically for the new game:
- Knife: - (Description coming soon)
- Beretta: modelled after the Beretta M9 this 9mm pistol primary fire delivers well aimed shots with medium rate of fire. Alternate fire results in a faster firing rate and a loss of accuracy. Picking up a second handgun will enable akimbo mode.
- SMG: resembling a MAC-10 submachinegun the weapon's primary fire mode consists in a full-automatic burst with low accuracy. The alternate mode consists in firing short, well aimed bursts. The SMG can be used in akimbo mode upon collecting a second weapon: akimbo mode is perfect for spraying a whole area of bullets.
- Assault Rifle: this weapon looks like an M16-A2 equipped with a M203 grenade launcher. However the game manual reports the grenade launcher is actually a piece of some kind of pipe strapped under the rifle barrell with some tape. Primary mode fires the rifle in full automatic mode while alternate fire launches a grenade. The rifle is fed with 9mm bullets while the grenade launcher uses the "Die, bug, die!" spray canisters as ammunition.
- Sawed-Off Shotgun: Caleb's favourite weapon is a rust covered double barrelled shotgun. Primary mode fires a barrell at a time and alternate mode fires both barrells at once. The sawed-off can be used akimbo once a second weapon is found.
- Flare Gun: - (Description coming soon)
- Tesla Cannon: - (Description coming soon)
- Voodoo Doll: - (Description coming soon)
- Orb: - (Description coming soon)
- Life Leech: - (Description coming soon)
- Napalm Cannon: - (Description coming soon)
- Howitzer: - (Description coming soon)
- Minigun: - (Description coming soon)
- Sniper Rifle: - (Description coming soon)
- Death Ray: - (Description coming soon)
- Singularity Generator: - (Description coming soon)
- Insect-A-Cutioner: - (Description coming soon)
Enemies
Caleb will have to face many threats along his journey. Some of these enemies are members of the Cabal, but there are also many creatures coming from another dimension often appearing through a dimensional rift:
Cabal
- Cultist: the modern cultists no longer wear robes, infact they now resemble the typicl businessmen. They usually carry light weapons.
- Fanatic: the most loyal followers of the Cabal have been organized as a paramilitary unit. They are well trained to work alone or in group and deploy with the most varied arsenal. Fanatic also carry a personal explosive device they will activate when gravely wounded to start a kamikaze attack.
- Zealots: - (Description coming soon)
- Prophets: - (Description coming soon)
Otherworldly
- Bone Leech: - (Description coming soon)
- Sould Drufge: - (Description coming soon)
- Drudge Lord: - (Description coming soon)
- Drudge Priest: - (Description coming soon)
- Shikari: - (Description coming soon)
- Hands: - (Description coming soon)
- Thieves: - (Description coming soon)
References
- Blood II: The Chosen computer game manual
External liks
- Blood II Website - Blood II Official site.
- PlanetBlood - A source of info for all Blood games.
- LithTech Homepage - The official LithTech Game Engine homepage.