History YMMV / Blood

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Caleb was pretty indifferent to humans (at best), so him sealing the rift between Earth and alternate world (thus saving the former) in the second game raised quite a lot of questions. What was his true motivation? Did he accept his role as Tchernobog? Or did his alignment change after encountering the Ancient One? Did he warm up a bit after he met his long-time friends? Or, possibly, did he have other plans for his homeworld after his friends returned (because he most likely wouldn't even want to stay in the alternate world)?
** ''Blood II'' itself indulges in this between the actual gameplay and the interstitial texts on the loading screens. Going by what the loading screens claim, Caleb fancies himself as something of a megalomaniacal CardCarryingVillain, hoping to take over the Cabal once Gideon's dealt with (or just get rid of them once and for all) and rule the world, even mentioning several policies he has planned for once that happens, such as getting rid of sewers entirely. Cutscenes and gameplay ''really'' don't bear this out - at best, he'd be content to just keep killing people for his own amusement even past the apocalypse brought about by his failure to maintain the rifts between Earth and the otherworld, even stating on several occasions that he doesn't give two shits about his role as the One That Binds and outright ''welcoming'' said apocalypse at one point. The unreleased ''Revelations'' expansion pack would have gone with the former characterization, with Caleb having returned to Earth and taken over the Cabal, only to find himself in the midst of a power struggle between them and an offshoot cult named the Krest.
** Among Caleb's voice clips in ''Blood II'' is a genuinely pained "Make the hurting stop!"[[note]]Two variants: exhausted and urgent.[[/note]] Why would ''he'' of all people say something like that? (Especially given that his other reactions to taking damage are wordless grunts/screams or threats.)
* AntiClimaxBoss:
** Shial, despite being responsible for the death of Gabriel, is one of the game's easiest bosses. She's little more than a MookMaker with no other offense, whose mooks aren't that strong and whose health isn't that high. Even looking at her, you might be surprised to hear she's a boss; she's actually smaller than most of the normal enemies. It's especially blatant because you fight a Stone Gargoyle at the end of the previous level, an enemy who ''actually would have worked'' as a boss.
** Tchernobog himself has only half the health of the Cerberus boss, and [[SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity there's a ton of health and powerups in his boss room]]. It's not unheard of for him to die before he even gets out of his room.
** From the second game is the Behemoth, by far the most underwhelming of the bosses because of how mundane it is - as [[StoneWall durable]] as it is, its only attacks are running up to you to punch you out in close range, or pounding the ground repeatedly to hit you out to a couple feet, and that's it. You can easily outrun it in all but one of the encounters with it, but that that just serves to further highlight how terrible a boss concept it is, especially since the developers ''loved'' the thing and threw it in as often as possible, with it serving as a relatively common EliteMook throughout the third chapter of the base game and it appearing as a boss fight at the end of damn near ''every'' level of the expansion, in which the only time it is a genuine threat is in Ishmael's level, where you are restricted to 100 health maximum and its encounters are either extremely cramped quarters or a parking lot with ''three'' of them to just pound the ground repeatedly as an impromptu barricade.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: One reason ''Blood'' is praised is for its subtly comedic dark atmosphere, and both versions of the soundtrack do it justice: to simplify, once the game installed, you could play it without the CD in the player, and depending on its presence or absence in it, you could either hear an already good [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY MIDI soundtrack]] in the latter situation or a more [[{{Pun}} fleshed-out]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OS06n2My0 CD soundtrack]] in the former. Both are available in the ''Fresh Supply'' port.
* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Awesome Video Game Levels]]:
** ''Phantom Express'' is a well done level in a train there things are even more tight and hectic than usual whilst on a fast moving vehicle.
** The ''Dark Carnival'' is probably the most iconic level in the first episode, a truly twisted AmusementParkOfDoom with unique areas like a freakshow, a tightrope, and even playable sideshows.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: Since the games' main selling point is to be so over-the-top violent and dark, besides being not serious at all about anything including itself, [[LightmareFuel it often becomes amusing instead of terrifying]].
* CultClassic: It didn't have nearly as much saturation as ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' or ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'' got on the mainstream audience (it was the first of the three to get a released sequel, though Duke [[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever remained at least adjacent to the public consciousness for fifteen years]], and ''Shadow Warrior''[='=]s [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 2013 reboot]] and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2 2016 sequel]] saw far more fanfare and acclaim than ''Blood II''), but the game is beloved thanks to its unique features like destructible environments and dark but humorous tone, as well as looking great for its time.
* DemonicSpiders:
** For ''Blood'':
*** [[PlayingWithFire Hellhounds and Fire Pods]], enemies that can [[ManOnFire set you on fire]] for a lot of damage if there's no water nearby.
*** All of the Cabal's human forces. ''All'' of them. [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter The regular brown-robed Cultists]] fire their shotguns fast with no need to reload like Caleb, and frequently toss sticks of TNT (or considerably more powerful bundles of it in higher difficulties). [[MoreDakka Black-robed Fanatics]] spam their Tommy Gun nonstop until you either hit them or get out of their line of sight, and in earlier builds can throw TNT just like Cultists. [[PsychoElectro The blue-robed Zealot]] is mostly the same, only more damaging and less accurate. And finally, [[ThrowDownTheBomblet the green-robed Acolytes]] don't shoot, but make up for that by spamming TNT like there's no tomorrow. Not taking any of these guys out very fast or from too far for them to attack effectively means a struggle even in the medium "Lightly Broiled" difficulty, and a death sentence on "[[HarderThanHard Extra Crispy]]".
*** Gill Beasts are a real threat, given their downright ludicrous speed (Caleb isn't exactly slow himself, but the Gill Beast can close the distance in about one second) and their melee focus making the old shotgun a risky pick, and it's not at all helped by the fact that they're always fought underwater. Luring them out of the water at least helps, but this isn't always feasible.
*** While they don't exactly fall under this trope (except perhaps for the mothers, in E3 and beyond), it's probably worth noting that some enemies are ''literal demonic spiders''.
** ''Blood II'' also has its fair share:
*** Fanatics, again. They often have fast-firing guns and just enough health to take a beating and just keep the trigger pressed for a good while before they start flinching. Hurt them enough, but fall just short of killing them, and they're one scream away from becoming {{Action Bomb}}s[[note]]They also do this if they run out of ammo (which ''can'' happen, surprisingly enough), but often they'll be dead before that happens[[/note]]. Oh, and ''Tchernobog's essence help you'' if you meet one with a {{BFG}} that has SplashDamage like the Napalm Cannon - they may be slow-firing for you, but [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard they shoot them just as fast any other non-machine gun weapon, which includes the pistol]]. Forget Shikari and Drudge-type mooks: these special forces soldiers will definitely be your main cause of death when playing this game.
*** Death Shrouds, due to both their [[SuperPersistentMissile super persistent homing exploding skulls]] and their {{Intangibility}} when they're not attacking. And unlike the teleporting Zealots, they can easily tank ''dozens'' of flares. Fortunately, they're not immune to SplashDamage while they're intangible, so weapons like the Howitzer and the Napalm Cannon shine against them.
*** Drudge Lords. Too common to be a BossInMookClothing, these tough bad boys' main lethal factor is a bug detailed in the ObviousBeta part of the main page: ''they can move while shooting''. As if three rapid-fire Napalm Cannon fireballs with splash damage that can hurt through walls wasn't bad enough, try three rapid-fire Napalm Cannon fireballs launched at you from around a corner before you're even aware he was preparing to fire them at you. The game also has a disturbing tendency to place them in overly-cramped quarters where dodging their fireballs is nigh-impossible, including one of the subway train runs.
* EarlyGameHell: While the first game is challenging, the early levels are especially difficult, particularly "Wrong Side of the Tracks." You have few weapons, limited ammo, a train station full of cultists with hitscan weapons gunning for you, and likely haven't yet fully gotten a hang of the combat. You will by the time the level is over.
* FanDislikedExplanation: Insofar as an unreleased expansion (''Revelations'') can count for this, it's generally believed that the series dodged the reveal-bullet that was [[spoiler:Tchernobog fully possessing Caleb at the end of the first game despite all evidence to the contrary, up to and including Caleb's rejection of his old master's role]]. While the actual ''result'' of this twist would have been interesting ([[spoiler:player control switching to Cain, with Tchernobog's essence either remaining with him or returning to Caleb]]), it would've torn gaping holes in what was left of ''Blood II'''s story logic.
* {{Fanon}}:
** Before it was clarified as a communication error between the dev team and cinematics team, it was assumed by a few fans that Caleb was bald in the first game due to his hat falling off in the intro, and let his hair grow out for the sequel.
** While ''Post Mortem'' doesn't have much of a story, the manual referring to the Priests as "Chosen in training" gave rise to the idea that Caleb is hunting them down [[DueToTheDead for insulting the memory of his companions]].

* FridgeHorror:
** It seems strange that, after going to great lengths to avenge their deaths, Caleb initially acts so coldly towards the revived Gabriella and Ishmael in the second game. He's very insistent on dealing with Gideon by himself, to the point where he heads into the alternate world alone against Ophelia's warning that this is exactly what Gideon wants. There's a chance that Caleb's trying to keep his friends and lover out of this conflict so that, if worst comes to worst, he won't have to watch them die again.
** Caleb, according to the first game's manual, had developed a reputation as a ruthless gunslinger ''by seventeen''. He was born in 1847, meaning that he'd have been fourteen when the American Civil War broke out. [[ChildSoldier The implications]] are unpleasant, to say the least.
* GameBreaker:
** The Napalm Launcher in the first game is a hideously overpowered piece of equipment. It's the game's analogue to the rocket launcher, except it spreads fire to everything struck in its area of effect in addition to exploding with the force of a dynamite stick. If anything survives being struck by the initial blast, they'll be set on fire shortly thereafter, which makes it a strong tool for clearing rooms in later Episodes. It also has a destructive alternate fire that launches what can only be described as a bouncy cluster napalm grenade, which is even more powerful than the base shot. While the alternate fire costs a justifiable twelve shots, the normal fire costs only one napalm ammo per shot, making it a very cost-effective weapon. All in all, the Napalm Launcher is the best weapon in the game next to the Tesla Cannon and can carry you extremely far by itself.
** ''Blood II'' has a pair.
*** The DeathRay energy rifle in the unmodified game. It does more damage per shot on primary fire than the Tesla Cannon, and only uses 1 ammo per blast, so it's ridiculously efficient even if you don't know how to [[PinballProjectile bounce your shots]]. The kicker is that there's only one in the whole game (early on in the meat processing plant [[GuideDangIt in a very dark and difficult-to-navigate secret area whose location isn't obvious]]); [[PermanentlyMissableContent if you missed it, that's it]].
*** In the ''Extra Crispy'' GameMod, you can go GunsAkimbo with pretty much all guns. While this includes {{BFG}}s like the Napalm Cannon, the Juggernaut GrenadeLauncher, the re-tooled Howitzer and Tesla Cannon, and the Shredder gatling shotgun, dual-wielding two assault rifles is easily one of the most versatile. Primary fire is a ''very'' accurate and powerful storm of lead that will cut through all kinds of enemies (even [[DemonicSpiders Drudge Lords]] will start flinching before two seconds of continuous fire), and if that's not enough, there's always the option of using the underslung grenade launcher to toss two simultaneous grenades at the foe, which often is a OneHitKill on groups of foes. And if that wasn't enough, it's the earliest new akimbo combo you can get in the game: without secrets, the latest you can get it is as soon as you take out the Prophet in "Movin' On Up".
* GeniusBonus: The weird, creepy language of the cultists is actually a mixture of Latin and Sanskrit words and grammar. [[http://www.blood-wiki.org/index.php/Cultist_Language Check it out.]]
* GoddamnedBats:
** In ''Blood'' there are the appropriately-named "nuisance enemies", which include bats, rats, spiders, Choking Hands and mini-Calebs, weak but small and fast enemies that don't deal much damage, rely on creepy-crawling in small crevices and confined spaces to surprise Caleb, and can be disposed of with impunity with enough skill. The [[BatOutOfHell bats themselves]], though hostile, very rarely count since they don't swoop down to attack - the most they can do is get auto-aimed by a Napalm Launcher shot, which at best wastes one round of preciously rare ammo and at worst makes it explode in your face. Thankfully, [[ArtificialStupidity their AI pathfinding means they easily get stuck in corners off the beaten path]], so it doesn't happen often. However, the Hands can become DemonicSpiders if you have only the retail version without patches thanks to a GameBreakingBug where you can't get them off you ''at all''.
** Bone Leeches, Thieves and the Hands again in ''Blood II''. All of them are "clingy" like the original Choking Hand and can be a pain to remove from your face, though this time there's no GameBreakingBug and none of them are nearly as fast as it, so they're much easier to manage.
* GoodBadBugs: In both games.
** ''Blood''
*** Axe zombies and any variety of Cultist that leave behind a Life Essence when killed will leave ''another'' if their (already dead) bodies are gibbed[[note]]if they can be gibbed instead of just getting knocked back a little – as a rule of thumb, if they're killed with bullets, the Tesla Cannon or melee, their corpses can be gibbed[[/note]]. Another bug is that, if an enemy is launched in the air when it's killed, its corpse will gib when it lands. ''And'' the SawedOffShotgun's SecondaryFire has more than enough knockback to [[BlownAcrossTheRoom send both cultists and axe zombies flying]]. It doesn't have the same sheer visceral fun of launching a bundle of TNT at an unaware group of zombies and watching the chunks fly, but attracting their attention and air-juggling them with the scattergun leaves you with more health pickups, which may come in as handy [[NintendoHard or even necessary]].
*** The "flame guy" bug, as noted for DeadCharacterWalking. The mook will become a CollisionDamage fireball that won't hurt you if you don't make a move towards it, and can only be harmed by SplashDamage or with another flare, whereas it will die instantly.
*** The Merry-Go-Pukey in [=E1M4=] Dark Carnival will spawn gibs if it's attacked. That includes being gently poked with the pitchfork. An explosion will make it spout a literal shower of body parts.
*** You can NoSell the Bloated Butcher's cleaver throw just by crouching (the projectile still ''hits'', oddly enough, as the smoke puff on contact shows, but doesn't cause any damage). His puke ball is negated the same way, but at least it visibly flies right over Caleb's head when he's crouched.
*** Crouching also completely no-sells the Stone Gargoyle - he can't hit you even with close ranged attacks. This turns any battle with them into [[DegradedBoss total walks in the park]], where you can subject the humongous monster to sheer humiliation by CherryTapping it with the pitchfork, if you're patient enough. Or if you have the Life Leech, just place it on the ground using SecondaryFire and it'll take care of the beast for you.
*** Being set on fire completely [[CycleOfHurting stunlocks]] the Gargoyles' attacks. They're fairly resistant to fire in and of itself, but the FlareGun can keep them lit for a reliably long time, so firing three or four flares with primary fire at them, letting them get close and having at them with the pitchfork is a great way to save ammo.
** ''Blood II''
*** In the v1.0 retail build, you can replicate ammo: drop the weapon you're holding and immediately move to stand on top of it, and you'll get the same ammo as a fresh pickup (in the case of one-handed guns like the SMG and SawedOffShotgun, you'll get a duplicate weapon). It makes heavier weapons infinitely more practical, and even if not, still worth having in the arsenal, as they give quite a lot of ammo in a fresh pickup. It was fixed with the ''Nightmare Levels'' expansion.
*** Drudge Lords can be DemonicSpiders as above given their tendency to cue up fireballs from around a corner and launch them once they're around it, but one interesting part of this is that if you pop into or out of their sight while they're preparing those fireballs, but before they actually start launching, they'll reset their animation. This can be caused by something as simple as passing behind another enemy like a Soul Drudge while the Drudge Lord is preparing to fire.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** "Mall Of The Dead" is a spoof of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978''. ''Blood'' is the UrExample of the "[[ZombieGait fast zombie]]". And then we have ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'', the TropeCodifier for it.
** ''Blood 2'' has an EasterEgg on one map which is a hidden Franchise/{{Predator}} lair, including a couple of [[Franchise/{{Alien}} xenomorph]] skulls. Three years later, Monolith made ''[[VideoGame/AliensVsPredator Alien vs Predator 2]]''.

* ObviousBeta:
** Sadly ([[GoodBadBugs or not]]), ''Blood II: The Chosen'' didn't quite have the quality of a retail game by the time it was released, and was never fully fixed. The game is rife with glitches and programming errors, such as:
*** Cultists, Fanatics and Prophets may die before flinching even once. It happens most often when you're shooting them in the head with a bullet-based weapon: the game does have [[BoomHeadshot headshot mechanics]], but calling them "inconsistent" is putting it mildly.
*** Shooting a Prophet enough will make him switch to the knife for no reason. When using said knife, they'll first reach out to the target in a full two-second "grab" animation that ''doesn't hold the target in place'', to only then deliver three measly stabs. It's ironic that the most dangerous EliteMooks of the game can be made the easiest to kite by far.
*** Enemies tend to get frozen at the end of an attack/flinch animation if they can't see or get to the player by the end of it, instead of going idle or prowling the level.
*** The second sawn-off is held by a ''second'' right hand of Caleb's (the model isn't [[RightHandedLeftHandedGuns mirrored]] like the other dual-wielded guns). ''Extra Crispy'' fixes that.
*** The flare gun's secondary fire doesn't ignite enemies at all.
*** Behemoths can damage themselves with their own shockwaves by a tiny amount, but enough to make them pound the ground repeatedly for no reason, effectively committing suicide.
*** The other Chosen, despite being friendly in-story, have in-game entities that are hostile to Caleb. This in and of itself wouldn't be a problem, since they only show up in cutscenes where the cutscene logic takes priority and they won't do bad things to you, but it does become a problem if, in a double-instance of bugginess, the cutscene ends early for whatever reason. The end of Chapter One is a particularly infamous case, where Gabriella will promptly shoot you to death with a weapon you don't get until two chapters later.
*** Another issue with cutscenes is that Caleb can still be moved around by moving scenery objects depending on where you stand when you trigger them. Again, this normally isn't a problem - while the first time it can happen is in the second level, the worst that comes of it is Caleb sliding off-screen because the player went up a down escalator - it can spell ''death'' in the second chapter due to a sad combination of a cutscene beginning as the player is walking through a door they just opened, doors automatically closing themselves a few seconds after being opened, and [[TheDoorSlamsYou doors being able to crush anything in their path, including between themselves and their frame while closing]].
*** [[spoiler:The first fight with Gideon]] often ends before you fully deplete his health. After the cutscene, you have around 20 seconds to free roam before the next level loads. [[spoiler:In the second fight]], he flinches with ''absolutely any damage'' you deal, and the minigun [[BlownAcrossTheRoom can lift him up]] into the air; upon death, his body may clip through the floor and drop to the lower boundaries of the level.
*** In the initial release, dropping weapons and standing on top of them nets you ammo for them like if you'd just picked them up for the first time.
*** Some enemies, like the third Soul Drudge in Love Canal, will be permanently stuck attacking the air (often several times faster than normal despite not corresponding to the animation playing) unless you shoot them.
*** Drudge Lords are elevated from a simple GiantMook to a DemonicSpider because of the fact that, if you move out of sight while they're in the midst of their fireball attack, they will slide across the ground while continuing to throw fireballs. If you're just around the corner, it's frequently deadly. Conversely, if you move out of sight while they're preparing to throw fireballs, and then move yourself back ''in'' to their line of sight - such as, say, repeatedly moving back and forth between a Soul Drudge that's between you and the Drudge Lord - they will reset the animation, making them completely harmless until you're ready to deal with them. Also, if they change targets in the midst of their fireball attack, e.g. killing their initial target with the first fireball and still having two more to go, they can fire them off at extreme angles, at least slightly further than 90 degrees, without actually turning their bodies towards their new target.
*** Hostile entities are, for most intents and purposes, treated the same as the human player. Where they differ from a player is that they have [[BottomlessMagazines no limit on how much they can fire their weapons]]. Where they are the same is that they still have an internal ammo stockpile -- and can, as such, take ammo pickups before you have the chance to get them yourself. This is particularly pronounced in the third level of the expansion, where it is guaranteed that a Shikari will grab some of the ammo in a fenced-off area before you can get in.
*** SplashDamage completely disconsiders map geometry. If you're not a certain distance away from the center point of an explosion, you ''will'' be damaged by it; hiding behind a thin wall or corner is not just useless, it's worse than running away.
** The ''Fresh Supply'' remaster was released in a very, very broken state: enemy behavior is broken, some textures are glitching or missing, crashes, broken weapons (such as the Life Leech, which doesn't absorb the enemies' HP, and the Tesla Cannon, which shoots 4 projectiles instead of 5), low volume for some of Caleb's lines, unplayable multiplayer, missing graphical effects and so on. Thankfully, Nightdive managed to fix most of the bugs.
* PolishedPort: Creator/NightdiveStudios finally secured the rights to release a remaster of the original game in 2019. ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' features support for up to 4K resolution, fixed mouse control with an option of proper vertical look, new touches like voxel support and difficulty modification, comes with all of the base and expansion episodes like ''One Unit Whole Blood'', and still supports all existing [[GameMod custom content]] for the original game as well, notably ''Death Wish''.
* PortingDisaster:
** While ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' both got updated Dosbox releases on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} that fixed the mouse and keyboard controls for modern gamers, the Dosbox release of ''One Unit Whole Blood'' does not have these updates. The controls are exactly the same as they were upon the game's original release, making the mouse controls a nightmare to configure.
** ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' suffered from this in its initial release with a number of bugs and gameplay inconsistencies from the original game. Part of this was due to Creator/NightdiveStudios being forced to rebuild the game in a new engine due to Atari forbidding access to the game's source code. Fortunately, ''Fresh Supply'' was quickly patched to address most issues.
* ScrappyMechanic: ''Blood II'' has semi-randomized values for damage that, while not unheard of in an FPS, has far greater variability than normal, to the point one can instakill one enemy by firing a flare at them and then watch as the next eats two shotgun shells directly to the face before dying. On top of LuckBasedMission and reliability issues, this makes weapons with low firing rates borderline useless, because sometimes firing the Howitzer or the Napalm Cannon won't even annoy your basic mook. One of the more popular mods for the game cuts it out entirely.
* ScrappyWeapon: ''Blood II'' has a fair gamut of these.
** The Insect-a-Cutioner. Primary fire averts NoArcInArchery and has a ''stupidly'' short reach as a result, while SecondaryFire is entirely useless because of programming errors, and even if it wasn't, the wind-up is long and the fire rate is even slower than the already slow primary. The only reasonable use for it was in early versions, as a way to check how much [=DieBugDie=] spray you had in reserve, and with the late patches, that feature was added to the assault rifle's HUD and put the final nail in the coffin for the bug sprayer.
** The Napalm Cannon was {{nerf}}ed so hard between games[[note]]by weakening the shots, slowing down both fire rate and projectile speed, and removing the afterburn effect entirely[[/note]] that any mid-tier conventional weapon does a better job than it. Said conventional weapons are found ''at least'' five levels earlier than the Napalm Cannon -- it doesn't show up until halfway through the second chapter.
** The Howitzer is a {{hitscan}} bazooka. Sounds good, right? [[DarthWiki/WorseThanItSounds Wrong]]. Its shells are some of the hardest ammo pickups to come by, and are too weak to generally bother with. It ''does'' have a niche use against [[DemonicSpiders Shikari]], though, because each shot consistently makes them flinch.
** If the Singularity Generator was a {{mook|s}} instead of a {{BFG}}, it would be a prime example of FakeUltimateMook. The singularity doesn't hurt enough to kill a mid-tier enemy while sucking it in, and while this wouldn't be a problem normally, the eye of the vortex deals a grand total of '''zero''' damage. Its only real use would be to drag and hold enemies away from you for some breathing room, but at the cost of 50 ammo cells, it's not worth it. In earlier versions, SecondaryFire created the singularity centered around Caleb as a damaging tractor shield of sorts, which worked well against the game's many {{Personal Space Invader}}s when paired up with the shotgun, but later on this feature was scrapped for unknown reasons (probably that shotgun shells to use with this combo are unreasonably rare across the chapter you get the Singularity Generator in) and left the SG as a PlotDevice that Cabalco never got to work well enough.
** In the ''Fresh Supply'' rerelease of the first game, the AerosolFlamethrower is far less effective than it once was: the flames take much longer to ignite enemies, and they don't pass through targets as well, making it largely ineffective in its original role as a crowd-control weapon and a Bloated Butcher counter. The secondary fire where you toss it like a grenade is still as good for clearing rooms as ever, though.
* {{Sequelitis}}: The first ''Blood'' is considered a CultClassic of early FPS design, with its distinctive aesthetic, crazy weapons, and challenging and ambitious levels. The second game is generally remembered for being a very ObviousBeta, with unbalanced gameplay and a severe bug infestation that was soundly outclassed by ''Videogame/HalfLife1'', the game that came out a year prior.
* SpecialEffectFailure:
** The cinematics in the first game have ''not'' aged well, to the point of bordering on SoBadItsGood. Caleb's attempt to grab Ophelia out of Cheogh's claws (e.g. jumping in the air and flailing his arms in a silly manner) is corny enough, but when Caleb's hat falls off in the first cinematic, keen-eyed viewers will spot that Caleb doesn't seem to have neither hair, nor ''ears''.
** The second game's cinematics, meanwhile, give the first game's cutscenes a run for their money with absolutely ridiculous camera angles which do not focus on characters themselves but rather a fixated point in the area. As result, it's common to see camera angle which pans over nothing or barely distinguishable character models; sometimes it's the opposite and a character (usually Caleb himself) completely obscures the entire view.
* TearJerker:
** In the opening cinematic Ophelia (Caleb's [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes lover]]) gets dragged off by the gargoyle Cheogh. At the end of the first episode [[spoiler:Caleb finds her crucified by Cheogh, and in the cutscene after the battle Caleb gives her an impromptu funeral pyre while [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness quietly saying "sleep, Ophelia" without any sarcasm or menace for once]]]].
--> '''Caleb:''' [[spoiler:"Ophelia..! ''NOOOOOO!''" [''to Cheogh''] "''Show yourself! SHOW YOURSELF!''"]]
** The conclusion of the second episode is similarly grim. [[spoiler:Just as with Ophelia, Caleb arrives too late to save Gabriel. While he needs the power boost that taking Gabriel's heart will give him, he's not happy about it. (As for Ishmael, [[NotEnoughToBury there wasn't even enough of him left to bury]].)]]
** [[spoiler:The exhausted way Caleb questions Tchernobog before the final battle. There's no anger in his voice, just betrayal and pain.]]
* ThatOneBoss:
** Cerberus blows all the other bosses in the base game out of the water, between his rather high health and extremely powerful ranged attacks. On higher difficulties, taking a single hit is either fatal, or will blind you, leaving you open for the second hit.
** The Beast boss fight in the Plasma Pack is downright notorious. He starts as a shotgun-wielding Cabal member in a red robe, but when you take enough health off, he goes OneWingedAngel, at which the actual terror begins. If the Beast gets relatively near you, he does a ShockwaveStomp that knocks off a good chunk of your health, stuns you, cannot be blocked, and penetrates armor. Essentially, he's a walking InstantDeathRadius, and the only chance you have is to stay as far away as possible, unload your handful of long-range weapons while perpetually sprinting backward, and hope you have enough ammo to kill him. And then you have to do it again, because there's three red-robes and you have to kill at least two of them.
* ThatOneLevel: There are a lot of difficult levels in ''Blood II'', but the worst by far is "[=JoJo=]'s Big Adventure" from the Nightmare Levels expansion. The primary reasons are twofold: one, you're [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent playing as Ishmael]] in a sort-of flashback, which means different stats than Caleb - you have only 1 strength rather than Caleb's 5, meaning your health maxes out at the default 100 and you can carry barely any ammo. Two, the level is designed very tightly, requiring you to know exactly what to do and when to do it, conserving health and ammo exactly when you need them or else you'll run out. It gets more ridiculous as it goes on, quickly moving up from reskinned cultists who will ventilate you from the other side of any given area to swimming through the Bone Leech infested water tunnels to slogging through an endless horde of Shikari to forcing you to take on several Drudge Lords in quick succession, with any attempt to actually fight them quickly reminding the player that Ishmael simply does not carry enough ammo to deal with any of those other than the cultists. And, like every other level in the expansion, it ends with the devs showcasing their unhealthy obsession with the Behemoth, forcing you into an encounter with one (in a space so enclosed there is simply no room to avoid its shockwave attack if it decides to use it) that then leads to another encounter with '''three''' of them, by which point any player who still has their sanity will likely [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run past them to the exit]].

* WinBackTheCrowd: Upon ''[[UpdatedReRelease Fresh Supply]]'''s release, it was [[ObviousBeta pretty buggy]]. Not only that, but lots of things about the visuals and the game's rules (such as Bloated Butchers being weak to fire, and Fanatics never throwing dynamite) were flat out broken. Almost immediately after it was released and all the feedback had piled in, a patch was released to fix virtually all of these issues. Further patches made it better, made primarily to fix compatibility with game mods such as the famous ''VideoGame/{{Death Wish|Blood}}'', coinciding with the mod itself getting patches to work better with ''Fresh Supply''.

* PolishedPort: Creator/NightdiveStudios finally secured the rights to release a remaster of the original game in 2019; ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' features support for up to 4K resolution, fixed mouse control with an option of proper vertical look, new touches like voxel support and difficulty modification, comes with all of the base and expansion episodes like ''One Unit Whole Blood'', and still supports all existing [[GameMod custom content]] for the original game as well.

* ScrappyMechanic: ''Blood II'' has semi-randomized values for damage--while not unheard of in an FPS, the variability is far greater than normal, to the point one can instakill one enemy by firing a flare at them and then watch as the next eats two shotgun shells directly to the face before dying. On top of LuckBasedMission and reliability issues, this makes weapons with low firing rates borderline useless, because sometimes firing the Howitzer or the Napalm Cannon won't even annoy your basic mook. One of the more popular mods for the game cuts it out entirely.

** The Insect-a-Cutioner. Primary fire averts NoArcInArchery and has a ''stupidly'' short reach as a result, while SecondaryFire is entirely useless because of programming errors, and even if it wasn't, the wind-up is long and the fire rate is even slower than the already slow primary. The only reasonable use for it was in early versions, as a way to check how much [=DieBugDie=] spray you had in reserve, and with the late patches, that feature was added to the assault rifle's HUD and put the final nail in the coffin for it.
** The Napalm Cannon was {{nerf}}ed so hard between games (by weakening the shots, slowing down both fire rate and projectile speed, and removing the afterburn effect entirely), any mid-tier conventional weapon does a better job than it. Said conventional weapons are found ''at least'' five levels earlier than the Cannon - it doesn't show up until halfway through the second chapter.
** The Howitzer is a {{hitscan}} bazooka. Sounds good, right? [[DarthWiki/WorseThanItSounds Wrong.]] Its shells are some of the hardest ammo pickups to come by, and are too weak to generally bother with. It ''does'' have a niche use against [[DemonicSpiders Shikari]], though, because each shot consistently makes them flinch.

* WinBackTheCrowd: Upon ''[[UpdatedReRelease Fresh Supply]]'''s release, it was [[ObviousBeta pretty buggy]]. Not only that, but lots of things about the visuals and the games rules (such as how Bloated Butchers are weak to fire, and how Machine Gun cultists only throw dynamite on any skill above Pink On The Inside) were flat out broken. Almost immediately after it was released and all the feedback had piled in, a patch was released to fix virtually all of these issues. Further patches made it better, made primarily to fix compatibility with game mods such as the famous ''VideoGame/{{Death Wish|Blood}}'' (together with the mod itself getting patches to work better with ''Fresh Supply'').

** The cinematics in the first game have ''not'' aged well, to the point of bordering on SoBadItsGood. When Caleb's hat falls off in the first cinematic, keen-eyed viewers will spot that Caleb doesn't seem to have ''ears''.

** The second game cinematics meanwhile give the first game cutscenes a run for their money with absolutely ridiculous camera angles which do not focus on characters themselves but rather a fixated point in the area. As result, it's common to see camera angle which pans over nothing or barely distinguishable character models; sometimes it's the opposite and a character (usually Caleb himself) completely obscures the entire view.

** The conclusion of the second episode is similarly grim. [[spoiler:Just as with Ophelia, Caleb arrives too late to save Gabriel. While he needs the power boost that taking his heart will give him, he's not happy about it. (As for Ishmael, [[NotEnoughToBury there wasn't even enough of him left to bury]].)]]

* {{Sequelitis}}: The first ''Blood'' is considered a CultClassic of early FPS design, with its distinctive aesthetic, crazy weapons, and challenging and ambitious levels. The second game is generally remembered for being a very ObviousBeta, with unbalanced gameplay and a severe bug infestation.
* SpecialEffectFailure: The cinematics in the first game have ''not'' aged well, to the point of bordering on SoBadItsGood. When Caleb's hat falls off in the first cinematic, keen-eyed viewers will spot that Caleb doesn't seem to have ''ears''.

* ThatOneLevel: There are a lot of difficult levels in ''Blood II'', but the worst by far is "[=JoJo=]'s Big Adventure" from the Nightmare Levels expansion. The primary reasons are twofold: one, you're [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent playing as Ishmael]] in a sort-of flashback, which means different stats than Caleb - you have only 1 strength rather than Caleb's 5, meaning your health maxes out at the default 100 and you can carry barely any ammo. Two, the level is designed very tightly, requiring you to know exactly what to do and when to do it, conserving health and ammo exactly when you need them or else you'll run out. It gets more ridiculous as it goes on, quickly moving up from reskinned cultists who will ventilate you from the other side of any given area to slogging through an endless horde of Shikari to forcing you to take on several Drudge Lords in quick succession, with any attempt to actually fight them quickly reminding the player that Ishmael simply does not carry enough ammo to deal with any of those other than the cultists. And, like every other level in the expansion, it ends with the devs showcasing their unhealthy obsession with the Behemoth, forcing you into an encounter with one (in a space so enclosed there is simply no room to avoid its shockwave attack if it decides to use it) that then leads to another encounter with '''three''' of them, by which point any player who still has their sanity will likely [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run past them to the exit]].

** Shial, despite being responsible for the death of Gabriel, is one of the game's easiest bosses. She's little more than a MookMaker with no other offense, whose mooks aren't that strong and whose health isn't that high. Even looking at her, you might be surprised to hear she's a boss; she's actually smaller than most of the normal enemies. It's especially blatant because you fight a Stone Gargoyle at the end of the previous level, an enemy which ''actually would have worked'' as a boss.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: One reason ''Blood'' is praised is for its subtly comedic dark atmosphere, and both versions of the soundtrack do it justice: to simplify, once the game installed, you could play it without the disk, and depending on its presence or absence in the CD player, it would either play an already good [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY MIDI soundtrack]] in the latter situation or an excellent and more [[{{Pun}} fleshed-out]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OS06n2My0 CD soundtrack]] in the former. Both are available in the ''Fresh Supply'' port.

* PolishedPort: [=NightDive Studios=] finally secured the rights to release a remaster of the original game in 2019; ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' features support for up to 4K resolution, fixed mouse control with an option of proper vertical look, new touches like voxel support and difficulty modification, comes with all of the base and expansion episodes like ''One Unit Whole Blood'', and still supports all existing [[GameMod custom content]] for the original game as well.

** ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' suffered from this in its initial release with a number of bugs and gameplay inconsistencies from the original game. Part of this was due to [=NightDive Studios=] being forced to rebuild the game in a new engine due to Atari forbidding access to the game's source code. Fortunately, ''Fresh Supply'' was quickly patched to address most issues.

* TearJerker: In the opening cinematic Ophelia (Caleb's [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes lover]]) gets dragged off by the gargoyle Cheogh. At the end of the first episode [[spoiler:Caleb finds her crucified by Cheogh, and in the cutscene after the battle Caleb gives her an impromptu funeral pyre while [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness quietly saying "sleep, Ophelia" without any sarcasm or menace for once]]]].

** Shial, despite being responsible for the death of Gabriel, is one of the game's easiest bosses. She's little more than a MookMaker with no other offense, whose mooks aren't that strong and whose health isn't that high. Even looking at her, you might be surprised to hear she's a boss; she's actually smaller than most of the normal enemies.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: One reason ''Blood'' is praised is for its subtly comedic dark atmosphere, and both versions of the soundtrack do it justice[[labelnote:Explanation]]Once the game installed, you could play it without the disk, and depending on its presence or absence in the disk reader, it would either play a CD or a MIDI soundtrack. Both are available in the ''Fresh Supply'' port[[/labelnote]]: while the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY melodic MIDI tracks]] balance between this setting and your character's badass rampage, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OS06n2My0 ambient CD tracks]] focus entirely on the atmosphere.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: One reason ''Blood'' is praised is for its subtly comedic dark atmosphere, and both versions of the soundtrack[[labelnote:Explanation]]Once the disk installed, you could play the game without it, and depending on the game being in you disk reader or not, it would either play a CD or a MIDI soundtrack. Both are available in the ''Fresh Supply'' port[[/labelnote]] do it justice: while the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY melodic MIDI tracks]] balance between this setting and your character's badass rampage, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OS06n2My0 ambient CD tracks]] focus entirely on the atmosphere.

* CultClassic: It didn't have nearly as much saturation as ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' or ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'' got on the mainstream audience (it was the first of the three to get a released sequel, but Duke [[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever remained at least adjacent to the public consciousness for fifteen years]], and ''Shadow Warrior''[='=]s [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 2013 reboot]] and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2 2016 sequel]] saw far more fanfare and acclaim than ''Blood II''), but the game is beloved thanks to its unique features like destructible environments and dark but humorous tone, as well as looking great for its time.

*** Fanatics, again. They often have fast-firing guns and just enough health to take a beating and just keep the trigger pressed for a good while before they start flinching. Hurt them enough, but fall just short of killing them, and they're one scream away from becoming {{Action Bomb}}s[[note]]They also do this if they run out of ammo (which ''can'' happen, surprisingly enough), but often they'll be dead before that happens[[/note]]. Oh, and ''Tchernobog's essence help you'' if you meet one with a {{BFG}} that has SplashDamage like the Napalm Cannon - they may be slow-firing for you, but [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard they shoot them just as fast any other non-machinegun weapon, which includes the pistol]]. Forget Shikari and Drudge-type mooks: these special forces soldiers will definitely be your main cause of death when playing this game.

* FridgeHorror: It seems strange that, after going to great lengths to avenge their deaths, Caleb initially acts so coldly towards the revived Gabriella and Ishmael in the second game. He's very insistent on dealing with Gideon by himself, to the point where he heads into the alternate world alone against Ophelia's warning that this is exactly what Gideon wants. There's a chance that Caleb's trying to keep his friends and lover out of this conflict so that, if worst comes to worst, he won't have to watch them die again.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: ''Blood II'' shifted the setting to a more futuristic world, which most fans [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks derided]] due to feeling out of place, being too cliche, or because they just missed the gothic look of the original game. ''The Nightmare Levels'', which was made primarily to allow ''Blood II'' to be patched, was also designed to [[RevisitingTheRoots feel more similar]] to the first game, which was appreciated despite the short length.

** The ''Dark Carnival'' is probably the most iconic level in the first episode, a truly twisted ThemeParkOfDoom with unique areas like a freakshow, a tightrope, and even playable sideshows.

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Awesome Video Game Levels]]: So, so, ''so'' many in ''Blood.'' ''Phantom Express'', ''Dark Carnival'', ''The Great Temple'', ''The Overlooked Hotel'', ''The Haunting'', ''The Siege'', ''The Sick Ward'', ''Monster Bait'' and so on. Pretty much any level that tries to resemble locations you would see in real life are usually this.

* CultClassic: It didn't have nearly as much saturation as ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' or ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'' got on the mainstream audience (it was the first of the three to get a released sequel, but Duke [[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever remained at least adjacent to the public consciousness for fifteen years]], and ''Shadow Warrior''[='=]s [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 2013 reboot]] and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2 2016 sequel]] saw far more fanfare and acclaim than ''Blood II''), but the game is beloved as perhaps the best of the three thanks to its unique features like destructible environments and dark but humorous tone, as well as looking great for its time.

* ThatOneLevel: There are a lot of difficult levels in ''Blood II'', but the worst by far is "[=JoJo=]'s Big Adventure" from the Nightmare Levels expansion. The primary reasons are twofold: one, you're [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent playing as Ishmael]] in a sort-of flashback, which means different stats than Caleb - you have only 1 strength rather than Caleb's 5, meaning your health maxes out at the default 100 and you can carry barely any ammo. Two, the level is designed very tightly, requiring you to know exactly what to do and when to do it, conserving health and ammo exactly when you need them or else you'll run out. It gets more ridiculous as it goes on, quickly moving up from reskinned cultists who will ventilate you from the other side of any given area to slogging through an endless horde of Shikari to forcing you to take on several Drudge Lords in quick succession, with any attempt to actually fight them quickly reminding the player that Ishmael simply does not carry enough ammo to deal with any of those other than the cultists. And, like every other level in the expansion, it ends with the devs showcasing their unhealthy obsession with the Behemoth, forcing you into an encounter with one (in a space so enclosed there is simply no room to avoid its shockwave attack if it decides to use it) that then leads to another encounter with '''three''' of them, by which point any player who still has their sanity will simply [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run past them to the exit]].