Blood II: The Chosen Critic Reviews

Simply put, Blood II is more of the same: more guns and more enemies. Although it's not quite as pant-browning as we would've hoped, it's a stunning achievement considering the time Monolith have had to put it together.

The first one had some things about it that made you play it and say, “Wow, that was cool. I have never seen anything like that before.” This installment will have you sitting back and saying the same thing.

The levels are fairly exquisitely designed. The textures on the buildings are quite nice, and there is a multitude of signs that call up a smile every once so often. The only problem is, in order to read them you'd have to be in the 'High' detail level - and for that you'd need a pretty nice machine.

The only complaint I have to make about the game is that the difficulty levels are a little imbalanced.

So, if you sometimes find yourself sitting down in a room of your people, and you find yourself staring endlessly at each one of them, picturing them on the receiving end of your boom-stick (12 gauge Remington), then go out and buy Blood 2. And remember, shop smart, Shop S-MART! YOU GOT THAT!

Creepy, mostly excellent gameplay marred by a few glaring technical and design problems.

Much like "Shogo", Blood 2 excels in pure feel and fun factor alone. It may not have impressive scripted scenes around every corner and the plot is incredibly weak at best, but the core of the game-running around and shooting people-is extremely satisfying.

Another "could have, should have" game. While it follows the old school formula a little too much, it can still be enjoyable if you like to annihilate things with big guns.

But Blood II lacks some of the innovation of the original; the horror-theme is less pronounced, and the level design doesn't stray far from the average...But it's hard to fault Blood II for not doing anything new; it sets out to be a traditional shooter and does a good, if not great, job.

There are a lot of fresh components laboring to make this a different game, including the engine, but the end result is not at all frightening. Too much emphasis was placed on puerile humor, which I am all for in most games, but I needed something different here.

Very few games had the perfect soundtrack (and yes I love "Doom's" original soundtrack as well); Blood II does. Its eerie tunes add to gameplay by "epic proportions."

An utterly ordinary shooter, hidebound by convention and hamstrung by formulaic gameplay. For people who may have only played one or two of these clones before, there's fun to be found. But for the rest of us, it's a pass, even though a lot of time and effort went into making a decent engine and some dark and creepy graphics.

The writing is of the quality that you'll find in your average Jean-Claude Van Damme flick. It tries to be witty and satirical, but is adolescent and uninteresting instead.

Corridor-shooter gamers in general should be pleased with Blood II, but bloodthirsty fans of the original game may be disappointed. Spilling Blood is still a thrill, but it was more fun the first time around.