Blood 2: The Blood Group

I got this game quite some time ago, in CD form. I have since tried several other versions, but none work on any modern system I've seen. The problem is with the Lithtech engine (coded by a company called, itself, Lithtech, but in partnership with Microsoft, who did a large part of the coding). The Lithtech engine looked great for its time, but has been abandoned for years, and used "special tricks" allowing it access to the OS in ways that other programs were denied... and which are now no longer available (due to security vulnerabilities, etc). Several Lithtech games have since received fan-produced fixes... TRON 2.0, for example, and the F.E.A.R. series. Others remain unplayable on any modern system (Blood 2, No One Lives Forever, etc). These are GREAT games... a lot of fun... but sadly, they fail, repeatedly, with a common error. No amount of "compatibility fixes" or the like have been able to get past these issues, for those who experience them. TRON 2.0 required an entirely new EXE to run properly, but does so flawlessly now. F.E.A.R, by contrast, would "sort of" run, but would slow to a total standstill in mere minutes if you had more than one or two USB devices in your chain... but a fix involving a replacement DLL created by a particularly ingenious guy managed to turn F.E.A.R. into a perfectly playable game again. Now... Blood 2 is a fun game. Not GREAT, not "landmark," by any stretch of the imagination... but fun. Like a couple of other vampire games out there, you recover heath in multiple ways, but feeding on humans is the most effective way in general... which adds a somewhat twistedly "fun" element to the game. The humor throughout the game is very up-front... it's not a SERIOUS game (for example, early on, you get a phone call in a laundrymat where you're given a survey about violence in video games). The gameplay is challenging, but not too difficult. The characters are entertaining, while not really being totally engrossing. You get plenty of "one-liners" as so many 1st-person games of the era provided, of course. The gameplay involves plenty of gunplay, knife-play, and direct hand (or tooth?) combat... The overall design is not a standout, but it's a fun game. It doesn't really feel all that much like its predecessor, which explains most of the negative reviews, of course. But I actually prefer this one to the first game in the series (as this gives me more of a "really there, really doing this" vibe). I know, I'm atypical in that way, but it's the truth. I really, REALLY wish I could get this to run on my modern, 64-bit operating system machine. But... I can't. I always get the same pop-up error, after the launcher screen, no matter what "tweaks" I try. I really hope someday someone who knows the Lithtech engine(s) better than I do comes up with an actual fix for this (and, PLEASE!!!! ... for "No One Lives Forever!")

Takes a not-insignificant amount of effort to get running on Win10. The game is complete garbage at any rate so don't bother. Not a fraction of the charm of the original Blood. The "future" setting is extremely lame. None of the weapons are satisfying. The enemy AI alternates between doing huge hitscan damage to you the instant you're spotted and not even being able to pathfind to you in the most basic situations. Level designs are bad in terms of both aesthetics and flow. Simply not worth playing for any reason.

Even with the fixes from PCGW it will get you to the point of playing what feels like an alpha version of the game. I was also have lots of issues with a jerky mouse despite capping at 60fps as recommended.

One of the best classic FPS. Runs perfect on Windows 10 with Patch in Widescreen 2560 x 1444 with Xbox controller (Xpadder)! The gameplay is more challenging than newer games. You fall asleep playing the new Games because it's so easy. Simply a great game and one of my favorite games.

This game is nearly unplayable, even with tools like dgVoodoo. Constant crashes, unbalanced gameplay, annoying mouse stuttering, and other glaring issues plaque this game. I'm wondering why this game can still be sold anymore considering how you can barely even play it.