Turn-based strategy games are not my type of games. I got this one as a gift and decided to try it out though. In order to appreciate and get into this game, you need to do a bit of studying. There are different bonuses and abilities for the different units and races that can't be completely ignored. I think that just comes with the territory for this type of game. It's still probably on the more accessible side of things compared to other strategy games. I only played the single-player campaign, which consists of 24 levels. Each level took 1-2 hours to complete for me. Although it's quite a bit to get into in the beginning, there isn't much variety between the levels. The objectives change a bit and more units and abilities become available, but the feeling towards the end was more that I had seen what the game had to offer, than wanting it to continue. My main critique with the game is the experience system. As opposed to some other strategy games I've played (C&C, Warcraft etc), you don't start each level from scratch. Units surviving the previous mission can be re-used, with experience and abilities gained from previous levels. But if they die during a level, they're permanently gone and will have to be replaced by a completely fresh unit. Without knowing how difficult the later levels were, I had to play carefully to avoid losing units that would take several levels to replace. In the end, the game never gets really hard and the AI on normal difficulty makes many questionable moves. On top of that, it turns out the CPU matches your experience level. Just for a test, I played the last level with all fresh units. And fair enough, the CPU units were all fresh as well. So while it's cool to hang onto maxed-out units, it doesn't really matter in the end. Still, I'm not a fan of how this feature was implemented in the game.
The game runs like shit out of the box (Windows 10). So after spending a few hours reading about fixes on different forums and the usual fruitless attempts, I actually got it to work. Quick copy-paste of the download package at the bottom of https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki/Blood-II-The-Chosen into the game folder and suddenly it worked. Next problem is which game mode is which in the menu. Not clearly explained. Well, "Nightmare" is the expansion package, "Caleb" is the regular single player campaign and "Chosen" is the same single player campaign, but played with any of the companions without cutscenes. The difficulty names are poorly chosen as well. You can select between "Genocide", "Homicide" and "Suicide". Crystal clear which one is easy and which one is hard? If you can't guess (like me), just remember to avoid "Suicide" (hard). I played on "Homicide" and that felt plentiful for the first (and last) playthrough. The enemies are horribly balanced. Sometimes they get stuck on corners or similar and become sitting ducks. Most of the time, they are vicious though... The hit-scan enemies are ridiculous and act as if they were equipped with x-ray glasses and lightning reflexes. Unless you know exactly where they're standing and do a bunch of save-reload, expect to get tagged. The projectile-enemies either shoot stuff you can barely make out or exploding projectiles with an absurd explosion radius. Considering many enemy types can take a lot of beating and are placed in inconvenient places, health and ammo drain quickly. And they're not always plentiful to replenish. Had I not been more careful along the way, I would definltely have ended up in an unwinnable situation with no ammo/health and tough enemies ahead. This is a game I can't recommend to anyone. I played it because I really wanted to see what came after Blood I, but it was not an enjoyable playthrough (the Nightmare levels were more Blood I ish and I liked them a bit better though).
Very happy with this purchase. It ran smooth out of the box in Windows 10 without any tinkering. The game is a true classic (which you probably already knew if you found your way here) and is still worth to played today. The game is easy to pick up and play. It only takes a few minutes to be in the middle of the action and not much longer to get the hang of things. There is a town, where you can get hints, quests and trade goods. There is the dungeon, where the action is. Delve into the dungeon and vanquish the foe at the 16th level. A few things I wish had been better explained to me before starting (or maybe I just didn't read the instructions well enough): * Hellfire isn't a different game. It's Diablo + two additional (smaller) dungeons that are pure side quests. I would definitely recommend playing this version. Don't do like me and first play through the regular Diablo, just to realize you can only partially transfer your character to the Hellfire version. * If you kill off all the easier enemies and then level up poorly, you won't be able to get past the stronger enemies that remain. You'll basically be in an unwinnable situation. If you take your time and think before you act, this shouldn't be a major problem and you should be able to get through the game. However, it's also possible to keep in mind that you at any point can restart the whole game, while keeping your character's levels. Kind of a time-waste though, but a possibility. The dungeons (layout and monsters) are mostly randomly generated and there are tons of different equipment and upgrades that can be played around with. There are also three different characters that mix up the gameplay quite a bit and require different approaches. So there is replay value if you liked the game well enough. In summary, this is worth playing for several reasons. It's a first and foremost a good and fun game. Also, it's part of gaming history and culture.
