Single Player

Thresh's comments in BLACK

Puzzles and Creatures

Thresh:
As for puzzles, I found Blood II's assortment pretty varied. I ran into switch puzzles, "find the button or key" puzzles, and so on. After seeing the complex scripting in Sin or the amazingly intricate and elaborate puzzles in Half Life, there's no doubt that the bar has been significantly raised; but Blood 2 hasn't fallen too far behind, and it managed to keep my attention much more than the single player element in Quake II or Unreal. Speaking of Unreal, those wacky guys at Monolith (you just KNOW nobody there is over 30 years old :) have sprinkled in a few easter eggs, my favorite being an amorous poster of a Skarrj warrior hanging on a low wall in the sewer level.

It's everyone's favorite strafing monster!

The enemy AI displayed was slightly more advanced than average, but Monolith still has a few kinks to work out. Enemy soldiers are smart enough to spot you and shoot you, and even duck' n' roll under your cover fire. Beyond that, they still had a tendency to chase after you around blind corners, and never shot while moving (making everyone a gold-medallist sharpshooter in single player). We also encountered several AI problems (even after the patch). In many instances, enemy soldiers still failed to notice you unless you were dead-center in their sights. Also, enemy soldiers running towards you had a tendency to miss turns around corners, running straight into the adjacent wall. Even Doom didn't have this problem.

I've got my eye on you

I do feel, however, that the enemies and creatures in Blood II were done in a much more believable way than in some other shooters. Slam a solider with a few rounds from your Beretta, and he crumples to the floor. Try that in Sin, and you'll soon find that a grunt can take 10-15 shots or more, even surviving several direct rocket blasts. With a name like Blood, Monolith's got to carry through, and they do so beautifully. Toss a prox bomb by a few enemy soldiers, and they'll gib in every direction. Decapitate someone, and you can play soccer with their head, kicking it through hallways and bouncing it off walls. Yummy.

Floating Jello