Add on packs can be a great thing. They breath new life
into an old game and at a fraction of the original price. Sadly this
add on pack is completely out of breath and reeks of bargain bin.
Which is unfortunate, because at times Blood 2 was an enjoyable
game. This pitiful offering from GT Interactive will repel even the
most die-hard fans of Blood 2.
New Features Include:
2 New Weapons: the combat shotgun and the Flayer
5 new multiplayer models
6 single player levels
6 multiplayer levels
Yes that’s really all that’s new in this add on pack,
pathetic isn’t it? Anyway, as the game begins, Caleb, Ophelia,
Gabriella, and JoJo (the former idiot circus boy) are sitting around
a campfire swapping embarrassing stories. Caleb starts first and
professes his ultimate nightmare of being trapped in a freezing
environment. Mysteriously he is whisked away via a green portal
to his nightmare and he must fight through his nightmare.
However, it doesn’t end here, Caleb is mysteriously transported to
everyone else’s nightmares, but makes no further appearances in
the nightmares after the cut scenes. I didn’t exactly follow the
mechanics of how this worked, but it made for a few interesting
moments.
Level design is really all Blood 2 has going for it,
because lets face it, the Lithtech engine isn’t that great. You won’t
not find any handsomely crafted levels here however, just the
typical trashy, uninspired levels. Locales include; an icy hedge
maze, circus, spooky mansion, sorority house, Spanish/western
town, and some place that resembles hell. Let’s examine the
sorority house. It starts off outside the sorority house leaving you
searching for a way in! The front door is locked, what to do? Better
start in the basement of the house. Eventually you work your way
up through the house and see all the cheesy things the designers
included like the showers and posters of beefy studs. All of the
maps are so bland and cheap it mystifies you how they could have
ever hit the shelves.
Amid all this trash there is one gem, however, and it
comes in the form of a weapon called the Flayer. For those of you
who watched Hellraiser you will know exactly what I am talking
about here. This weapon opens up a portal and spews chains from
it, impaling the nearest enemy; eventually it attempts to suck in
the monster and usually rips its guts out. This is a great weapon,
too bad they had to rip it off from a movie! The combat shotgun
isn’t anything new, just another bland shotgun.
Ever see one of those Kung-Fu movies where the voice
acting is so terrible it makes you laugh? Then you should feel right
at home while watching the cut scenes in Blood2. The voice acting
in this add-on pack has got to be the most 3rd rate pile of shit
computer game voice acting ever composed! Other than the new
speech effects in the game there isn’t too much new here in terms
of sound.
Right off the bat Blood2 had multiplayer problems, and
even after a patch was released to supposedly fix it, multiplayer
was still unplayable. So why would anyone release more, if no
one is going to play them? But what the heck, some poor shmuck
wasted his time anyhow. The six maps that are included in this
add on pack are so dismally boring it blows the mind how
someone could actually expect people to pay for them.
Monolith should be ashamed of themselves with this
release. No one in their right mind should buy Blood2 – The
Nightmare Levels. Paying for such a small release is absolutely
ridiculous, it took me a total of one and a half hours to play
through this entire pack. Spend your money on something
worthwhile, don’t squander it on this junk.