Blood in Other Media
From Blood Wiki
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This is a list and index of outside media that have references to Blood or characters from that universe, or those that contain content similar to Blood.
References
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- In Shogo: Mobile Armour Division (a game developed by Monolith Productions congruent to the Blood II development in 1998) there are magazine covers that feature a picture of Caleb. Nearby the picture is Japanese characters followed by English text reading "Who is Caleb?". Fallen troops can also occasionally be heard exclaiming translatable Cultist phrases.
- Blood II: The Chosen was attacked by the February 2, 1999 comic of the then fledgling Penny Arcade, with character Tycho Brahe mocking the game's initial release bugs and slow patching process.
- Blood was listed among a set of other shooter games in the July 30, 1997 edition of the web comic >BYTE_ME.
- The Korean manhwa Priest (1998-2007) is almost certainly inspired by Blood as it features an extremely Caleb like anti-hero protagonist and a supernatural dominated old west setting. The series creator Hyung Min-woo has gone as far as stating that the game and his comic are "inseparably related."
- FPS - First Person Shooter (2014) is a German independent film created by Gravelight Film which stars the voice of Stephan Weyte as the protagonist. Created as a tribute to the first-person shooter games of the 1990s as well as the horror films of the 1980s, it is filmed using a first person perspective similar to those present in the actual games.
- The first-person shooter DUSK (2018) is directly inspired by Blood, alongside other similar games such as Quake, Heretic, Hexen, Half-Life and fellow Build engine title Redneck Rampage. The game's developers are even known as New Blood Interactive, and the game has Stephan Weyte voicing Nyarlathotep, the game's final boss. Dusk features a fight with a cult including robed wearing acolytes, as well as mutant rats. Levels include sewers, steamworks, lumber yards, mines, churches, derelict towns, test chambers, research labs, crypts, tunnels wrought of flesh, and more. Horror Geek Life's Jason Lei Howden remarked that "DUSK is the answer to the question “what if Blood II was actually awesome?”"
- Another indie first-person shooter, Dread Templar (2021; formerly Hell Hunt), is also inspired by Blood among other games such as the first Quake and non-shooters such as Bloodborne. Creator Johnny Blanchard remarked: "Another one is Blood, which I actually didn't like at all when I was a kid, even ranked it as one of my most hated FPS. But strangely enough, when I replayed Blood a few years ago I was totally hooked. Compared to other boomer shooters, Blood's level design is particularly fascinating to me, and DT is really inspired by Blood in level design."
- As clearly seen in Gmanlives' review, the indie first person shooter Viscerafest (2021-2025) features numerous lines almost certainly inspired by Blood and Blood II. The Civvie 11 video also highlights several nods to Blood, most notably "I Hate Mimes" mode and a train level.
- The retro first-person shooter Grim Pray (2022) features an art style and atmosphere based in part on Blood; The Disciples of the Full Moon from the same game jam has also been compared.
- The retro first-person shooter Coven (2024) features an atmosphere inspired by Blood and Heretic. Set in the witch-hunts of the 1600s, players also take the role of someone crawling out of a grave seeking bloody revenge, including consuming flesh as health and wielding akimbo flintlocks and a double barreled firearm.
- The first-person shooter Cultic (2022-2025) is most directly inspired by Blood and is published by a revived 3D Realms label, the original of which spurred on development of Blood prior to 1997 when it was finally released by GT Interactive.
- In Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (1996) fan modification Age of Evil (2003), the main character Chris Quinn paraphrases Caleb in the beginning of the second episode by saying "I live aga... Uh-huh. Sorry!" In Age of Evil there is also a level set on a train (E2M6: End of the Line) that is inspired by Blood, as can be inferred from the 1213 Special Edition commentary (a similar map exists called "Train in Veins" for another Duke Nukem 3D fan add-on entitled Metropolitan Mayhem from 2012). Chris like Caleb spends a short time undead, gets a sadistic pleasure from the death of his enemies and wears a black trench coat.
- Yahtzee also later referenced Blood, among other Build engine titles, as an example of what first person shooters should be in a Zero Punctuation review of Turok, as well as later pointing to Blood II: The Chosen (as well as SiN) as a typical "campy and colourful" shooter of the late 1990s in his "real" Duke Nukem Forever review. He finally reviewed Blood proper on June 26, 2019 following the release of Fresh Supply. He also refers to the famous E1M3: Phantom Express as a "good train level" in contrast to Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and refers back to Fresh Supply in his review of the System Shock remake by Nightdive Studios. In a 2026 edition of Semi-Ramblomatic he cited the difficulty setting titles in both Blood and Blood II as examples.
- He also cited the Plasma Pak as an example of a traditional expansion pack in a 2015 Extra Punctuation.
- The first game in the Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy (1998-1999) also features the player making a rat burger, a concept mentioned in Blood.
- It has also been suggested that the design of Cabadath in the Chzo Mythos (2003-2006) is inspired by the Zealot as seen in Blood II. Cabadath has in turn been cited as a possible influence on the design of Slender Man.
- The first game in the Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy (1998-1999) also features the player making a rat burger, a concept mentioned in Blood.
- He also cited the Plasma Pak as an example of a traditional expansion pack in a 2015 Extra Punctuation.
- Yahtzee also later referenced Blood, among other Build engine titles, as an example of what first person shooters should be in a Zero Punctuation review of Turok, as well as later pointing to Blood II: The Chosen (as well as SiN) as a typical "campy and colourful" shooter of the late 1990s in his "real" Duke Nukem Forever review. He finally reviewed Blood proper on June 26, 2019 following the release of Fresh Supply. He also refers to the famous E1M3: Phantom Express as a "good train level" in contrast to Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and refers back to Fresh Supply in his review of the System Shock remake by Nightdive Studios. In a 2026 edition of Semi-Ramblomatic he cited the difficulty setting titles in both Blood and Blood II as examples.
- The Brogo Webcomic referenced Blood II: The Chosen on October 31, 2008, the game's tenth birthday. The comic features a Caleb jack-o-lantern and the Brogo character Michelle references a quip from Caleb by saying "It is getting to the point that I'm no mechanic, I just mostly hurt people". This quote is derived from a scene in "C3L4: Cabalco Enterprises", where Caleb encounters broken down elevators
- In the 2009 free software game Windys by Piga Software the text "Security to the Zombie Cage!" can be found in the secret level as a homage to E1M8: House of Horrors. Level 6's starting text reads "Sure smells dead around here" inspired by a recording from the Blood II REZ file and the Boss Level's starting text reads "That's him! That's the man you're looking for!" as a reference to C3L4: Cabalco Enterprises. The boss's ASCII depiction is replaced by "???" in the help form to hide his look until you win the game; this is inspired by Tchernobog's depiction on the Blood website.
- Notably, even though Blood contained many horrified urban settings such as shopping malls, carnivals, and train stations it never contained a full on restaurant level. Smaller sections include the track side "rat burger" grill in E1M2: Wrong Side of the Tracks, the dining car in E1M3: Phantom Express, the concession stands in E1M4: Dark Carnival and the "worm ridden filth" cafe in CP02: Old Opera House, among others, as well as a diner present in the Blood II level C2L5: Horlock's Station which serves "Cream of SumYungGai".
- Their 2021 release Hedged is set in a wintry 3D hedge maze inspired both by Blood and its original inspiration from The Shining; Bring Them On from the same year features monsters coming through portals and a remark that the protagonist would have foreseen the danger if he had paid attention to "any video game of the last thirty years" in reference to, among others, Doom, Quake, Blood II and Half-Life. The 2022 release Nightfall contains a powerup shaped like a human heart that restores full health. The 2023 update adds in beast mode, which like envisioned with Blood transforms the player into a werewolf-like creature temporarily after getting enough kills. It also refers to it as changing into something unpleasant on the help screen. Enemies include bats, rats, zombies, spirits, gargoyles, and other ghouls.
- In "The Carnival" level of POSTAL Redux (2016) a sign can be seen from the original Blood promoting JoJo the Idiot Circus Boy.
- Infra Arcana, a free roguelike created by Martin Törnqvist in 2011, borrows heavily from Blood's entourage and gameplay, including cultists and their signature curses, self-reanimating zombies, tommy guns and dynamite (complete with agonized screaming of its unfortunate victims). The general feel of this game is reminiscent enough to consider Infra Arcana almost a roguelike version of Blood. The game also features quite a few references to Lovecraftian fiction, further establishing the resemblance.
- A latter day original Half-Life (1998) modification called Half-Rats: Parasomnia (2016) makes an obvious nod to the aesthetics of Blood by offering a stylish Western horror setting of the 1800s. Half-Rats is actually a series of mods with independent stories focusing on the same character, who finds himself in all sorts of trouble usually involving the undead, madness and infernal entities. The main hero wears a black hat and a trenchcoat, and is often observed making intelligent, but cynical remarks, which clearly betray inspiration by the signature attributes of Caleb. In Parasomnia, there is a carnival level, although the player encounters highly aggressive clowns instead of the placid, passive mimes from Blood. The mod features an inventory system, with the player being able to find and buy restoratives (food) and ammo via vending interface. The weapons include a revolver, a carbine rifle, a sawn-off and even a gatling gun. Light is a limited resource represented by a lamp recharged with fuel. There are a few puzzles and boss battles along the way. A mid-game boss has a deep voice similar to The Voice/Tchernobog, albeit the conversation between him and the protagonist is more elaborate and humorous compared to the cutscenes in Blood.
- The Heaven nor Hell (2018-2021) urban fantasy trilogy by Clinton A. Love, as well as subsequent books within that universe, features numerous nods that reference Blood, including cultists called Chosen and the "High Speech" used by demons and some vampires that contains phrases reminiscent of the ones the cultists scream in Blood.
- The Brutal Doom 64 (2016) mod uses modified Tchernobog sprites to add in the Revenant, which was not present in the original game due to cartridge restrictions.
Possibles
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- The officially recognized Postal 2 (2003) total conversion Eternal Damnation (2006) contains a great deal of similarities to Blood such as zombies (with a similar head destruction requirement), Sawed-Off Shotguns, Dynamite sticks, Aerosol can flame-throwers, Submachine Guns, levels such as a carnival, subway train, apartments, hotels, subway station, museum, sewers, mall, stores, docks, mountains and cathedral. John Murray is arguably more like Caleb than the Postal Dude as he is more consciously violent rather then sarcastic; though he is surely more coarse in language then Caleb. The beginning of the game is set in a asylum and is thus also similar to the Blood fan add-on BloodLines. At least one weapon is actually stated to have been inspired by Blood, and known Bloodite Nicola "Neurological" Capecci was the game's musician.
- The video game Duke Nukem Forever (2011) features a number of lines that are similar to those in the Blood series, such as "time to paint the town red", "another day, another disembowelment", "rainin' blood, baby", and the Army of Darkness quote "good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun". The quip "when you get to hell, tell 'em Duke sent ya" is particularly curious as the taunt "when you get to hell tell 'em I sent ya, you'll get a group discount" was an original for Blood II submitted by Glen Maydom in a fan one-liner contest. The voicemails scattered throughout the game are also similar to the phone gags from Blood II. As another sequel to a Build engine title, opinions were similarly divided as with Blood II - only Blood II had notably higher scores on average and has been commonly described as rushed out, something Forever certainly was not. That said, the gold version did feature notable cuts restored by the Duke Nukem Forever: Enhanced (2022) mod similar to the tweak mods for Blood II; though unlike was the case with Monolith the tools were never officially released by Gearbox but later recovered.
- OpenArena (2005-), a free software arena first-person shooter game built on the ioquake3 engine, contains many Blood-like bots such as gargoyles and spiders (and a cultist-like bot called an "Assassin"). Also one of the original OpenArena developers has a user page on DeathMask (with the comment "Gargoyles are cute"). It is possible that these connections to Blood were deliberate. It is also worthwhile to note that the Q3 BloodBath maps and the Caleb Quake III bot/model both work in OpenArena.
- It was once suggested on the Left 4 Dead wiki that the Left 4 Dead 2 (2009) campaign "Dark Carnival" may be a reference to the map of the same name from Blood.
- The Marvel Comics character Shiver Man was once a man named Caleb Jackson who lived in the Wild West and killed armed men who had hidden in a church, because he was seeking revenge against them for killing his wife. During the fight, Caleb accidentally gunned down a priest in the crossfire just before he finished putting a curse on Caleb, stating that when Caleb died himself soon after, he would walk the Earth forever as some kind of restless undead creature for bringing violence into his church. Shiver Man's first appearance was in Wolverine #163 in June 2001, four years after Blood was released, while his true name was revealed in Astonishing Tales: Shiver Man #1 released in April 2009.
- They Hunger (2000-2001), a notorious horror mod for the original Half-Life released in three parts during the advent of the 2000s, is very similar stylistically to Blood. The story revolves around anonymous writer who visits a quiet, secluded town in hopes of getting some inspiration from the local environment. Instead he finds the place forlorn, defiled and completely overrun by a horde of its former residents, now reanimated and zombified. This mod strays far from the "metal military bunkers" style of early first-person shooters, in favour of plunging the player into an oppressive atmosphere of hopelessness and constant, yet uncertain fear. Locations include a swamp, occult Stonehenge-like site, mausoleum, catacombs, countryside (with zombified animals), church, various ruined buildings and an insane asylum. Much like Blood, They Hunger makes use of makeshift and vintage weapons like heavy brass umbrella and bundles of dynamite (which are far less common in this game). Unlike Blood, various vehicles are prominently used at certain stages. A deliberately minimalistic, dim and washed out graphical style (even for its time), challenging gameplay and genuinely disturbing voice acting are likely to pique the interest of many Blood fans seeking another dose of intense, purely dark gaming experience.
Coincidences
[edit]1990s
[edit]Pre
[edit]These games pre-date Blood, and therefore can be safely said to be, at best, inspirations for the game; see also, Doom

- The early first-person shooter Catacomb 3D (1991), and especially its Adventure Series (1992-1993) sequels, feature several stylistic similarities to the later Blood series, including similarly dingy textures, using magical weapons against monsters, robe-wearing mages, semi-visible entities, bats and zombies (although conventional firearms are not present for the player; the final game has skeletons armed with Gatling guns and robots armed with lasers), zombies rising from the ground (and walls), entities converting from stone, and levels including crypts, hedge mazes and gardens, dark forests, mines, temples, infested towns, monster holding areas/testing grounds, insect colonies (ants rather than arachnids), lava areas, dungeons and even sewer and aqueduct levels (with monsters that swim). Nemesis and Tchernobog share a similar skeletal appearance. The games are more dark fantasy as opposed to gothic horror, but the final Catacomb game, Apocalypse, shares some of the dark science fiction styling of Blood II: The Chosen.
- Following the source code being released in 2014 by then rights holder Flat Rock Software, support was added to ReflectionHLE as well as the CatacombGL project. The game was also made available on Good Old Games alongside its 2D predecessors.
- The Catacomb sequels were designed by Greg Malone, later creative director for Duke Nukem 3D as well as Brian Goble's Nuclear Nightmare prototype, which might explain some of the stylistic similarities; he also worked briefly on fellow Build engine stable-mate Shadow Warrior (which shared a sense of humour about rabbits). The games were also principally created by the founders of JAM Productions, developers of Blake Stone.
- The 1993 first-person shooter Ken's Labyrinth features a couple different enemies similar to Blood, including spiders, bats, and cloaked ghosts. As developer Ken Silverman's first 3D game, it is also a forerunner to the Build engine, featuring experimental interactivity such as water fountains as well as slot and vending machines.
- The 1993 first-person shooter/graphical adventure game hybrid Isle of the Dead (1993) takes its cues from campy B movies, featuring zombies rising from the ground, a fat zombie, vampire bats, evil canids, and a mad scientist. One zombie features a severed head, but remains very much mobile, as well as plenty of other gore (with some censorship later present in the CD-ROM version).
- Merit Studios would also publish the similarly infamous The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki (1994) and Nerves of Steel (1995), the former actually currently available from ZOOM Platform with quality of life uprgrades.
- The 1993 first-person shooter Freaks! features an amoral protagonist who is resurrected by the goddess Gaia after being betrayed and killed by his scheming apprentice, reconstituting himself from his fallen foes. The game, developed by a Spanish team lead by Ángel Ortega known as Lovecraft Dreams, showcases a number of gothic horror and dark fantasy themes. Enemies are varied, including gargoyles, robed cultists, zombies, phantoms and more. Locations visited include tombs, crypts, dungeons, graveyards, forests, gardens, cathedrals, temples, libraries and laboratories, with each episode presented as one interconnected world.
- The original MS DOS version restricted the player turns to only ninety degrees, similar to grid-based dungeon crawlers, but a re-write was released in 2002 for Windows and Linux that added in free turning among a number of new environmental effects, as well as making health boosts granted after consuming corpses rather than upon killing opponents (similar to the Life Essence in Blood). The game was also released into the public domain, including the source code and assets.
- The 1993 title Escape from Monster Manor for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, among the first exclusive console first-person shooters, features a gothic horror theme, including enemies such as spiders, apparitions, and entities similar to the grim reaper. Levels include dilapidated tenements, haunted mansions, crypts, catacombs, and even a hedge maze, albeit in a style more similar to Wolfenstein 3D.
- The game notably featured no HUD, and instead had an ammo bar on the gun sprite and health indicated by the damage shown on the player's hand.
- The game's source code was released by original developer Leo Schawb in 2022 and a source port for Windows and Linux was released on March 30, 2026, coincidentally within a week of the release of a modernized conversion of the 3DO campaign for Killing Time, which was often touted as a successor to Manor. The files from the game's disc must first be extracted with a tool such as 3dt. The port packs in a level editor, allows an actual on-screen HUD, and features a wide array of optional post effects.
- The 1993 title Pathways into Darkness features Phantasm enemies that are spectral cloaked entities that attack by draining the player's lifeforce at close range. They are also completely impervious to weapons damage (as opposed to intermittently like in Blood), requiring the player to track down and use blue crystals to defeat them. The game's skeleton enemies also lob bones at the player similar to the gargoyles in Blood.
- The game was the first notable hit by Bungie, later of Halo (2001-) fame and neighboring Monolith Productions in the State of Washington. It is considered the direct predecessor to their Marathon Trilogy (1994-1996), which like Pathways were almost entirely exclusive to classic Mac OS.
- A port for Mac OS X was produced by Man Up Time Studios in 2013, while in 2019 the game was reproduced as a custom scenario for Aleph One, the open source port of the Marathon games. Bungie would also later produce Oni (2001), whose anime-theme mirrored Shogo: Mobile Armour Division.
- The 1994 first-person shooter Nitemare 3D was, like Blood, inspired by classic horror franchises. As such, it shares several similar enemies such as bats, werewolves, and the undead, and also features a combination of firearms and magical weapons. The game is mostly set in a haunted house, similar to levels such as E2M5: The Haunting. The main antagonist is also a mad scientist named Dr. Hammerstein. Unlike Blood however, the game contains no explicit gore. The game's composer, David B. Schultz, also wrote for Quiver.
- In addition to the MS DOS incarnation, a version was also released for Windows 3.1, a comparative rarity along with Bad Toys 3D and the WinG beta of Doom.

- The 1994-5 first-person shooter Rise of the Triad features the player fighting an evil cult, although with more a fascist militaristic edge than the Cabal (from its initial conception as a Wolfenstein 3D expansion, with a heavy dose of the Doom Bible). Robbed opponents begin showing up in episode four, with Death Monks and Death Fire Monks, as well as the game's ultimate boss El Oscuro. The entire game is based on the premise of a special forces team called HUNT infiltrating a captured monastery on the island of San Nicholas. The last episode also makes a magical staff weapon available to the player. Although tongue-in-cheek, the game's Dog Mode is not dissimilar in concept to the Beast mode originally conceived for Blood; as well as the option of selecting multiple player characters which eventually was added in Blood II: The Chosen. The Blood Alpha contained gas mask and asbestos suit items similar to those found in ROTT.
- The game also premiered many features present in Blood, such as destructible objects, bullet holes, varying forms of armour, a variety of environmental traps (including flung fireballs), the use of push walls as essential game elements (foreshadowing the dynamic sectors present in Blood), using player translation to avoid engine limitations (elevators in ROTT, room-over-room/underwater in Blood) and heaping doses of graphic violence, and is often considered a dry-run for then in-development Build engine games. ROTT was instead the last title to use the Wolfenstein 3D engine, heavily modified by Blood contributor Mark Dochterman, which included the use of pixel shearing to simulate looking on the vertical axis used in Build, as well as some shared code from the early Doom engine.
- The game's source code was released in 2002, leading to source ports such as icculus ROTT, WinROTT, NakedTriad and rottexpr. This title also received a modern, and very loyal, remake in 2013 built on Unreal Engine 3 by Interceptor Entertainment (now Slipgate Ironworks, part of Saber Interactive); one contributor to which was later involved in the Blood Evolution fan project on Unreal Engine 4, while Interceptor itself is receptive to making a commercial remake should the rights ever land their way. A remaster by Fresh Supply developer Nightdive Studios was also published in 2023 by a revived Apogee Entertainment entitled Rise of the Triad - Ludicrous Edition using the Kex Engine. This release is currently partially supported by the NetROTT (aka ROTTEN) source port.
- Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history table-top role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1996.
- The first-person shooter Killing Time features numerous stylistic and gameplay similarities to Blood. Its arsenal includes akimbo pistols, shotgun, and a tommy gun (as well as using a crowbar as a melee weapon before Half-Life); molotov cocktails function similar to dynamite. Enemies include various types of zombie, including butcher knife throwing chefs, various insects, apparitions, and even two-head dogs. It also contains a hedge-maze, among many other similar environments in and around Tess Conway's island estate. Both games also feature a cheat code homaging Chow Yun-fat.
- Developer Michael Lutynski later praised Blood in a 2013 interview. Producer Joe Ybarra would later join Monolith Productions for The Matrix Online released in 2005.
- Killing Time also took the then-popular full motion video route for its cutscenes, while Blood used the competing format of pre-rendered 3D cutscenes (although this was used for new cutscenes on the PC version). While Blood packed in the song "Love You to Death", Killing Time comes with original compositions entitled "Here on this Island" and the end credit song "Time Trapped Isle" actually playing ingame.
- The PC version was released in 1996 developed by Logicware (said to be based on the Atari Jaguar version of Doom; the levels however were created within the Build editor and then converted), one year before Blood. The original 3DO incarnation meanwhile was released a year before that in 1995 developed inhouse by Studio 3DO. It had simpler and more labyrinthine architecture, but more fully leaned into the FMV asethetic, whereas the Windows 95 and Mac OS version used more CGI assets.
- In 2024 a remaster was announced by Fresh Supply developer Nightdive Studios entitled Killing Time: Resurrected using the Kex Engine and released on October 17, 2024. It was largely based on the Logicware version, with aspects from the 3DO reimplemented. A v2.0 update was released on April 3, 2026 that adds in the original 3DO campaign alongside the PC derived version, as well as an enhanced edition, with the assistance of the modding community.
- NEWEMAP3 from The Way of All Flesh Again recreates The Docks area from Killing Time.
- The opening mansion in Realms of the Haunting from 1996 is reminiscent of E2M5: The Haunting, before branching out into a multidimensional epic.
- Despite being an educational game aimed for children, the 1995 title I.M. Meen shares a surprising amount of gothic elements with Blood, with its 36 levels made up of a tower, a dungeon, sewers, caves, catacombs, hedgerow mazes, castles, laboratories, and libraries. Enemies include bats, mad scientists, spiders, grim reapers, and even gargoyles that start out as statues.
- Strife features some Gothic elements similar to Blood due to its futuristic medieval aesthetic, with its story also being based around fighting an evil cult. As well as the ubiquitous sewer level, Strife also contains catacombs, temples, laboratories, and mines. The player can set both enemies and himself on fire, and the game's Sigil weapon will drain your health for ammunition much like the Life Leech does once it runs out of Trapped Souls.
- Released for retail on May 31, 1996, it was published exactly one year before the full North American release of Blood. Its current re-distributor, Night Dive Studios, released a modern remaster of Blood on May 9, 2019 as Fresh Supply. Strife: Veteran Edition was one of their earlier releases back in 2014.

- Despite being a Doom total conversion, the advertising video game Chex Quest (and sequel episodes) features many Build engine styled sensibilities in how it presents more realistic environments. Chiefly like Duke Nukem 3D (featuring vent passages and even a theatre level), the level most like Blood is E1M3: Chex Museum from Chex Quest 2 which contains environs similar to "C1L3: Lafayette Museum of Antiquities" and later a hedge maze ala "E2M3: Rest for the Wicked" or "C5L1: Cold, Cold Grave". E1M4: City Streets of Chex Quest 2 or E3M3: Villa Chex of Chex Quest 3 also reminds of E3M1: Ghost Town or the environs of New Town. E3M2: United Cereals of Chex Quest 3 exhibits a subway train similar to those repeatedly seen in Blood II. E1M3: Laboratory of the first Chex Quest is similar to "C3L7: Research and Development", with flasks and equipment resting on tables. As with E3M3: Raw Sewage, Chex Quest 2 brought forth its own take on the classic sewer level trope with E1M5: Sewers. E3M4: Provincial Park of Chex Quest 3 has mountainous terrain similar to "E5M7: Mountain Pass" or "E4M6: The Ganglion Depths".
- It should be noted that Chex Quest 3 was first put out in 2008, and so might feature some direct inspiration from Blood; the first two were released in 1996 and 1997 respectively and so are contemporary to the game's development.
- Originally based on ZDoom, an unofficial port of Chex Quest 3 for the vanilla Doom engine, including the original DOS executable or the 2024 Kex Engine remaster of Doom, was released in 2024. All versions also pack in the original two episodes.
- The 2012 fan campaign Nitro's Chex Quest 2 builds on the urban themes of the second episode. E1M1: Chex Mall is in a shopping centre ala E4M9: Mall of the Dead, with E1M2: The Mansion proving evocative of E2M5: The Haunting with multiple stories and a rear hedge garden to exit, E1M3: Colorful Caves set in subterranean passages reminiscent of CP08: Abysmal Mine, E1M4: City Square set on the streets similar to E3M1: Ghost Town, and E1M5: The Labyrinth set in a massive sewer complex ala E3M3: Raw Sewage.
- The 1995 first-person shooter Gloom features a Gothic theme in its second episode (the preceding science fiction, the following hellish), including bipedal monsters that rush the player, dark hooded ghouls, large teethed demons, and most notably cloak wearing translucent floating spectres. One of the game's proposed titles was "Bloodbath". Although every room is the same height, the engine is actually sector based, including walls that move like in the Build engine.
- The game was ported to systems other than its original Amiga in 2020 via the ZGloom source port, following the game and engine code being released in 2017. Although fully playable, the game's lives system is not fully integrated, with none of the ingame arcade machines available. Players can respawn infinitely upon death.

- Witchaven, which (officially) premiered the Build eninge in 1995 alongside Capstone Software's other title William Shatner's TekWar, contains spider enemies similar to Blood, able to bite and poision the player (cured by collectible potions). A dark fantasy game focused on melee combat, levels are drab dungeons, temples, and castles, with breakable objects and loot. Also like Blood, it provides multiple types of armour, but only one type may be equipped at once. Unlike later Build games there are no submerged areas, just flowing floors like in Heretic.
- As with Doom, ShadowCaster, and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Witchaven features scanned images of decorative gargoyles and mascarons from Stephen King and f-stop Fitzgerald (Richard Minissali)'s 1988 coffee table book Nightmares in the Sky; with it somewhat curious that the book was not also utilized in the development of Blood.
- Witchaven also has a creepy face jumpscare similar to Capstone's earlier Corridor 7: Alien Invasion from 1994. The game's freeze spell beat out the frost shards in Hexen and freezethrower in Duke Nukem 3D by one month and six months respectively.
- The game, and its 1996 sequel, are supported by BuildGDX, with the first also supported by JFWitchaven, as the source code was released by developer Les Bird in 2007 and a derived fan patch caled EGwhaven included with the game's digital re-releases.
- A fan add-on for Witchaven II exists called The Horror Back (2011), while the indie game Arthurian Legends has been compared to Witchaven.
- The fellow Build engine game PowerSlave (aka Exhumed) was also started under the patronage of 3D Realms under the title "Ruins: Return of the Gods" by another Washington state based developer, Lobotomy Software, before like Blood later being published elsewhere in 1996 and 1997 after splitting with them on November 8, 1995. They even shared artist Eric Klokstad. This project's mythological themes (albeit ultimately alien in nature) also dissuaded Nick Newhard from adopting a fantasy theme for what became Blood (which was also present in Witchaven, the first released Build game in 1995), switching instead to gothic motifs as "Horror 3D". Similarly to Blood, plans were made for ports to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, but unlike with Blood these actually came to fruition. Actually first releasing before the DOS version on the Saturn, these use Lobotomy's in-house SlaveDriver engine and vary considerably from the Build engine incarnation in level structure and gameplay, taking on traits of a Metroidvania.
- It was these versions that later inspired the Kex Engine based Nightdive Studios remaster PowerSlave Exhumed, previously PowerSlave EX, who also released Fresh Supply. The DOS version however is supported by BuildGDX, the NBlood adjacent PCExhumed, and the Raze source port (the first and last of which add in-level saving alongside the original checkpoint system), with both versions available separately from GOG.com and Steam.
- The DOS version shares some of the tendencies of its Build engine contemporaries, although less pronounced. The game's protagonist only occasionally speaks (voice acting more prominently featured from Rameses), and although supported by the executable no slopes are present, which along with less evocative and more abstract settings exudes a Doom style level design, albeit still with more verticality and even platforming. Spider/beetle-like enemies called Terrainians feature in the DOS and Saturn versions, replaced by scorpions on PlayStation (with both in the remaster), with spider webs and nests present in levels such as Abydos; the second boss Selkis spawns a number after death, implying a relation to them similar to that of Shial. Am-Mit functions similarly to Cerberus minus the fireballs. The Omen Wasps fly erratically similar to Gargoyles; a bunch of juvenile wasps are also released by the Kilmaatkhan upon death. While Blood lacks a conventional pistol, PowerSlave instead lacks a shotgun, sharing a sharpened garden tool, machine gun, thrown explosives, magical staff, and cursed talismans. PowerSlave has a flamethrower that sets people on fire, and the player themselves can be set alight by lava. The game features Bone Eel-like Piranhas, though unlike other Build engine titles, the player cannot use firearms underwater (although Blood does restrict use of fire based weapons while submerged) and, while a scuba-like Sobek mask is also present, submerged oxygen deposits can also be found. The inventory is further filled out with the expected invulnerability, health restoration (also as a human heart), a torch, and double damage powerups; while still triggered on demand, they require collected magic power to use (on console the Sandals of Inkumper artifact is similar to the Jump Boots from Blood, with the Horus Feather similar to the cancelled "raven flight" powerup). As an inversion of the beast mode that was supposed to feature in Blood after killing enemies, the mummies in PowerSlave can turn the player temporarily into one of them, armed with a powerful one shot attack.
- The game was not shipped with a level editor, although the version from William Shatner's TekWar was mostly compatible, leading to the fan add-on Return to Ruins posted on Duke4.
- Duke Nukem 3D from 1996 popularized many conventions, extended from Doom, present in its later Build engine stablemate Blood. These notably include a talking protagonist, quirky weaponry, inventory items, pop culture references, underwater combat sections, jumping and platforming, realistic locations, and destructive and interactive objects and environments. Many of these features made their way into Blood at the insistence of Duke designer George Broussard, even if the relationship between Monolith and 3D Realms ultimately broke down. Shadow Warrior (1997) continued developing these ideas, releasing just months after Blood in the summer of 1997, and in addition shared room-over-room and voxel enhancements, but also added usable turrets and drivable vehicles. Similar influences are exuded in various successors, as delineated below, such as Redneck Rampage (1997), SiN (1998), Prey (2006), Duke Nukem Forever (2011), as well as Ion and Phantom Fury (2019-2024).
- The source code to Duke Nukem 3D was released in 2003 and the code for Shadow Warrior in 2005 by 3D Realms. This lead to numerous port projects, such as EDuke32 which served as the basis for BloodCM and later NBlood (as well as Ion Fury), and laid the groundwork for their respective components within BuildGDX and Raze.
- Haunted Nukem (2015) for Duke Nukem 3D utilizes numerous Blood assets.
Post
[edit]These games were released around or after the release of Blood or Blood II, and therefore might not actually all be coincidental.
- Redneck Rampage, another Build engine title released adjacently to the original Blood in the spring of 1997, also has a level set in a mortuary similar to E1M1: Cradle to Grave and even hides a health boost inside the crematorium. The level ends with the player descending into a grave, rather than starting by rising out of one however. The mausoleum lying beneath is also similar to E3M8: Catacombs, and it even showcases a modest hedge maze ala E2M3: Rest for the Wicked. This is further revisited in the mansion level in the second episode, feeling very similar to a summer E2M4: The Overlooked Hotel. The second level of the game, Lumberland, is of course reminiscent of E2M2: The Lumber Mill. The J.Clucks level is also similar to C2L4: Cabalco Meat Packing Plant from Blood II. Downtown Hickston is somewhat similar to E3M1: Ghost Town, while the Uranium Mines are similar to E2M7: Bowels of the Earth. As with many shooters of the era, both Blood and Redneck Rampage feature a sewer level, although its version is considerably more notorious. The games also share sawed-off shotguns and dynamite, although they are more sophisticated in Blood. The alien vixens phase in and out similar to Phantasms. Billy Ray Jeter clones act like less agile Cultists, while Sheriff Hobbes is similar to Fanatics, the Doberman Dogs are swift like Hell Hounds and Mosquitoes are nuisances like Bats.
- The game is supported by the BuildGDX source port, as well as the Rednukem port by the developer of NBlood, whose work was re-used by Raze. Khokholov also made a Redneck Rampage equivalent to his source reproduction Blood-RE.
- The expansion Suckin' Grits on Route 66 (1998) was developed by Sunstorm Interactive, and opens with a level set in a carnival, including an elaborate horror dark ride. It also features another level set in a slaughterhouse, this time for cattle, and in the second half has its own take on Camp Crystal Lake. It also beat Duke Nukem Forever (2011) to the punch by a considerable degree by featuring the Hoover Dam.
- The standalone sequel Redneck Rampage Rides Again (1998) features a level set on a steamboat, as well as a literal ghost town reminiscent of C5L5: Westworld. It also contains a depiction of the Waco siege, later a subject in Postal 2 (2003), and opens with a level based on Area 51, which had also been seen in Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (1996); the town of Lummockston is also partially submerged similar to Flood Zone in Duke Nukem 3D. Curiously, both the sequel and the earlier expansion contain a level set in a bordello. It also features drivable vehicles similar to Shadow Warrior (1997), although depicting them via weapon sprites rather than as moving sectors.
- The fan add-on Night of the Living Dead (2001) utilizes numerous assets from Blood for its gothic mood.
- SiN features rats that attack the player much like in Blood. In one level of the game protagonist John Blade is also turned into a mutant, which plays much like the planned Beast Mode from the Blood development. Sharing a similar near future setting, the game also has many similarities to Blood II, including levels set in subways, laboratories, sewers, water treatment plants, and corporate offices. Amusingly, the game came out on the very same day as the demo for Blood II, Halloween 1998.
- Wages of Sin (1999) includes many of the same urban locales including a level set in a museum. It also depicts a sect of mutants led by a Robed Cultist.
- Ports to other systems, namely Linux and classic Mac OS, were produced by Hyperion Entertainment, who created similar releases for Shogo: MAD.
- A remaster, SiN: Reloaded, originally was due for a 2021 release but later put out in 2026 on the Kex Engine by Refreshed Supply developer Nightdive Studios and 3D Realms adjacent developer Slipgate Ironworks.
- Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999) features two chapters (Crush Depth and Vicarious Reality) that are very reminiscent of "C3L7: Research and Development" right down to featuring terrariums housing otherwordly creatures and otherwise caged laboratory specimens, as well as advanced weapons research. It should be noted that the expansion to the original Half-Life was released in April 1999, meaning it was under development in the months immediately following the release of Blood II.
- An open port of the GoldSrc engine, Xash3D-FWGS, exists but is legally dubious due to its use of leaked source code. FreeHL is a more legally clear alternative based on QuakeWorld. These can also be used to run mods such as the aforementioned They Hunger (2000-2001).
- Both Quake III Arena (1999) and the Unreal Tournament series (1999-2014) feature a sonorous announcer voice that provides commentary to the action on screen, similar to The Voice from Bloodbath. This is also apparent in many other later games, including the speedrunning platformer SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell (2016) which even features a similar chiding sarcasm for the player's failures as well as acknowledgement of their triumphs.
- The source code to Quake III was released by id Software in 2005, allowing for source ports such as ioQuake3, Quake3e, and vkQuake3. Also available are the online commercial spinoff Quake Live (2010) and the aforementioned free software re-implementation OpenArena (2005-), which features its own booming voice. Unreal Tournament meanwhile is maintained and freely distributed by the OldUnreal community with the blessing of Epic Games.
- Q3 Bloodbath converts numerous Bloodbath maps for Quake III. There is also a Caleb player model available online. Voice packs for Caleb and the other Chosen are available for Unreal Tournament.
2000s
[edit]- Two games named Blood and Blood 2: Back to Brutality were released by Arts of Darkness in 2000 and 2003, respectively, for Commodore 64 computer and its emulators. Apart from the name of the dilogy and its over-the-top violent nature (such as the detailed dismemberment / headshots), there appears to be no further similarity with Monolith's Blood franchise whatsoever.

- Vampire: the Masquerade - Redemption by Nihilistic Software is a gothic-themed action role-playing game that was released in 2000. Unlike the better recognized and well-known game Bloodlines by Troika Games, Redemption features a gothic storyline involving both the Dark Ages and the present time, with levels ranging from middle-ages towns, chapels, monasteries, cathedrals, castles and strongholds to urban areas like warehouses, offices and sewers. There are both ancient (pitchfork included!) and modern weapons, as well as occult items and powers to gain. Despite being a Vampire: The Masquerade game, there's plenty of other types of undead enemies in Redemption, including zombus (sic). The robed Cappadocians in one early quest are also resembling Cabal Cultists a lot (although they do not use firearms). Visually it is often quite reminiscent of Blood, but some elements, like the black humour, are more rare in Redemption. There's a whole party of characters for you to control, with the maximum of four members. The main character shares with Caleb his fate of undeath and having to feed on Life Essence/Vitae (human blood), though in this game (as well as in Bloodlines) there is a deeper emphasis on your undead nature.
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, released by Troika Games in 2004, is situated entirely in the neo-gothic urban setting featuring an intricate, complex plot revolving around a vampire fledgling caught in the middle of a conflict between the undead society's many factions. The levels in Bloodlines include a haunted hotel reminiscent of The Shining, city hubs, hospitals, graveyards - mixing typical city environments with traditional horror settings that can also be found in Blood levels. The game's grim, cynical atmosphere and liberal use of black humour are quite similar to Blood, though being a role playing game, Bloodlines includes more gameplay elements other than shooting and solving puzzles. Both Bloodlines and Redemption have levels where the architecture is made of flesh.
- Although conceptually distinct, the 2000 action role-playing game Deus Ex does bear some artistic similarities to the Blood series, most importantly due to it's gruff voiced trench coated protagonist and it's emphasis on dark urban environments similar to much of Blood II: The Chosen. Both games place a heavy emphasis on subway systems, and Deus Ex does have two sequences taking place in a crypt and one in a cathedral.
- Max Payne (2001) by Remedy Entertainment also has a few things in common with Blood: the general noir style prevalent throughout the whole story, a gloomy protagonist suffering from loss of loved ones and seeking revenge. Max wears a trenchcoat, and combat often happens in desolate urban areas. Many locations in the game are covered with snow, and the action happens during the night-time - which invokes certain similarities with the second episode of Blood. The psychedelic dream sequences include Max walking on the trails of blood, suspended in a black void. A more direct similarity is in the games' conception, as both were started as projects supported by 3D Realms.
- The 2002 console exclusive first-person shooter TimeSplitters 2 features several eras appropriate for Blood, including early 20th century, near future, and the old west. This includes weaponry such as a Tommy Gun, TNT, and a double barreled Shotgun, a Sniper Rifle, as well as Proximity, Remote, and Timed explosives. Many of these weapons can be dual wielded in a manner similar to Blood II.
- The series is being reimagined by fans on Unreal Engine 4 as TimeSplitters Rewind.
- The 2003 horde shooter Will Rock features two-headed Cerberi as part of its theme of classical Greece. It also features rat enemies.
- In a similar vein with the previous title, The Punisher (2005) is another gruesome third-person shooter with a long-coated, perpetually grim protagonist on a vigilante crusade against the murderers of his family. Frank Castle's coarse voice and cold remarks can instantly remind players of Caleb. The game's dark urban (and occasionally cyberpunk) style and extreme violence including a whole plethora of execution and torture sequences make The Punisher a worthy spiritual successor to Blood.

- American McGee's Alice (2000), a third-person horror game includes prominent use of gory combat, haunting soundtrack and twisted grotesque environments. Constructions similar to the Blood "In The Flesh" map appear in the late stages of the game, while the weapons and early levels in Alice are quite similar to the playful dark humour of the carnival level from Blood.
- A 2003 horror shooter game, Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi involves a journey into a vampire count's castle, where the main hero, James Patterson, is trying to save his sister and other relatives from a marriage celebration gone terribly wrong. The presence of vintage flintlock pistols, cane sword, muskets, revolvers and holy water, together with enemies including lesser and greater vampires of both genders, ghouls and zombies, makes this game a staple of the early horror first-person shooter genre, just like Blood. The gothic architecture of the Count's castle is similar to some levels present in the first Blood, but is unusual in that it is generated randomly on each new playthrough - coupled with a time limit imposed on the player during the rescue of his family, this makes the gameplay quite a challenge.

- The 2004 first-person shooter Psychotoxic features an antagonist named Aaron Crowley who bears more than a little resemblance to Caleb, with glowing red eyes, a dark broad rimmed hat, black jacket, and white buttoned shirt.
- The 2005 first-person shooter Area 51 features a melee focused mutant mode that functions almost identically to the beast mode originally envisioned for Blood, with a meter that allows activation filled up through pickups and kills. The game was later released as freeware, and was worked on by John Romero during his time as an employee of Midway Games.
- The 2005 console first-person shooter Darkwatch features a similar weird western horror setting to Blood, and a maniacal hat-wearing protagonist with a thirst for blood. The game also features a rotund zombie with projectile vomit. Darkwatch has been cited as an influence on the 2022 third-person shooter Evil West by modern Shadow Warrior developer Flying Wild Hog.
- The 2005 first-person shooter Vivisector: Beast Within, aside from sharing an initial conception by 3D Realms, features a Tesla Cannon and a level set on a moving train that ultimately crashes.
- Sacred, a 2004 action role-playing game by Ascaron Entertainment, includes robed cultists called Sakkara Priests among the commonly encountered enemies. These fanatics cast magic spells, practice demon worship (e.g. human sacrifice, summoning infernal entities) and utter various curses when approached by the player character. Blood II features a region known as the Saqqara Underground, but ironically this level does not feature any cultists, robed or otherwise.
- Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005), akin to Blood, makes many references to the Lovecraftian horror fiction. The humanoid fish monsters play a major part in the game, although they are more closely tied with H. P. Lovecraft's original concept of The Deep Ones. Most levels of Call of Cthulhu happen at cold autumn/winter night or underground, with player being heavily overpowered by a multitude of monsters. It also shares with Blood its themes of insanity, wickedness and vicious cults. Plus, there is a Tommy Gun with the drum magazine!
- Clive Barker's Undying (2001) is a first-person shooter horror game focusing on topics of the occult, curses and corruption. The player can utilize the power of magic in addition to conventional weapons. In Undying, spells are used directly or with an optional aid of a magickal stone, while Caleb uses magic via talismans. The game has rather extensive graphic violence and gory after-death sequences mocking or scaring the player. Locations to be visited include a mansion, a crypt and a monastery.

- GTA: Long Night, a 2005 total conversion modification by The Fighting Hellfish for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, features a very atmospheric urban zombie horror setting. Following the original game's story, defeated antagonist and drug baron Ricardo Diaz returns from the grave as a zombie to kill and take back his criminal empire from Tommy Vercetti, former protagonist of Vice City. Diaz's revenge rouses hordes of other undead citizens that quickly wipe out nearly all of Vice City's current population, leaving only a small group of survivors who manage to take temporary refuge in a movie studio. Long Night is notable and memorable for its non-linear narrative consisting of both flashbacks and present time missions from various playable survivor characters, who face unique and extreme challenges in what has now become a Zombie City. In stark contrast to the original, all action happens at near pitch-black midnight devoid of normal cars and pedestrians typical of any GTA game. It definitely shares with Blood its oppressive atmosphere of loneliness and hopelessness. Long Night's zombies are capable of running at full speed and attack the player ceaselessly in constantly respawning hordes, making for much more hardcore gameplay than base game. Thankfully, the mod's rendition of Sawed-Off Shotgun is exceedingly powerful, downing several enemies per shot.
- The first-person shooter video game Soldier of Fortune (2000) contains one level set on a train similar to that found in E1M3: Phantom Express. The opening subway level is also reminiscent of several levels found in Blood II. It also includes a "Microwave Pulse Gun" which is broadly similar to the Tesla Cannon. The GHOUL engine that powers the game's "gore zones" provides similar features to those supplied by the Limbloss modification for Blood II by Andy Guillaume, which itself was based on experiments during the Blood II development.
- In Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), upon being raised from his 1000-year imprisonment, Heinrich I exclaims "I live again!" RTCW contains a Tesla Gun that is quite similar to the Tesla Cannon from Blood as well as Dynamite and a Thompson Submachine Gun (albeit more military inspired than the classic gangland-derived weapon of Blood). Also, Deathshead's Super Soldier laboratory has been described as similar to "C1L6: Center for Disease Management". Many of these similarities probably come from RTCW being set only 15 years after Blood. The game was also developed by the re-badged developers of fellow Build engine game Redneck Rampage.
- The source code was released in 2010 leading to source ports such as iortcw.

- Postal 2 (2003) contains a wide variety of similarities to Blood and Blood II such as a talkative anti-heroic trench-coated protagonist (though more morally ambiguous than downright evil), an implementation of head kicking, similar urban environments to Blood II including a meat factory and water filtration plants, and interactions with non-playable characters similar to that of Innocents. Both games feature deliberately over the top violence but Postal 2 also features obscenity, stereotypes, and other shock-value functions as well as subtle (and not so subtle) social commentary. Reviews and user comments of the game also have compared the Postal Dude's numerous quips to those of Caleb.
- The 2005 Postal 2 expansion Apocalypse Weekend also features some similarities to the Blood series such as the introduction of zombies which can have their heads removed (though unlike Axe Zombies, they will continue to move and attack the player unless the head is actually destroyed) and hospital levels exhibiting some of the dark tones of E3M4: The Sick Ward, or the Blood II fan map Hospital of Souls, as well as a bridge level. It also for the first time allowed the player to dismember bodies, a feature similar to that provided by the Limbloss modification for Blood II by Andy Guillaume.
- Several weapons and elements from both the Eternal Damnation (see above) and the A Week in Paradise fan modifications have made their way into the main product as updates, bringing the original game even closer to Blood.
- The 2015 Postal 2 DLC Paradise Lost features a new powerup called "Habib's Power Station", a can of soda that acts as the game's equivalent to the first Blood's Guns Akimbo powerup; when drank, it allows the Dude to produce a second copy of his current weapon (any pistol or automatic weapon, two of the shotguns, the rocket launcher, or scissors) to fire alongside his first one. Interestingly, however, the double-barreled shotgun is not able to be used akimbo.
- The 2005 Postal 2 expansion Apocalypse Weekend also features some similarities to the Blood series such as the introduction of zombies which can have their heads removed (though unlike Axe Zombies, they will continue to move and attack the player unless the head is actually destroyed) and hospital levels exhibiting some of the dark tones of E3M4: The Sick Ward, or the Blood II fan map Hospital of Souls, as well as a bridge level. It also for the first time allowed the player to dismember bodies, a feature similar to that provided by the Limbloss modification for Blood II by Andy Guillaume.

- In Doom 3 (2004) there is a new type of zombie that does not appear in any other Doom game (excepting 2009 spin-off Doom Resurrection): the Fat Zombie, which is similar to the Bloated Butcher, except that it wears an open shirt, and attacks only with its fists. There is also a section of the game where the protagonist is riding on a Monorail eventually crashing it it in a manner reminiscent of Blood II: The Chosen. Some parts of the Delta Labs also share a similar feel to "C3L7: Research and Development", with new weapons and portal technologies being developed and various specimens from other worlds or dimensions being experimented on. CabalCo and the UAC share many similarities: a focus on R&D, caring about progress before safety, a willingness to risk their own members in scouting missions to hostile new dimensions (compare the scouts in hell to the scouts in Reality Beta), and sheer monopoly over many industries giving them no legal or moral obligations and control over dangerous advanced technology.
- The game received a somewhat truncated port to the original Xbox console, as well as full ports to Linux and Mac OS X. The source code to Doom 3 was released in 2011, leading to source ports such as Dhewm3. A controversial re-release, The BFG Edition, was first put out in 2012 and also saw its code made available, leading to ports such as RBDOOM-3-BFG.
- The later Monolith Productions game The Operative: No One Lives Forever from 2000 features levels set on a moving train, loading docks, hotels, an aircraft, a lumbermill, mountains, a monastery, and a cemetery, as well as a section very similar to C1L5: Steam Tunnels from Blood II. The game also finally implements the Spear Gun cut from the original Blood during development. The 1960s setting makes it take place only forty years after Blood chronologically. Unlike Blood however, the game explicitly prohibits the player from harming civilians, with any such hit causing an instant mission failure.
- The sequel No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way from 2002 and its stand-alone spin-off Contract J.A.C.K. from 2003 features a Tommy Gun. NOLF 2 also features a faction of mimes lead by Pierre the Mime King, as well as a hairspray disguied gadget reminiscent of the Aerosol Can. The game's non-linear level structure also realized what had been an initial ambition for Blood II.
- Despite a concerted attempt by Refreshed Supply developer Nightdive Studios in 2015, the rights for the NOLF games are tangled between numerous parties, including Warner Bros. Games (as owners of Monolith), Disney (as owners of 20th Century Fox), and Microsoft (as owners of Activision). In the absence of an official remaster or even a digital re-release, the community has produced Revival versions that are patched for modern systems.
- The still later Monolith Productions game F.E.A.R. from 2005 features many levels similar to Blood II: The Chosen including a sewage treatment plant, corporate offices, and condemned tenements, with the game's soldier enemies also being similar to Fanatics. It also has something of a focus on using guns two at a time, with the player able to use the default pistols and, in the Xbox 360 version, a pair of larger machine pistols akimbo. The third-party stand-alone expansion pack Extraction Point (2006) also has similarities to the original Blood, featuring a haunted cathedral, funeral home, and hospital, as well as subway stations much like those in Blood II. Perseus Mandate (2007) contains a trainyard.
- The Monolith developed sequel F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2009) also features an interval set in a hospital and has the player move through subways, while also featuring a corporate laboratory with imprisoned test subjects similar to "C3L7: Research and Development" in Blood II.
- The Bloat, of Killing Floor (2005 mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, 2009 standalone game on Unreal Enigne 2), greatly resembles the Bloated Butcher: both are obese zombie-like foes that use meat cleavers and corrosive vomit to attack the player(s). However, the Bloat is nude and can be heard speaking actual phrases, compared to the fully-clothed Bloated Butcher, which can only moan incoherently at the player. Additionally, the Bloat has no ranged attacks like the Bloated Butcher - it cannot toss its meat cleaver or spit its vomit as a projectile - and it explodes on death from regular damage, showering its nearby foes in its bile.
- The Ukrainian first-person shooter You Are Empty (2006-2007) features large, bald, lumbering zombies wearing white wifebeaters. A fair bit larger than a Bloated Butcher, they throw manhole covers rather than knives. The game also features a mid-20th century setting, that of Stalinist Russia, and an arsenal including a double-barreled shotgun, tommy gun, and an electricity gun. Levels include a hospital, lumbermill, train stations and locomotives, as well as city streets and industrial locales.
- An updated re-release, You Are Empty: Absolute Edition, was announced in August 2026 for October 27, 2026 by the Jordan Freeman Group, who operate the DRM-free ZOOM Platform; it will also launch on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

- In Call of Duty: World at War (2008), a minigame known as "Nazi Zombies", in the maps "Shi no Numa" and "Der Riese", contains a weapon known as "Wunderwaffe DG-2", which fires a bolt of electricity towards enemies. The file name for the DG-2 is apparently "Tesla", which is coincidentally a nod off to the Tesla Cannon. In addition to the two maps, an enemy known as the "hellhound" (a demonic dog that attacks with its fangs and claws or explodes on the player) is featured in the game; when injured or nearing the player, the hellhound suddenly catches on flames, indicating it will explode when killed or on contact - similar to the fire based attack of the Blood Hell Hound. World at War also contains weapons that appeared in the Blood series, such as the Sawed-Off Shotgun, Thompson Submachine Gun (which appears more like its military counterpart, though can be fitted with the drum magazine of the version in Blood), a ray gun, a combat knife and a type of timed explosive known as the "Monkey bomb".
- The logo of the Brazilian militia in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) is a bloody hand-print, similar to the one on the boxart of Blood. Interestingly as well, one of only two shotguns in the game that can be used akimbo is a sawed-off double-barreled variety. Additionally, one of the available emblem layers in the sequel Black Ops (2010) also resembles the Blood boxart.
- Much of the Penumbra series (2006-2008) takes place in an abandoned Arctic mine similar to the one found in "E2M6: The Cold Rush". The game also has the protagonist Philip facing off against giant spiders, much like those found in Blood, as well as infected canids. In Penumbra: Black Plague to solve a puzzle the player also must make a flame-thrower from an Aerosol Can and Zippo. The voice of the Tuurngait Hive Mind also sounds similar to that of The Ancient One through the Undead Chosen; Lani Minella, who voiced Ophelia and Gabriella, is credited for the voice of the Hive mind. Penumbra also features a scene where a person is lit on fire.

2010s
[edit]- The Trine 2 (2011) expansion pack Goblin Menace (2012) includes a level set inside a worm's stomach which plays rather similarly to E4M7: In The Flesh from Blood.
- Certain enemies in The Darkness II (2012) have been compared to the Fanatics in Blood II: The Chosen.
- The freeware first-person shooter LAB (2017) features multiple enemies with projectile vomit, similar to the Bloated Butcher. Unlike the Butcher however, their spew is capable of bouncing along the floor.
- The Doom official add-on entitled Base Ganymede (2009-2012) ends in a level with winding biological interiors reminiscent of E4M7: In The Flesh.
- The replacements for the Golem from Heretic (1994) in Blasphemer (2009-) are figures in grey robes similar to a Fanatic called Ghouls.
- The short lived 2013 indie sandbox first-person shooter Frozen Nightmare featured using a tommy gun in wintry environments. It later evolved into the space game Diversitas.
- The indie game Amishion Impossible features a shotgun and pitchfork as primary weapons. It was created for 7DFPS 2014, with an Amiga version created in 2018.
2020s
[edit]- The indie first person shooter Affliction Rescue (2020) opens with a level set in a hedge garden.
- The standalone GZDoom game KLOINKS! (2024) features tossable dynamite bundles similar to Blood, despite going for a family friendly claymation aesthetic.
- The 2026 first-person shooter Mouse: P.I. for Hire, owing to a shared (although cartoonish) early 20th century setting, features several similarities to Blood. This includes throwable dynamite bundles and a tommy gun (aka James Gun) that has a spray alternate fire, as well as levels set in an opera house, steamboat, docks, laboratory, mansions, swamps, and sewers, in addition to fighting a faction of evil cult members. It also features a free kick and freeze gun similar to Duke Nukem 3D, as well as levels set on a film set and military submarine.
See Also
[edit]- Fan Media Category: for Blood works made by fans.
- References in Blood: for references to other media made inside of Blood.