Blood: Fresh Supply - remaster by Nightdive Studios, published by Atari

[Wunderbar]

Downloaded update, and now all of my save files are corrupted. "Failed to load save game"

Not a big deal, but still.

 

[Wunderbar]

And glass windows are now indestructible with normal weapons, only explosive will do the trick.

It's raw!

 

[cretin]

so whats the consensus best version of blood to get right now

 

[Wunderbar]

so whats the consensus best version of blood to get right now

gdx

 

[Astral Rag]

NBlood, the new source port based on EDuke32, would be my choice but GDX is still a good option too.

To me NBlood plays and looks the closest to the original (currently about 95% accurate according to people in the know) but with support for modern resolutions, locked (high) framerate and proper mouse input. My old PC can run it in 4k @60fps without breaking a sweat. I can never go back to playing the original game in DOSBox.

You can adjust the FOV and choose between cd and midi audio like you can in Fresh Supply.

See my Death Wish screenshots on the previous page to see how it looks.

Installation is very easy and for Death Wish you can just extract it to your main NBlood folder and it will work. Even the DW movies display fine.

 

[fantadomat]

so whats the consensus best version of blood to get right now

Blood 2 the chosen

 

[Daingerous]

so whats the consensus best version of blood to get right now

Just get GDX

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

God they fucked up on the decision for art in blood 2. Gotta love the original. So squishy and riddled with gore!

If i was to try something else maybe Chasm: The rift over blood 2. I'd still rather play Duke.


Yeah, a bitch to run is right. Ok, I won't trash blood 2 so much. Blood 2 to look like blood perhaps?

 

[Echo Mirage]

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Are there any comparison charts for GDX, nBlood and BFS? Something akin to these.

Why to prefer nBlood over GDX, for instance? Especially if I don't have any allergy to Java's libgdx.

 

[Durandal]

Are there any comparison charts for GDX, nBlood and BFS? Something akin to these.

Why to prefer nBlood over GDX, for instance? Especially if I don't have any allergy to Java's libgdx.

GDX has the best menus, user interface and customizability. You can run custom content and Cryptic Passage in-game without having to shut down the game first, and all custom missions will work on GDX without any problem. Rebinding controls is very intuitive compared to vanilla as the two possible inputs for each action have their separate menu column, so you don't have to rebind an action twice to undo a second binding if you just want one. You can enable the option to see the level name and its author at the start of the level, so you know who to bitch at. It boasts the ability to perfectly replay Blood demos recorded via the vanilla version, so it's probably the most accurate port of Blood to date. Also has stuff like autosaves and save previews.
However, it lacks stuff like a FoV slider, the ability to realign your crosshair with the actual center of the screen, and seems to lack raw mouse input, as mouse aim in GDX feels really off which is a major dealbreaker to me. It also has a custom difficulty settings, but it's fucking borked. For example, if you set the enemy quantity to Extra Crispy levels, you will still get Lightly Broiled amounts of enemies unless you set both Enemy Damage and Enemy Health to Well Done or Extra Crispy, which kind of defeats the point of a custom difficulty. It also gives you the option to automatically pitchfork start each level if you plan to do a pitchfork start run, but even with it enabled your health will still carry over between levels, which to my idea seems to ruin the whole point of doing a pitchfork start run.

nBlood is kinda new so it's not 100% accurate, but probably will be soon. It does support FoV sliders and mouse aim is perfect here IMO, though it lacks all the QoL options and menu options of GDX, as you still have to load Cryptic Passage and other mods from the launcher. Currently my favourite, if only because of the good mouse aim. I also can get playing the MIDI music working with it just fine, whereas in GDX I can only get the redbook music working. I don't know whether this is something I fucked up on my end though. nBlood currently doesn't support movie playback, though you're not missing out on much anyways.

Fresh Supply/KEX/EX/whatever boasts the best multiplayer component currently available, though even on its own it's kind of spotty with frequent disconnects and being lacking in options. Unlike GDX it also has a custom difficulty settings that actually works, and even allows you to tweak more individual factors such as enemy aggression and accuracy, which makes it my go to if I want to play the game on Well Done with Extra Crispy enemy quantities. You get a FoV slider and the ability to enable ambient occlusion, which might make the game look better depending on your view. The HUD can be realigned to a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is useful primarily if you're playing with an ultra-widescreen setup. Many level details and objects have received new 3D voxel models which look great in my opinion. You also get HUD indicators for how long power-ups last, which is especially useful for the invincibility power-up as it had no visual indicator for when it would run out. One of the nicest things about KEX is that getting crushed between doors will no longer instantly kill you, you'll just get pushed out. It may not be accurate to the original, but hey, I'll take it.
That said at this point of writing accuracy-wise the port is still sloppy. They're hard busy on fixing it if the speed and size of the last update is any indication. But for now you might suffer from crashes and glitches which were never in the original. The weapon switching delay is now longer too, so you can't quickly switch between another weapon and your shotgun to quickly reload a single shell. There are some reported compatibility issues with custom missions like Death Wish, so full compatibility isn't 100% guaranteed yet. It also misses the option for HUD elements like a secret, kill, and time counter for some reason. There are a lot of miscellaneous bugs, like crushers going up being able to kill you, Phantasms not emitting blood on being hit, masked textures blocking your bullets, and so on. It also gives me shit when I try to Alt+Tab.

If the mouseaim in GDX doesn't bother you, then stick with it, otherwise go for NBlood. If you want to play multiplayer or really want a custom difficulty setting, go with KEX.

EDIT: GDX has just been updated with a FOV slider and fixed custom difficulty, so go play that one.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Thanks a lot! That's a great summary.

I think I'll stick with GDX for now. GDX's high accuracy and ability to easily run custom content IMHO outweigh its drawbacks.

 

[Nano]

It's a story where the "good" guys are a centuries-old secret death cult led by an actual-no-fucking-shitting-you demon, and you're still technically the "bad" guy....I'm gonna go with a big "YES!!!".

Wait, Blood has a story?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

so whats the consensus best version of blood to get right now

BloodGDX BY FAR. Maybe this one too.

 

[newtmonkey]

I've been putting some time into Blood: Fresh Supply, and it seems sort of off.

I've finished the DOS version (all episodes) on Lightly Broiled a couple of times and have played GDX on the same difficulty level, and Fresh Supply seems quite harder at the same difficulty level.

-Life Essences don't seem to drop nearly as much as in the DOS version, but I might be imagining things here.
-Accuracy/hit detection seems messed up even with auto aim turned on. I can't count the number of times an enemy has been walking to the side and I launch flare after flare only for the flares to pass harmlessly by. There also seems to be a lot of situations where your projectiles get caught on walls even though you have clear line of sight to an enemy.

 

[Astral Rag]

BloodBath is great fun with this engine, when you can get a game going.

Spoiler

And the Award For Best Online Shooter of 2019 goes to Blood Fresh Supply by Nightdive Studios!
-Dorito Pope (The Game Awards 2019)

 

[fantadomat]

I played a few levels of this and feel like the mods are better. This one have higher graphical fidelity but the game play feels fucked up. The things i didn't like could have been fixed by patches,i download it a few days ago and just now tried it out. I noticed that the cultists are a lot more unfair and annoying,in most times i have seen to take damage before they make their animation,they are always dead accurate,also some times when using the shotgun the shot clips trough them and does no damage. I compared it to the bloodcm and it didn't had those problems. Anyway i was never big fan of blood,heat scanning enemy are garbage and the game have mainly such enemies. I rather play some doom,hexen,heretic or duke. They too have such enemies but they fell more of a invisible projectile and you could dodge them.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I didn't have any glaring issues with the release version, completed first two eps and was well into third. But when the first patch hit, it made the main menu not work outside of initially launching the game. The second patch fixed it but now the entire thing started crashing like a 19yo VW Passat driver. So, uh, they're working on it alright.

 

[Curratum]

20 hours of playtime, zero crashes. Beat all episodes, found only cosmetic glitches and issues.

 

[Astral Rag]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1010750/discussions/0/3491891042500872180/

 

[Curratum]

The game is currently at 1.8.8, this footage is 2 patches prior.

 

[JDR13]

I've been putting some time into Blood: Fresh Supply, and it seems sort of off.

I've finished the DOS version (all episodes) on Lightly Broiled a couple of times and have played GDX on the same difficulty level, and Fresh Supply seems quite harder at the same difficulty level.

-Life Essences don't seem to drop nearly as much as in the DOS version, but I might be imagining things here.
-Accuracy/hit detection seems messed up even with auto aim turned on. I can't count the number of times an enemy has been walking to the side and I launch flare after flare only for the flares to pass harmlessly by. There also seems to be a lot of situations where your projectiles get caught on walls even though you have clear line of sight to an enemy.

Not sure if the life essence drops are different, but they don't seem so infrequent as to be an issue.

The flare gun has always been a little spotty in regards to accuracy. I clearly remember having the same issue in the original DOS version.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

These game's physics-defying corpse trajectories make me seriously crack up.

 

[Astral Rag]

Another pair of interesting bugs:

 

[Ezeekiel]

Fresh supply is disappointing so far... I hope they make it more accurate.
Killing ain't quite as fun when the titular blood doesn't even work the same.

The music is also messed up for me. It ends up way too quiet at some point (as in you can barely hear it at all), and Caleb doesn't talk as much as he should imo. Both damage the atmosphere.


Still... Comparing how much more fun the combat was here vs., say, Jedi Knight (Dark forces 2)... Man. Shooters really got worse in some key-aspects, even before the damned xbox came along. And I liked Jedi Knight...
The main characters are another such matter. Can't beat Caleb, Garrett and co. Old school first person protagonists were done so well.


Edit: Bullet sponge bosses aren't challenging or fun though imo compared to regular fights. Would help if they at least had lots of visual damage that you could do to them. Like shoot bits off, whatever. To make it seem less weird to just be blasting away to no obvious effect until they suddenly drop ages later.