im sorry, but is this game supposed to be fair?

[JolyJew СлаваУкраине]

i usually have no problem with challanging FPS.

i beat both Dooms on Ultra Violence, all Serious Sams on Seriuos, Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem on hardest (no pain no gain, and come get some)

but in this game, the difficulty is straight up UNFAIR.
i know Extra Crispy is the "nightmare" difficulty so i picked Well Done. and the main issue is - you are forced to save-scum.
there are areas you simply cannot progress without dying first, and reloading. because the cultists have inhuman reactino time, hell, TF'2 sentry gun is less dangerous than the cultists, the instant, and i mean the 0.01 second you got into a cultist's sight, you get damaged by unavoidble hitscan
so even if you just took a peek around a corner, you will instantly get damaged for 50+ damage by the time you see those cultists

so the whole game is 1) open a door 2) die to instant cultist fire 3) reload 4) approach said door again, and throw TNT from corners without seeing the enemy.
rinse and repeat until all enemies are dead.

this kind of save-scum induced gameplay is not fun at all.

[Steven Seagull]

Use the Made to Order difficulty and lower the cultist agression:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1010750/discussions/0/1640915206488544408/

[Steven Seagull]

You can also lower their accuracy.

[Zaxx]

Eh, Blood works differenty than other old school shooters in the sense that the difficulty settings not only modify enemy numbers but also their health, the damage they deal, the time it takes them to react after seeing you etc.

Because of this the difficulty settings can vary a lot, it's not something like UV in Doom. Also: the game is hard, Extra Crispy is supposed to be the co-op difficulty, Well Done is a very tough single player difficulty for more experienced players, Lightly Broiled is around Shadow Warrior's No Pain No Gain and from there the difficulty scales pretty well with the first two being easy and normal respectably.

For a first playthrough I don't think you should go higher than Lightly Broiled: you don't know the game's mechanics yet so Well Done will be the save scummy wreckfest you just described on your first run. Well Done is great fun for replaying the game later down the line but it benefits a lot from the game's nuances, you're just not there yet. With time your strategy and reaction time will get better so later down the line you'll be able to bait cultists to walk into your line of sight or just hit them before they hit you in the right situations (for example with FS's precise mouse aiming it's absolutely possible to flickshot a cultist even on Well Done, you just have to feel your angles).

Edit: Don't use Made to Order just yet, you'll only develop bad habits. For example if you increase enemy numbers to Extra Crispy and leave their HP, damage and reaction time on Lightly Broiled you'll end up with a game that's a lot easier than regular lightly broiled because more enemies drop more health and ammo.

[JolyJew СлаваУкраине]

k looks like ill stick to Lightly Broiled then.
although im already 3 stages in, so i guess ill switch after the 1st episode

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Jolly Jew:

k looks like ill stick to Lightly Broiled then.
although im already 3 stages in, so i guess ill switch after the 1st episode

Well, if the second half of Episode 1 doesn't make you hate your life then you might as well just leave it on Well Done for Ep2 since that's the easiest episode of the game. :)

[Sgт.SтавSтавS]

Personally i like Highest Monster health, low player damage, max monsters, low shotgun, lowest tommy gun accuracy.

Wish it had some options for the phatasms & gargoyles projectile attack aggression, i think i'd put them up to max to stop those two monsters just charging at you all the time.

[rainy blues]

this is my first old school FPS game that I try to beat soo I went for well done and reaction time and damage done by cultists is insane

[Supa]

Even the Lightly Broiled feels unfair to me... I just play on the difficulty above that even thought the game is a bit too easy with it. I've had enough of mini sentries in my lifetime.

[Enker-Zan]

Monolith is known for making hard mother-f*ckers, this is game is one of em. But once you learn how the game works, it's actually not that bad. It's just that the learning curve is steep.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Enker-Zan:

Monolith is known for making hard mother-f*ckers, this is game is one of em. But once you learn how the game works, it's actually not that bad. It's just that the learning curve is steep.

The problem with the learning curve is kind of coming from two areas:

1. You have a lot of weapons with all of them having 2 firing modes and on top of that the arsenal is quite "exotic" so it takes time to figure out how to use everything effectively.

2. The enemy reaction time / hitscan problem + the game having some weird mechanics. You can only deal with hitscan effectively if you really know how the AI works (basically they shoot super well but when it comes to their field of vision they suck so your objective is to expolit that weakness) and some mechanics are a lot more useful than in other games (like how in Blood crouching makes your hitbox smaller so enemies will have a harder time hitting you).

Once you solve that stuff you realize that the game is giving you tons and tons of options and that's when you start feeling that the game is fair.

[>M@tEo$<]

A guy made some series called Pro Blood on YouTube (for Doom and DN3D too I believe), this can help

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by >M@tEo$<:

A guy made some series called Pro Blood on YouTube (for Doom and DN3D too I believe), this can help

Yeah, it's from Civvie and his videos can give you good pointers, not so much when it comes to the gameplay part but for some of the more important mechanics, secrets and stuff.

[Adaaification]

Blood was never intended to be fair i guess. Old school games never were and you had to deal with it and grow with it. Blood took it to new extremes in some regards. Most shooters added just more enemies when you choose a different difficulty, a tradition dating back to the third Wolfenstein (Wolfenstein 3D). Blood ♥♥♥♥♥ on it, adding extra health, aggression and accuracy to the enemies. And even secondary attack modes. And were 3D shooters added only a few enemies here and there, Blood throws legions at you. So yeah, it is not fair. You as player have the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ card.


But when you take your time, study the mechanics and learn how the game works it flows pretty nicely. Use the pitchfork for zombies, crouch and strafe against the butchers, use dynamit around a corner, use glitches to your advantage, etc. When you know how it works you can get the upper hand. But that takes time. But that is the beauty of this old games. They dont take you by the hand, they challenge you to learn and evolve. And after that you can master them in every possible way. I think that is the true beauty of Blood.

No matter how unfair it is, when you learn your craft it becomes not easy but possible.

[Supa]

And so quickly this place is full of "OH GOOD OL GAMES SO HARD SO GREAT" type of people. The thing here is that you can play Quake on nightmare and still run around the map but HERE? Here you get turned into a swiss cheese in a nanosecond because you didn't want to cheese (HAAHAAAAAAAAAAA) with TNT and corners. Or switching to melee every time you see a zombie because otherwise you run out of ammo.

If you guys really love corridor shooters with hitscan that much I have good news for you: You will love most of the modern shooters.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Supa:

And so quickly this place is full of "OH GOOD OL GAMES SO HARD SO GREAT" type of people. The thing here is that you can play Quake on nightmare and still run around the map but HERE? Here you get turned into a swiss cheese in a nanosecond because you didn't want to cheese (HAAHAAAAAAAAAAA) with TNT and corners. Or switching to melee every time you see a zombie because otherwise you run out of ammo.

That's one of the biggest misunderstandings when it comes to this game.

Like sure, dynamite is really useful for checking corners and high places because lots of time enemies are placed as a trap but you have options on all the difficulty settings.

Here's a quick example on Well Done from the beginning of Post Mortem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLz9cmaV558
What am I doing against hitscan here? At first I crouch and peak so I know I'll get minimal damage if I get shot... and I get shot so I kill one guy and get back to cover. Then the remaining guy starts moving forward to the spot where he saw me so I know that I can peak again and frag him without taking damage if I'm fast enough.

Then at the other row I see that another guy got triggered and starts moving forward so I try to find out which side of the box he's going to. He chooses the side that's left to me so I know that I can't go there because chances are I'll get shot from that close. But I know that the AI has a bad field of vision so I can safely jump over the box and flank him.

Then the tommy gun guy notices me, shoots at me and misses (because I was crouching and I got lucky) so I get back to cover and I know he'll start moving forward in the direction he saw me. That gives me plenty of time to move around the room and flank him.

So Blood is kinda about understanding how the game limits your movement and about baiting the AI into doing stupid ♥♥♥♥. Sure, they are hitscanners and they shoot quickly if they see you but they have a hard time turning around, their field of view is pretty bad and they are dumb. That gives you plenty of options.

Another thing is resource management. You have to use your ammo well most of the time because it's easy to waste stuff but even more importantly armor matters. If you're armored up then cultists will do negligable damage so you have to explore the maps to get the protection you want. Most of the Monolith episodes have a lot of armor on their maps, it's only in Cryptic Passage where mass hitscan can become a problem because armor is rare.