I take full credit for Blood: Refreshed Supply existing. Well, partial. I didn’t make it or anything, but I did shunt the Universe hard enough to conjure it by finally getting around to playing Blood through Nightdive’s Blood: Fresh Supply remaster earlier this year. You’re welcome.

I mentioned in that review that reception to Fresh Supply wasn’t the most enthusiastic. The consensus from fans seemed to land on “good enough for the undiscerning,” which is hardly up to the standards of Nightdive’s remasterings. So, they’ve returned to it for a re-remaster with Blood: Refreshed Supply.

And, at first, I felt it was a bit galling. Even if you own Blood: Fresh Supply, you need to pay for the re-remaster. You get a discount, it’s a bit uncharacteristic for Nightdive who seem to prefer to just update old projects. Shadow Man: Remastered got more restored content and tweaks for more than a year. And just recently, Turok and Turok 2 got ported to the KEX Engine. Would another purchase really be worth it for a few extra new features and a newly built expansion?

Maybe. It certainly helps when the expansion is this awesome.

SONUVA BITCH MUST PAY: REMASTERED

For my thoughts on Blood as a game, you can still read my review of Fresh Supply. But, to sum it up here, it’s not Duke Nukem 3D. Its difficulty is front-loaded into a brutal first episode, its hitscan enemies react too quickly, and the level design feels sort of monotonous. I like it, but I don’t love it.

Blood: Refreshed Supply comes packed with an added two-episode expansion, with another four-episode expansion to follow sometime early next year.

The first expansion, Marrow, is pretty rad. I’ll be honest, I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by the expansions Nightdive has added to previous remasters. I know that their authors have varied, but even the expansive Doom + Doom 2 expansion fell short for me. I’ve seen them as nice to have, but usually don’t find them to be of the same quality as the full experience. Marrow, on the other hand, I prefer over the original campaigns.

The levels aren’t very gimmicky, nor do they seem to push the Build Engine past what was possible in the ‘90s. They just lean hard on solid level design. They often loop back on themselves like all the best key-hunts. There’s one that duplicates the moving train motif from the third level of Blood’s first episode, but it throws in a trick that expands it far past what was possible in the concept.

There’s still maybe too many hedge mazes, but I survived.

MARANAX MALAX

Marrow also alleviates some of the issues I had with the base game, not by changing any of the original systems, but simply through good level design. Cultists, who would often react instantly upon seeing you, often start off facing away from your point of entry, allowing you to get the first shot off.

The expansion was done by Nick Palsmeier, and was originally available for free, but he’s added a second episode to it and revamped some of the levels. He intended it to be more horror focused, and you can tell. It has its own style, and ties in some environmental storytelling. You cross through areas where the barrier between dimensions is breaking, so there are big cracks in the ground or even trips through meaty, hellish corridors. It rocks. Suits the protagonist, Caleb, very well.

The second expansion is Deathwish, which is done by Dustin Twilley. It, too, is already available for free, but, like Marrow, it’s coming with an additional episode and a number of fixes. I’m not going to spoil it by downloading the mod early. It will be a nice treat next year.

I LIKE MY HANDS BLOODY

As for the upgrades of the Refreshed edition, the ones that I can appreciate are swappable soundtracks, added (or re-added, as they were scrapped) weather effects, and some modified monster behaviour. Though the gargoyles still suck.

Nightdive was able to get their hands on the source code this time around, which allowed Samuel Villarreal to correct some of the weaker parts of Fresh Supply. What those weak parts were, I’m not totally clear on. Fresh Supply was the first time I played Blood, so I don’t know how it compares to the fanmade source ports.

They also added a “Vault,” which is where Nightdive sticks a bunch of behind-the-scenes goodies. It’s neat. I didn’t realize that a lot of the enemies were made from physical models.

Another upgrade over the previous versions is the cutscenes, which have been remade. At first, I thought they were re-rendered or upscaled, but it appears that they were completely redone, shot for shot. It stays true to the original, but looks a lot better on modern screens. It was a bit hard to discern everything in the original resolution.

RE-REFRESHED

Blood: Refreshed Supply is sort of a strange product. A re-remaster. It feels extremely weird to me, since I just played through Fresh Supply earlier this year. As for whether or not this should have just been an update for Fresh Supply, it’s hard to say. I think playing both versions on PC is what makes it a bit hard to swallow. If Fresh Supply released on Wii U, and Refreshed Supply was being released on Switch, then I probably wouldn’t give it a second thought. Doesn’t feel quite right when it’s on the same platform. At least there’s a discount if you own Fresh Supply.

Regardless, it’s an appreciable improvement over Blood: Fresh Supply. The additional tweaks and bug fixes, plus the restoration of cut content, makes it feel more like a definitive edition. I’m not sure how it compares on a technical level to NBlood or BloodGDX, but it at least has an edge in terms of additional goodies. Plus, you can play this one on console, which will be handy if you’re not comfortable in an office chair.

More importantly, the new episode, Marrow, is top-notch. It’s made me appreciate Blood, in its totality, a lot more. Here’s hoping that Deathwish is of the same quality.

8/10

This review was conducted using a digital pre-release Steam version of the game. It was provided by the developer’s PR.