Yeah I know what you're thinking. "Eh? What's he doing wasting time on an old game?" Well, it was on special and, being a huge fan of the original, I couldn't resist it. Damn I'm glad I did! I haven't had so much fun playing a game in ages! I laughed, I killed and, occasionally, shat myself. This comes from playing it at night.

After a hassle-free install, I was immediately impressed with the intro. Smooth, stylish and gives you an immediate insight into the evil sod that is you. You start off on a train with knife in hand. Gideon (the dude trying to kill you and that you're after) is in control and you have to stop him. A quick flick of the knife at the first bad guy gives you your Beretta and then your set. Of course, by the time you get to the front of the train, Gideon is gone and the train is heading for a crash (this is just the first one). Thus begins your adventure. Killing, maiming, slicing, dicing, ripping and shredding, all part of the fun in your endless quest to clip Gideon's nuts.

First, if anyone reading this is one of those anti-PC violence types, please piss off. No-one likes you. Go dig a hole and bury yourself in it. Do us all a favour. Right, now that the self-righteous arseholes have buggered off, let's get down to the decent stuff. You notice straight away that Blood2 lives up to it's name and the original game in gore and violence levels. There's blood, meat, appendages and brains everywhere and it rocks! The bad guys in the first chapter are, for the most part, not much of a challenge. Gimps in suits, axe wielding zombies and annoying alien bug type things, all of which can be taken out quite easily with a well placed sawn-off shot. After that it starts getting a bit harder. All sorts start coming after you. Huge monsters in skirts who shoot fireballs out of their heads, floating ghostlike things who shoot electricity at you, even sickle-wielding priests who disappear every time you try to shoot them. All part of the fun.

As far as weapons go, the variety is great. A nice idea in Blood 2 that I haven't seen before is the following: you have 10 slots for weapons, but there are about 15 weapons available in the game. Once you're full, you need to discard a weapon in order to pick up a new one. A great idea which makes you think about what you'll need and not need. Some of the weapons are carry-overs from blood two and some are all-new ,death-dealing carnage invokers. The following are some of the weapons available: beretta (standard pistol), sub-machine gun (rapid fire pistol), flare gun (all-time classic), sawn-off shotgun (enuff said). All of these can go akimbo if you pick up another one (for those who didn't play the original, akimbo means you can use one in each hand at the same time). After that there's a sniper rifle (this is VERY handy), napalm gun, minigun, Howitzer and plenty more. Also you get your magical weapons: the voodoo doll, the life leech (takes off enemy health and gives to you) and the Orb (evil little ball that drills into your skull - anyone who's seen the film 'Phantasm' will know it).

What really makes this game, in my opinion, is the sound and the atmosphere. The sounds are realistic and not at all overpowering. The music is awesome. It suits the game perfectly and makes sure that you're never relaxed. Then there's the speech. Yeah I know... every game has speech. Let me tell you, though. No other game has the kind of humour and comments that Blood 2 has. It's hillarious! It's got it's own brand of dark, gross humour that even the most prudish of people could laugh at. things like "What we have here is a failure to coagulate" and "When you get to Hell, tell the I sent you. You'll get a group discount" all add to an atmosphere that is as good, if not better, than any other game I've played.

Even though the graphics weren't as good as other games, Monolith made the most of what they had. they produced great scenery, structures and wall textures and ensured that the game flowed smoothly from start to finish.