Blood II: The Chosen
Caleb hunts Gideon through a cyberpunk dystopia in 2028.
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Blood II: The Chosen is a 1998 first-person shooter game developed by Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive. It is the sequel to Blood, shifting the setting from 1928 to the year 2028, blending conventional weapons and magical items with science fiction technology and cyberpunk dystopian elements. The game is noted for its graphic violence and black humor.
Lore & Background
The game takes place in 2028, a century after the events of Blood. The protagonist Caleb has spent that time searching for a way to resurrect his comrades, The Chosen, who were killed by the Cabal, a cult dedicated to the demon Tchernobog. The Cabal has transformed into a global mega-corporation called CabalCo, led by Gideon, who seeks to restore Tchernobog and destroy Caleb. The story begins with Caleb pursuing Gideon through a CabalCo subway train, leading to encounters across New Town, a museum, and various CabalCo facilities.
Along the way, dimensional rifts created by an experimental weapon bring back other Chosen—Gabriella, Ishmael, and Ophelia—as Caleb battles both Gideon and invading creatures from a parallel universe. The game's single-player mode allows the player to choose from four characters, each with different abilities, but only Caleb can complete the story. The Nightmare Levels expansion provides background on each Chosen through nightmares, adding new enemies and weapons.
Setting & Genre Fusion
Blood II: The Chosen, released in 1998 by Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive, marks a significant leap forward from its 1928-set predecessor. By shifting the timeline to 2028, the developers wove together three distinct genre threads: conventional firearms, supernatural magical items, and science-fiction technology.
The result is a game that leans heavily into cyberpunk aesthetics and dystopian fiction while retaining the occult horror of the original. The world of New Town and the sprawling CabalCo mega-corporation provide a backdrop where corporate control and ancient demonic worship coexist. Despite this tonal expansion, the game never sheds its predecessor's DNA: graphic violence and sharp black humor remain central to the experience, ensuring that even the most futuristic encounters carry the same visceral, irreverent energy that defined the first Blood.
Gameplay Mechanics & Character System
The single-player experience in Blood II: The Chosen is structured around a chapter-based progression system, where each level unlocks only after completing the one before it. Players select from four playable characters known as the Chosen, each possessing unique marksmanship ratings, maximum hit points, and armor levels. However, the full narrative arc can only be completed as Caleb, making the other three characters essentially alternate playthroughs with different mechanical profiles.
The arsenal system is deliberately constrained: seventeen weapons exist in the game, some capable of dual-wielding, but only ten weapon slots are available, forcing players to curate their loadout. Most weapons feature a secondary fire mode that trades higher damage output against increased ammunition consumption. Temporary power-ups granting invulnerability, stealth movement, or boosted firepower add tactical variety to encounters.
Narrative & Plot
The story of Blood II: The Chosen spans a full century between the two games. Caleb, the protagonist, has spent one hundred years searching for a means to resurrect his fallen comrades, the Chosen, who were slain by the Cabal, a cult devoted to the demon Tchernobog. In that intervening time, the Cabal transformed under the leadership of Gideon into CabalCo, a global mega-corporation wielding economic power to manipulate the world's population. Gideon's singular purpose is to restore Tchernobog and eliminate Caleb, whom the cult now brands the Great Betrayer.
The plot escalates beyond a simple revenge hunt when an experimental weapon creates dimensional rifts, unleashing creatures from a parallel universe. Ishmael, one of the resurrected Chosen, explains that Tchernobog's death by Caleb's hand tore the walls between realities, and only Caleb, having inherited the demon's power, can rebind them. The climax sees Caleb confronting Gideon's spider form in an ancient citadel, then battling the squid-like true form of The Ancient One before the four Chosen walk home together.
Multiplayer & Character Customization
While Blood II: The Chosen is fundamentally a single-player experience, it includes a multiplayer mode that the developers rebranded as Bloodbath rather than the conventional Deathmatch, a naming choice meant to echo the game's title. In these matches, players select one of the four Chosen—Caleb, Gabriella, Ishmael, or Ophelia—and each character arrives with a distinct starting weapon loadout tied to their individual abilities.
Beyond character selection, the game offers a lightweight customization layer: players assign a score between one and five to four different stats, fine-tuning their fighter's profile before the match begins. This system ensures that no two players approach a Bloodbath identically, even when controlling the same Chosen. The multiplayer mode, though secondary to the campaign, benefits from the same character differentiation that makes the single-player experience varied, giving each of the four protagonists a mechanical identity that carries across both modes of play.
Reader's Guide
Blood II: The Chosen is significant as Monolith Productions' early use of the fully 3D LithTech engine, also employed in Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. The game focuses on single-player experience but includes a multiplayer mode called 'Bloodbath' instead of Deathmatch, where players choose from the four Chosen with varying abilities and customizable stats. The expansion pack, The Nightmare Levels, released in August 1999, added new enemies like Gremlins and the Nightmare boss, as well as weapons such as the combat shotgun and flayer, plus new multiplayer modes like 'Zombie Head Soccer'.
The source code was partly released around 1999 to facilitate modding. The game was re-released digitally by GOG.com on April 29, 2010. Sales were reported as disappointing by Mark Asher of CNET Gamecenter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What year is Blood II: The Chosen set in?
The action takes place in 2028, a full century after the original Blood's 1928 setting. That time jump lets the game blend occult magic with futuristic technology and dystopian urban environments.
What game engine powers Blood II: The Chosen?
The title was built on Monolith's in-house LithTech engine. It was one of the engine's earliest public showcases before LithTech would go on to power later titles such as F.E.A.R.
More in First-Person Shooters of the 1990s
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Blood II: The Chosen (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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