A Mystical scroll has been stolen, one that could change the balance of power in the struggle for the underworld. It's time for Caleb to kick butt once again, taking up the fight against the cult - the cult he used to call his own. Cryptic Passage is an add on pack for Blood, one that follows the tradition set not too long ago.
As an add on, Cryptic Passage has some good things to add to the game. For instance, it contains nine large new levels (and one secret level) that are nearly as imaginative as the ones contained in the original game. I say nearly, because the original game had a true tongue-in-cheek salute to specific horror movies and themes that do not exist here.
In the Blood tradition, each level is expansive and very realistic. You will explore an old opera house, an insane asylum, a riverboat, an abandoned mine shaft, castle, and more. Each level leads into the next quite seamlessly, as they did in the original game. Cryptic Passage also contains 4 new Blood Bath levels, for multiplayer enhancement.
What you do not get in this pack are new enemies or weapons - not even a new boss. This was a bit of a disappointment, as that would have made the game more exciting and 'new' feeling. The new levels alone are quite good, and do a wonderful job of adding onto a game that was wonderful to begin with. I'd compare it to the Plutonium Pack for Duke Nukem, although a few new weapons and enemies were made available there. The Cryptic Passage levels were created with the care that was obviously taken with the originals.
If you are a Blood fan, and would like to play some more of the game, then Cryptic Passage is for you. It's even bargain priced so you do not have to spend a fortune getting your fix. If you are looking for new enemies and weapons, you won't find them here, but you will find ten large, new, challenging levels that continue Blood in it's original tradition.
Bottom Line: A continuation of Blood that follows the tradition of the original quite closely. No new weapons or enemies. Level design is almost as good as the original. Contains nine new levels, one secret level, and four Bloodbath levels.
Given that there are dozens of user-created maps for floating around on the Net, Blood fans might wonder if it's worth downloading Cryptic Passage, which features nine standard and four bloodbath levels. Well, wonder no more: Thanks to outstanding level design that takes advantage of all the features of the Build engine, serious Blood fans should consider it de rigeur to download this add-on. Cryptic Passage is the place to satisfy that hunger left when you've finished the original and want some more.
Though it's a little on the thin side, there's even a story to set up the action: Caleb's headed to the Carpathian mountains to pick a scroll that was taken from him by person or thing unknown. Along the way, he shipwrecks in a storm - a storm caused by the same malevolent forces that snatched the scroll from him in the first place. And if you know Caleb like I know Caleb, you've already got a good idea of what's in store: burning, stabbing, shooting, explosions, and enough blood-spilling to fill the river Caleb travels down in the fifth level.
Starting at a boat dock, you'll pass through eight more distinct locales: an opera house, a library, a monastery, a steamboat (reminiscent of the Phantom Express you rode in the first episode of Blood), a graveyard, a mountain pass, a mine, and finally a castle. There's also a secret level called Boggy Creek you can reach in the graveyard: It's pretty easy to locate and definitely worth an excursion, and if you should run into problems finding it you can always select it from the Blood setup menu.
Nine levels might not sound like all that many, but they're all very large - it took me over an hour just to blast my way through the first one, and while I'm admittedly not the greatest Blood player, there's no doubt in my mind that Blood aficionados will have as much as they can handle with this expansion pack. Sloped surfaces and rooms over rooms give the levels about as much realism as you could hope for in a game like this, and as usual The Voice is always ready with some dry witticism during the mayhem (when the Steamboat level begins, he starts singing On the Good Ship Lollipop).
The four BloodBath levels are definitely up to snuff, but most players won't be picking up Cryptic Passage for BloodBath levels - there's a ton of them available on the Net. And while it's true there are some pretty good regular levels on the Net, I haven't found any that were interconnected; Cryptic Passage creates that same sense of traveling in a logical progression from one place to another that made Blood so compelling. About the only problem with any of the levels is that there are a lot of underwater areas - too many, in my opinion, but if you don't mind roaming and fighting underwater then this won't be a problem.
Another area where Cryptic Passage disappoints is in its cutscenes - because there aren't any. In Blood, you were rewarded with an expository (and often disturbing) AVI sequence when you completed each episode; in Cryptic Passage, the end comes abruptly and without warning the moment you kill the stupendously powerful beasties guarding the scroll in the castle. It's a letdown, and though this is only one episode, it could still use a little gravy to go with all the meat in the game.
If you've yet to finish the original Blood levels, there's no real need to rush out and pick up Cryptic Passage. But if you've already extracted your revenge on Tchernobog and long for the sweet taste of bloody revenge once again, you can't go wrong with this expansion.
Cryptic Passage for Blood is a level package for Blood containing 10 single-player and 4 bloodbath levels.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Cryptic Passage for Blood have also downloaded:
Blood: Plasma Pak, Blood, Blood 2: The Chosen, Chasm: The Rift, Crusader: No Regret, Demon Gate: 666 New Levels for Doom & Doom II, Duke: Nuclear Winter, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
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