Blood is a first-person shooter built on the Build engine, developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive. Development began at Q Studios in 1995 with funding from 3D Realms; Monolith acquired Q Studios in November 1996, and on 22 January 1997 all rights were sold to Monolith so that 3D Realms could focus on Shadow Warrior. Nick Newhard directed the game, and the music was composed by Daniel Bernstein and Guy Whitmore.
The player is Caleb, a gunslinger betrayed and killed by the Cabal cult, who returns from the dead to take revenge on the cult's god Chernobog. Monolith enhanced the Build engine with better lighting, real-time shadows and rooms above rooms, and Blood was the first Build game to use voxels.
The shareware version came out on 7 March 1997 and the full game in North America on 21 May 1997. PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports were planned but never completed. Decades later, Nightdive Studios released Fresh Supply on 9 May 2019 and Refreshed Supply on 4 December 2025 for PC and consoles.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | BloodShareware episode. | MS-DOS | Mar 7, 1997 | — | 1 |
| NA | BloodFull retail version on CD-ROM. | MS-DOS | May 21, 1997 | GT Interactive | 1 |
| NA | Blood: Cryptic PassageAdd-on by Sunstorm Interactive. | MS-DOS | Jun 30, 1997 | Sunstorm Interactive | 1 |
| NA | Blood: Plasma PakOfficial add-on by Monolith. | MS-DOS | September 1997 | — | 1 |
| NA | Blood: One Unit Whole BloodCompilation. | MS-DOS | Jul 15, 1998 | — | 1 |
| EU | Blood | MS-DOS | Jun 20, 1997 | Eidos Interactive | 1 |
| WW | Blood: One Unit Whole BloodGOG.com release with both expansions; Steam followed on 14 July 2014. | Windows | Apr 22, 2010 | — | 1 |
| WW | Blood: Fresh SupplyRemaster by Nightdive Studios. | Windows | May 9, 2019 | Atari | 1 |
| WW | Blood: Refreshed SupplyNightdive Studios; also Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. | Windows | Dec 4, 2025 | Atari | 1 |
| WW | Blood: Refreshed Supply | Switch 2 | May 7, 2026 | — | 1 |
Also known as: Blood: One Unit Whole Blood NA1Blood: Fresh Supply WW1Blood: Refreshed Supply WW1
Box art by region
NA Blood
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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ContentSharewareFull version
The shareware release held only part of the game; the full CD-ROM version had all four original episodes plus content missing from the shareware.1
-
CensorshipCensored re-release
Because of its violence, the game also got a censored re-release with toned-down gore.1
-
GraphicsFresh Supply (2019)
Fresh Supply runs on modern operating systems and adds native resolutions up to 4K, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion and interpolation.1
Translations
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Spanish Official
Nightdive Studios2025Windows · Refreshed SupplyReleased · complete
Refreshed Supply includes Spanish (Spain) audio and text, along with French, Italian and German.3
Where to play legally today
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GOG Purchase
-
Steam Purchase
Blood: Refreshed Supply
Windows; English, French, Italian, German, Spanish
Checked: 2026-10-133store.steampowered.com
How to run it today
Buy Blood: Refreshed Supply on GOG.com or Steam for a native Windows version with both expansions. Community source ports such as NBlood, BloodGDX and Raze also exist and need the original game files.
- Blood: Refreshed Supply on GOG gog.com
Best version
Blood: Refreshed Supply (2025) contains the original game with the Plasma Pak and Cryptic Passage add-ons plus the Marrow scenario, and is officially supported on Windows.4
Reception
Blood holds 82/100 on Metacritic. GameSpot gave it 8/10 but called it "just too damn hard", a common complaint. By 1998 it had sold 120,000 copies worldwide.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.