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BloodBath 5.0.1

Homepage: http://www.planetshogo.com/bloodbath
Download: Mod v5.0, Patch to v5.0.1

The Basics

BloodBath began life rather inauspiciously as a client-side rez file which allowed the user to have souped up weapons while no one else on the server would. Suffice it to say, this incurred the wrath of many loyal Shogo fans (myself included) who didn't want to see Shogo multiplayer go completely down the tubes due to cheating.

Thankfully, the authors had all known copies of the client-side rez deleted and turned it into a full-blown mod! What began life as a major pain, has turned into a load of fun. It's a real rags-to-riches story. Read on . . .

The Gameplay

BloodBath takes almost all the weapons in Shogo and cranks 'em up. To help offset all the carnage, you have a slightly higher armor limit. Every weapon (except the knives) have zoom capability like the assault rifle. Besides that, there's a new HUD (Heads Up Display), and new skins! Here's a list of the changes to each weapon:

MCA
  • Pulse Cannon and Laser Cannon: Same basic concept, much faster firing rate. Both of them use a variation on the on-foot machine gun model.
  • HV Spider: HV stands for High Velocity. The spider mines travel faster, have shorter "fuses", and do more damage.
  • Bullgut Mk2: The quad rockets travel more quickly and fly in a slightly tighter pattern.
  • Slug Rifle: Not much difference, except you can fire at full speed, even when zoomed in.
  • RHVC: RHVC means Rotary High Velocity Cannon. It has a sweet new gatling-gun model (it even spins down!). It is more like the shredder than the juggernaut that it replaces.
  • HVS: HVS means High Velocity Shredder. Once again, it uses a variation of the machine gun model. It is much like the shredder, but with a far faster firing rate. This is my personal favorite MCA weapon.
  • Antimatter Cannon: This Red Riot replacement uses the TOW model. It has been tuned down to the point of near worthlessness. I have nothing against tuning down the Red Riot, but this is a little too far, IMO.

    On Foot
  • Pistols: no effect
  • Super Shotgun: Basically a rapid-fire shotgun with a very nice new model.
  • Chain Gun: It uses the same model as the RHVC and is not unlike the chain gun in Wolfenstein, Quake II, etc. Much more accurate than the machine gun it replaces.
  • Laser Rifle: Another very nice new model, has the same effect as the MCA laser cannon.
  • Energy Hose: When I first saw the name for this gun, I thought, "That's a stupid name." Now that I've played, it makes sense. Again, it uses a variation of the machine gun model. It fires energy grenades (the blue ones) at a lighting-fast pace. This one will really test how fast your graphics card is. This is probably my favorite on-foot weapon.
  • HyperKato Grenades: Much like the Kato Grenades except they bounce much faster and don't last as long. Believe it or not, it is actually a useful weapon now!
  • MACE: MACE = Matter-Antimatter Conversion Emitter. It uses the Red Riot model and shoots, um, cars. Really. These cars travel very slowly but do massive damage. Wraith promises that the gun will shoot other, new projectiles soon (although as it is it's pretty funny).
  • Voodoo Doll: I nearly wet myself when I saw this one. Hilarious! There's a new model, sounds, and hand gestures (the readme says it's from Blood 2). It actually does damage--even more than the MCA Antimatter Cannon!

    One other minor touch: when you score a critical hit, instead of getting a message saying, "CRITICAL HIT!", it says, "SHAZAM!". Since I am old enough to remember when Shazam was on T.V., I got a big kick out of that.

    The Good

    I'll quote the message I posted on the PlanetShogo forums after playing BloodBath for the first time. I think it sums it up as best I can:

    "MAN, OH, MAN! I cannot remember the last time I had that much fun. WOW! And my system didn't crash after 30-45 minutes of Shogo (as it has been--and BB5 really strains it). If you play Shogo and have a pulse you MUST play the mod!"

    What can I say? This mod is just a major rush.

    The Bad

    Umm. Hmm. Umm. Let me think. Oh yeah, I guess there are a couple of minor things . . .
  • All the extra weapon firing means extra messages sent to and from the server. You will probably have lag galore if you have a really poor Internet connection.
  • All the extra weapon firing means extra wear and tear on your system. I had my Celeron 400 and AGP TNT running Shogo with 16-bit textures, high detail, at 800x600 and experienced some pretty bad slowdowns, especially when the Energy Hose was being employed. Owners of slower systems will want to set the detail level to the minimum tolerable.
  • The Antimatter Cannon tuned the Red Riot down way too far. Granted the Red Riot throws Shogo multiplayer way out of balance, but it's been emasculated to the point of complete worthlessness. I'd rather use the pulse cannon or laser cannon than the antimatter cannon.

    The Conclusion

    I had concerns about this mod throwing the game's balance way over to the weapon side, but I didn't find that to be the case. The weapons are supercharged, but not so much so that it's absolutely ridiculous. It reminds me a bit of the Requiem mod for Quake/QuakeWorld in that respect.

    I'll admit it, I was ready to hate this mod. I thought the weapons would be too powerful. I was ready to hate the new skins (after all, how many good skin artists are there?). All my misgivings were proven wrong. The firefights are a blast. The new skins add a nice twist without being distracting or looking like they were drawn with big crayons. I like this mod. A lot.

    All I can say is that if you have Shogo, play this mod. If you run a server, for Pete's sake run this mod! For an interesting twist, try playing Shogo single player with the BloodBath mod running. It'll get you to go through Shogo single player all over again.