Monolith founder Jason Hall has had to shelve plans to resurrect classic 1997 shooter Blood. Writing on The Postmortem, Hall said he’s received an “unusually short” email from Blood rights holder Atari pouring ice on the project.

“Obviously, I am disappointed. Particularly given Atari’s continued encouragement along with the amount of time, effort and correspondence that I have put into this venture,” he said.

“The only thing that can be done at this point is to wait and see what happens with Atari, and hope that they find themselves in a position and mindset to allow my efforts to continue on this matter at a future date.”

Atari said it was reluctant to proceed under the “current circumstances”, which probably refers to the US arm’s bankruptcy and detachment from its French parent.

Blood was Monolith Productions’ first game, before the F.E.A.R. series, and although not as well known as runaway successes like DOOM, is considered one of the classics of 2.5D shooters.

Source: The Postmortem via Polygon

I, much like most PC shooter-kids now somewhere in the wrong half of their twenties, spent a huge amount of time killing everyone and growing up relatively well-adjusted with a whole lot of FPS games fittingly built on Ken Silverman’s Build Engine.

When Monolith’s former CEO Jace Hall up-and-declared he was seriously thinking about rebooting Blood earlier in the week, I did a sex face. Great game. Full of invention. Lot of risks taken. In fact, if you look back over these 2.5D shooters that were coming out circa mid-to-late 90s, you don’t see nearly as much identikit as you see right now. What you see are devs unfettered by the contraints of big business that often hem them in today, and it’s almost a little sad how remakeable these old things are. I don’t think we’ll be the saying the same thing about a lot of what we’re playing now ten odd years down the track.

In further retrospect, it’s also kind of awesome how many bases these games managed to cover back in the day. We got ninjas, we got rubes, we got crook-ed law­-men, we got sorcerers!

Shadow Warrior

Easily my fave Build effort of all time. WHO WANTA SOME WANG? Man, I did. I mean, what. An endearing and testosteronic caricature on par with The Duke himself, Lo Wang’s misadventures were all about the katana. I went crazy with that thing. Although farcical, the strangest thing about Shadow Warrior was its pensive oriental atmosphere occasionally suggested something more sincere at times. Dare I wish Lo-Wang to return as dour and po-faced?

Redneck Rampage

YES. Moon pies and pork rinds for all! Remember the “gut” meter? Hilarious. I’d be letting trouser-coughs rip all over Hickston in an unsubtle crusade to not hit anything with mah trusty ry-fell ‘cos too drunk. Smash an excessive amount of backwoods hooch and you’d eventually wind up chundering into the dirt, all fuzzy and defenseless. It remains a cautionary tale for today’s youth, surely.

TekWar

I stand by the promise and concept of this game, even if it was totally goddamn awful to play. Not sure how many people give a toss much less remember William Shatner’s TekWar books (I have one! Somewhere! I don’t remember anything about it!), but the game was pretty much a day in the life of a guy with a gun and authority storming into office blocks shooting secretaries and then riding the subway. And look at that brick Ferrari, come on.

Outlaws

We’re straying out of Build Engine territory a bit now, but the song remains the same. One of LucasArts’ most interesting original ideas was also one of its most cultish, famously beloved by John Romero. The Outlaws Mod for Half-Life did it some nostalgic justice, but there’s a shortage of classic Western shooters out there right now – and James Anderson would whip John Marston with his gangly cartoon limbs, easy.

Heretic

This is Doom engine stuff, but the precursor to HeXen (which should also be here, what the hell is wrong with me) was insanely badass and even kicked you in the colon for trying to cheat. Chuck Doom’s ALL WEAPONS RAWR cheat in and it’ll go, “Trying to cheat, eh? Now you die!” And then you die, just like it said. I liked its honesty.

Remember Blood? The 1997 release was the first game from F.E.A.R. developer Monolith, in collaboration with the legendary 3D Realms, and has a deserved cult following. Monolith founder and former CEO Jason Hall certainly remembers it, and wants to bring it back, in all its glory, for modern platforms – PC and beyond. The developer has opened a verified thread on Blood fansite The Postmortem, calling for feedback and suggestions from those with fond memories of the gore-splattered shooter. Hall has secured all the necessary legal rights to produce and release the updated version, and is doing it out of the goodness of his heart – it’ll be free, so he won’t make a return on the investment.

Source: The Postmortem