BloodNet

BloodNet
Developer(s)	MicroProse
Publisher(s)	MicroProse
Designer(s)	John Antinori Laura Kambo
Platform(s)	Amiga, DOS
Release	1993
Genre(s)	Adventure game, RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

BloodNet is a cyberpunk RPG / Adventure game published by MicroProse in 1993.

A mix of future tech and gothic vampire story, in the cyberpunk style, BloodNet puts the player into the role of a man named Ransom Stark, who must battle a vampire named Abraham Van Helsing who is attempting world domination and save both humanity and the cybernet. Ransom Stark was bitten by the aforementioned vampire -- but is able to fight of the infection with the help of a computer grafted onto his brain stem.

The game's perspective was similar to Sierra's Quest series of games. The game featured a great deal of written dialog, an open-ended travel system, random encounters, and puzzles, some of which are very difficult. An alternate 'cyberspace universe' was also part of the gameplay, where codewords are needed to travel to different 'wells' (cyberspace locations). Role-playing elements were also present in Bloodnet: the player character and other recruitable characters for the player's party had number-based stats (such as (Perception, Hacking, etc), and combat was based on the player character's attributes and stats.

Despite the uniqueness of BloodNet's combination of verbal detail and thorough adherence to its genre themes, gameplay is incredibly hard to adjust to, with the tough interface and battle system. The music is is somewhat outdated, resembling older games such as Neuromancer, and not what you'd expect from a 1993 game. Backgrounds are largely static and character motion is rough. In contrast, a character is defined by an intimidating list of statistics, of which you don't have to really keep track of, yet they all do indeed have a meanning as described in the manual. Two-phase combat system wherein the player places the party characters almost arbitrarily (without regard to movement), to be followed by an intricate exchange of attacks (the results of which are summarized in a dense modal dialog containing a single paragraph of hit locations and damage points formatted as natural English text.) Cyberspace gameplay is determined by a few attributes such as 'Hacking' (which can be calculated together as a group with all its members, if you have the proper hardware), the Hardware and Cyberware (software that only exists in Cyberspace) you obtain throughout the game will allow you to encounter more and more random Cyberspace entities. And the list of 'well' addresses obtained from NPCs will grow as you step outside the main game plot, and start completing the many side-quests. To summarize a painful review: once (and if you can) get used to the game interface, you will find a whole new dimension of true Cyberpunk enjoyment.

Trivia

• In the foreground at Transtech's Nanomachines Lab, and you'll see a box of Microprose's F-117A game.
• One of the possible side quests in the game allows you to find Elvis, The King, in Cyberspace and download his mind to your Cyberdeck. Elvis's body has died ages ago, but you can look for Cyborg body parts, if you can jury rig a full Cyborg body and find the right people, Elvis can be uploaded to the body, and join your team... And he is strong!
• In spite of the game's intimidating interface, which at first can really be a nightmare, it is perhaps one of the most plot opened- free style roaming- adventure games ever made. All the locations on the map do no depend on what you do and what order you do it, it depends on what you find out, who you talk to, how far you step outside the main story of the game, and how much will you help the various random seemingly insignificant NPCs in the game timelimits. Almost half the locations of the map (full map, that is to say, most people will never find out all the map locations in one playthrough) are not a must, and to which you don't actually have to go in order to finish the game. There are 8 major side quests in the game that will take a lot of effort, research and of course time (which you don't always have), and many dozens of small quests, some of which you will have to accept for money.

External links

• BloodNet at MobyGames
• Complete Game Guide The Complete Unofficial Players Guide by Chris The Gronk
• Bloodnet City Guide Complete guide to all City locations by Chris The Gronk