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It sure is a good time to be a fan of ye-olde FPS Blood. Following Nightdive's release of its second overhaul of Monolith's debut gunfest, the developer has been quietly updating it with enhanced versions of some of the shooter's best mods. The first of these arrived in January, in the form of Marrow: Episode 2. A hugely ambitious expansion of Blood's original ideas, Marrow is basically Blood's equivalent of John Romero's Sigil.
Now, another massive Blood mod has received similar treatment, with Death Wish 2.0 releasing concurrently on ModDB and within Nightdive's remaster. Death Wish is perhaps even more lauded than Marrow for the tricks it pulls with the Build Engine, and its 2.0 version offers an experience more expansive than Blood itself.
Death Wish's creator, who goes by Bloatoid, revealed the full extent of the 2.0 overhaul on ModDB. And it certainly is extensive. For starters, every map featured in the original version of Death Wish has been "updated or replaced completely" in 2.0, with Bloatoid citing several levels as examples. "DWE3M6 may share a handful of sectors with its predecessor, but it is otherwise unrecognisable. DWE3M11, on the other hand, is a completely new map for v2.0."
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Alongside these overhauled maps, v2.0 also introduces a new, fourth episode to the experience, one designed to fold seamlessly into the story. "Episode 4 is inseparable from the others and does not feel tacked-on," Bloatoid says. This fourth episode sees players gunning down enemies from the depths of an ancient tomb, all the way to a museum which Bloatoid says "looks to the future."
Episode 4 brings Death Wish's total number of maps to 48, significantly more than Blood's already-impressive 32. Death Wish 2.0 also features a custom soundtrack with music composed by Speedy and Sjellos, while Bloatoid points out that "New cutscenes set the stage at each episode's outset."
Death Wish is available as a free update to anyone who purchased Blood: Refreshed Supply. If you didn't buy Refreshed Supply, you can still get Death Wish for free by downloading it via ModDB.
Now that Nightdive's work on Refreshed Supply is more or less complete, eyes will surely turn to their next overhaul, the long-awaited Sin: Reloaded. This was originally announced back in 2020, but Nightdive set it aside to get its System Shock remake out of the door and generally work on other projects. Nightdive re-announced it earlier this month, though there's no firm release date as yet.
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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.
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