Rating Curve

Bossfights are a scourge

On the one hand you have some frankly fantastic and original effects. On the other hand you have strictly representational designs that look like they could’ve been made by AI. The overall effect is a wash.

Edit: After playing, I have lowered my rating to a 4. It's so ass to play lol.

It sure was experimental when they ripped visuals directly from the music video for the song.

A bit better than the name would suggest, but still not that interesting.

This level has been widely influential, but mostly for the wrong reasons. The saturation of red hell-themed extreme demons owes largely to the popularity of this level, and while it's far from the worst of that genre, the seeds of what would become bigger problems were already present in Bloodbath. Compared to the level it's aping most, Cataclysm, it's far less compelling, and many of the genre's worst tropes are new inventions by Bloodbath. Specifically, the choice to be fully monochromatic with dull colors and the emphasis on ship gameplay did a lot to push hell levels in a negative direction.

There is still stuff in Bloodbath to admire, despite all that I've said. Some parts do attempt to be vibrant, such as GBoy's and Weo's. I also do have a huge soft spot for Michigun's part because of the gameplay, for whatever reason his series of short challenges with every gamemode just feels right to be there and I wish the rest of the level attempted to have more gameplay variety as well.

On the whole, there are worse levels out there, but the legacy of Bloodbath has in my opinion been mostly negative. I wish Cataclysm had become the standard to emulate instead.