Blood Drive

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Jackson Is About To Run You Over.

"Eight brutal competitors! Eight deadly vehicles! And over twenty thousand ghastly undead! Who will be champion? Who will be roadkill? Let's find out! -The announcer, describing the championship proper.

Blood Drive is a Vehicular Combat game developed by Sidhe (makers of Shatter) and released by Activision in November of 2010.

It's Next Sunday A.D. following a Zombie Apocalypse. Civilization remains, though society is scarred by the harsh reality of living in a world overrun by zombies. They have turned to Blood Sport to entertain themselves, in the form of Blood Drive: a violent tournament of Vehicular Combat and zombie-splattering. The tournament takes place in the desert gambling city of Las Ruletas. This particular tournament involves eight different drivers with distinct vehicles and interesting backgrounds.

The player must first complete five preliminary tournaments, or cups, before being allowed to enter the championship cup. Each cup consists of one or more map zones with a certain number of events, between two and four. There are a variety of events, such as kill the most zombies, kill the most cars, kill the most everything, checkpoint races, and "King of the Skull" (Think Halo's oddball with Weaponized Cars). Once the qualifiers are complete, the player may enter the Blood Drive championship, which in essence is the "Story Mode." Upon winning the championship at least once, the player becomes eligible to enter The Hardcore Cup. Think you got what it takes?

The game is Bloody Hilarious and fun but is marred by balance issues and a total lack of local multiplayer.

Tropes used in Blood Drive include:
  • Blood Knight: The announcer implies that Nazar isn't even aware of the tournament rankings or points. He just wants to splattermaim.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Shambler zombies occasionally get stuck to your car when you hit them. While amusing, it can mess up your car's handling.
  • Bond One-Liner: Characters usually have something witty to say after killing a bunch of zombies or an opposing car.
  • Buffy-Speak: Characters sometimes say that they will make the zombies dead...er.
  • Car Fu: Your primary means of combat other then weapons. Your vehicle's "Impact" attribute determines the damage dealt to other cars when rammed as well as how much it is slowed by plowing through zombies. Brock's Limit Break, Juggernaut, causes his truck Warpath to be enveloped in armored plating, dramatically increasing it's durability and ramming capability. This makes him the only driver able to go head-to-head with a Behemoth and survive the experience.
  • Character Customization: A mild version in the form of a load-out selection prior to each event. Each load-out consists of three different perks for your car. For example, the "Getting Personal" loadout grants you double ammuntion for any weapon, a weapon damage bonus and a ramming damage bonus. Many loadouts overlap, for example the "Triple Threat" load-out substitutes the double ammo bonus of Getting Personal for a full rage meter.
  • Cliff Hanger: We last see Jackson going head to head with a truly titanic zombie. Prior to that, he takes out three Behemoths using only the gatling gun.
  • Charge Meter: Two, the boost and rage meters. The former is filled by collecting boost Power Ups, and the latter by killing zombies and taking damage.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Reggie.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Most characters' speech features liberal application of f-bombs, including the announcer!

Announcer: Go fucking nuts!

Nazar: Jackksssonn!

Announcer: Here in Las Ruletas we said "F you" to that Zombie Apocalypse!

  • Your Grandma: Brock, to Jackson.
  • Zerg Rush: The shamblers will attempt to swarm your car, bogging you down and whittling away your armor.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: What looks to have been a particularly nasty one, given the condition of Las Ruletas. At least one city was completely overun- Paris. Society has apparently adapted, given that they made a goddamn game show out of it.