Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

I used to play the shareware version in the 90s. It was ok but never my top favorite. Only now I played the full game. The good: Map design is well made and you won't get lost easily. A lot of different kind of enemies, maybe more variety than in some other games of the time. Weapons are also quite nice. There are some innovative things like the scientists who can be friendly or dangerous, an enemy that pretends to be dead and attacks again, and different kind of "containers" that can release an enemy - my favorite being hospital beds that can hide zombies! And if you run out of ammo or health you can backtrack with the elevator to the earlier levels to search for leftover stuff. Oh, and there are secret levels but I think I didn't find those, so there is more to discover. The bad: Well, it's the Wolfenstein 3D engine which means flat floors and no diagonal shapes. I automatically compare everything to Doom (my gold standard of fps) and that means almost nothing can top it. The levels start to feel a bit samey when you play long enough. Also, I thought the difficulty was a bit uneven. There are levels that are very hard and can take a long time to beat but after it might come a lot easier one. This seems a bit random. Some enemies can drain your full health with few shots which can be frustrating. (And I played the second easiest setting (out of four) and it was already hard enough for me.) Even though the game has a lot done right I started to feel like I'm just working through the levels and wish to finish and play some other game instead. Overall if you like old shooters it's a game you might want to try out. But don't expect constant run-and-gun style, this game you have to play more carefully like an agent.

I'm glad to see agent Stone back in action. This game was one of the first 3D real time shooters and had a lot to offer the player as they explored thru the levels. Sure you can blast the aliens and there's plenty to shoot at....but I really like the strategy and planning you have to do to solve each level. A great game and now at a really great price. Hope everyone checks out this classic.

Disclosure: I bought this on another distro platform, but its the same game. This game had the misfortune of being released right before Doom. That's a real shame, because a lot of people didn't pay it any mind, or wrote it off as a Doom clone. Based on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, Blake Stone puts you in the boots of a British secret agent, sent to battle a madman and his genetic monstrosities! You get sixty, well designed levels packed full of variety in both visuals and enemy types. A really engaging soundtrack, and interesting touches like NPCs and interactive objects like food and drink dispensers. I highly recommend this one.

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold was a game that was simultaneously ahead of its time and behind the times. Because it was so heavily based on Wolfenstein 3D and used its engine it didn't stand a chance when id Software's groundbreaking classic, Doom, released one week later. This was unfortunate because even though it was no Doom, it was well worth the price of registration. Today the colorful retro graphics, while dated, have a classic and endearing look. The controls are even more dated and might be frustrating to people who aren't used to Wolf 3D (source ports are available online that alleviate this issue and allow for modern control schemes). Interesting new features diffentiated it from Wolf 3D and are surprising to see in an early FPS. There are friendly NPCs in the form of informants. Sometimes they'll be on your side and give you information and supplies while other times they'll be loyal to your enemy and attack. Tokens can be collected to use at vending machines to restore health, a kind of level interaction that would not be similarly implemented into other FPS games until much later. One enemy type will also occasionally play dead and ambush you if you're not paying attention. There is a large enemy variety of mutants and machines alongside the normal humans, much more-so than Wolfenstein 3D. The main villain will also occasionally appear as a hologram to attack and laugh at you. The sci-fi James Bond setting of the game and its jazzy music also set it apart from other generic Doom clones of the era. The level structure is very simlar to Wolf 3D, collect the keys and exit, though you always know where the exist is as the levels have a single elevator. Unlike Wolf 3D the enemies cannot be staggered by attacks, making the game a much more difficult test of your reflexes. All-in-all this is a fun game with a cool old-school look and lots of neat ideas that was unfortuantely overlooked thanks to sharing a release window with the juggernaut that was Doom.

surprisingly enjoyable, bit disorientiting still not found the red key card as yet