Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

I'll be honest; I played this game simply because Doom would not run on my computer. A step above Wolfenstein 3D, Blake Stone was a solid FPS at the time but lacked the features it needed to meet the competition. It was great when I couldn't play Doom, but I still always felt like I was missing out. I have good memories of this game, but wouldn't play it again now.

The game is stable and runs well. All the problems are with the game design. The enemies are all hit-scan bullet sponges which means you're taking damage no matter how you play, and on the higher difficulty levels it's a game of chance as to whether enemies deal 1 or 100 percent damage before they finally go down. The inclusion of the Bio-tech informants is one of the most infuriating game design choices ever made. These guys will annoy the hell out of you by getting in your way and you'll regularly take damage from enemy Bio-techs who shoot instantly upon being revealed. It has the admittedly pretty common issue of FPSs at the time of being very maze like and claustrophobic and modern gamers will struggle with not being able to turn and strafe at the same time. Maybe worth a quick run through on lower difficulties for the sake of nostalgia but I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to 100% it (The guy who made the secret areas quite possibly hates humanity) or playing on higher difficulties.

One of the Games that does not have a Y-Axis. Based on a technology like the first Wolfenstein used too. The Source-Code has been released ! If you know how to handle with DosBox then don't buy it.

This game uses the wolfenstien 3d engine to make what I think is a pretty mediocre shooter. I think that games using an engine as simple as the wolfenstien 3d engine should try to be more simple games but this game kinda tries to be more complex with switches to turn off lasers, enemies can drop coins that you can spend to buy food which you use to heal yourself instead of enemies just dropping med kits, the levels are bigger and more complex with a much greater variety of enemies compared to wolf 3d. The game plays okay today but I think you'd be better off playing something on the doom, build or quake engine if you want something slightly more complex, and if you want a simple 2.5d shooter play wolf 3d, spear of destiny or corridor 7 since those are simple enough to work really well with an engine as basic as the wolf 3d engine.

I hunted for this game for ages! Glad to have finally got it on GOG. It's an oldie and a goodie. I loved playing it the first time through almost 20 years ago!