Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

The Good
This was my first shooter I have ever played. And I was addicted to it for weeks. Now I am say that it isn't much when you compare it to Quake, but for those ages it was a good game, the graphics were colorfull and it gots funny music. In the game you can't shoot every body, there are some professors that will help you. They can give you ammo, food tokens or hints. But be aware some of them will shoot you.

The Bad
The AI is worse, the creature are too stupid. And after awhile you get bored by the levels, it's to much of the same.

The Bottom Line
It almost hte same as Wolfenstein, but it is not better. It is just in space and you can shoot creatures instead of nazi's. And this is the perfect game for older computers, if your's to bad for games as Quake, Unreal.

The Good
Don't know how I got to know about this game in the first place. I think my dad, who used to be huge fan of Duke Nukem, downloaded it from 3D Realms site and showed it to me one day back in the mid 90's. What I saw was awesome, and I still find it quite cool even to this day. Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold delievers everything you want from a game like this. Cool soundtrack, huge and many levels, badass weaponry and a score system. I dare even say that the graphics are cool too, being runned by an overhauled Wolfenstein 3D engine. Planet Strike!, the second instalment in the series even implemented bobbing for the weapons.

The Bad
Sadly however, me and other fans of the game were a few bunch. The others had already gotten into Hell, known as Doom, that recently came out shortly after Blake Stone, nearly killing it. Every level has a theme that reminds of a labyrinth, exactly like Wolf3D. And just with that game, some levels are really easy to get lost into and may take quite alot of time to navigate out of. There are many weapons in the game, but none really feel better than the other despite how awesome they look. You can easily "snipe" a guy across the map with one bullet with your starter gun, which also is silent. The keybindings in Blake Stone can't be bound the way you want, and there's no Y-axis for looking up and down with the mouse. (Luckily though, since DOSBox lets us rebind however we darn please, that problem now becomes a memory of the past, and there's a tool that disables the Y-axis, so you can play almost exactly with WASD keys like today).

The Bottom Line
I'd describe this game as a cool FPS from the past, that's sadly is hugely underrated. "Thanks" to Doom.

The Good
I liked the gameplay! It is Wolfenstein 3D with a science fiction theme and makeover, and when I was a kid I sometimes got bored of Wolf3D - so therefore Blake Stone was a good option as if you know how to play one, you can play the other!

I liked the features such as Food Units and Informants (bad guys who actually help you) and also found the music really catchy. The HUD was also easy to use and understand and contained many advanced features such as attacking information and a dialogue box for communication. None of this was in Wolf 3D, which is why this was a breath of lovely new air!

The Bad
The AI was pretty poor, in my opinion, with enemies just pointing and firing instead of engaging any tactics. The graphics were also extremely pixelated and horrible! What the title is referring to as 'tragic' is in fact the timing of Blake Stone's release - a mere five days before Doom! Of course, this game was crushed by Doom and that was that - it is extremely frustrating though, because this game had potential and due to the daft timing of it's release, fell down into the pit of gaming blackness and never returned.

The Bottom Line
This game is fun to play, the last real milestone of the pre-Doom FPS era - after this, everything changed. So, like Wolfenstein 3D, regardless of the awful release time, Blake Stone is truly part of history.