Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

The Good
At the time I bought the game I really didn't have too much else to play so, I took it upon myself to beat the game. I actually felt ok about buying this one, at Sam Goody the day before they had all of their full version Apogee games on sale for $1 each (Note: I ended up buying Blake Stone, Duke Nukem II, and Alien Carnage). The music for the game was ok, although it lacked a punch that so many other Apogee games seem to have in them. Although I do understand that they didn't design the game, they still put their name on it. The controls are on par with Wolfenstein 3D, making the game easy to learn how to play.

The Bad
The graphics in Blake Stone were most decidedly sub-par. The textures were boring, the animation was choppy, and the pixelization made me want to squint and cry all at the same time. And then there are the laughable character models. Never before have I seen such creatures that made me want to shoot them just to put them out of their misery. The sound in the game made me want to shut it off. The "sounds" produced by this game are not much of an improvement over the use of the PC Speaker. Moving from worse to god awful, we have the computer AI. Very simply put, there is no computer AI. The monsters will consistently be stopped by shutting a door in their face. Will they dodge your shots? I don't think so, they will stand there and take the five shots it takes to bring them down.

The Bottom Line
Unless you happen to find this game on sale for a dollar, I wouldn't get it.

The Good
As I said, this was the first FPS I ever played. I borrowed the floppy off my friend, and thought it was the best game ever! I loved the graphics,sounds, and especially the MUSIC!

The Bad
Now its sorta out of date. But I still play it every once in a while. Also, I bought this game because I thought you actually kill the boss, Dr Goldfire, in the last mission.

The Bottom Line
If you see it for less than $10, buy it. It will give you a few hours play.

The Good
Poor Blake Stone. How he tried. Although the game features a decent engine (an enhanced Wolf3D engine), with cool effects like light sourcing, texture mapped ceilings and floors, and switches you can actually flip, there was just a punch that it lacked...don't get me wrong! The game isn't all THAT bad! It is fun for a while to grab a few weapons and blow a few hundred alien beings to Kingdom Come, but...something's just....WRONG.

The Bad
Maybe this is what's wrong with this game: for the most part, it just tried TOO hard to be the so-called "DOOM killer", and ended up flat on its face. It tried creeping us out with eerie alien and mutant designs, but most of these "mutants" and "aliens" look more like they belong in the "Captain Action" or "Zapf Brannigan" crowds. They tried giving us ambient music with a low, slightly mysterious feel, but most of the music is rather dull and uninspired. They tried creating a cool futuristic environment with metallic walls, blood splattered organic tiles, and other touches like alien holding tubes and such, but the graphics look (at times) even worse than those of Wolf3D. They tried making smart enemies that would chase you, steal ammo, and maybe go jibaku (suicidal) on you, but most of these enemies just do one thing: stand there and let you kill them. If not that, they'll just fall into a predictable pattern of move, fire, move, fire...you get the idea. They tried making everything that would kill DOOM, but what this all did in the end was kill the game itself.

The Bottom Line
It's so sad...Blake Stone is the tragic tale of engineering a DOOM killer gone terribly wrong. The creation went mad and tried having itself sold for love and attention. But no one cared. Being stuck between Wolf3D and DOOM didn't help, either. If you wish to adopt this little freakish creation, be warned: it may one day snap. Get the cattle prod ready...