Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

aka: Blake Stone 3-D, Secret Agent Game
Moby ID: 786
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Aliens of Gold, the first game in the Blake Stone series, pits the space-age British secret agent against Dr. Pyrus Goldfire; a madman bent on world domination. Using a mastery of genetic engineering and a tremendous reserve of wealth, Dr. Goldfire intends to unleash a mutant army upon the Earth.

The first chapter begins in Goldfire's S.T.A.R. Institute headquarters building. Each level has Blake fighting through guards to find an elevator keycard for the next level. Dr. Goldfire will personally appear along the way to fire shots at Blake, and his genetic creations also pose a tough challenge. Each chapter lasts 10 levels, and brings Blake closer to reaching Goldfire, only to have the mad doctor escape to a new installation in his network, and the start of a new chapter.

Blake Stone uses the Wolfenstein 3-D engine to render its levels. Basic gameplay and enemy AI is similar in most respects. Some of Blake's innovations include silent weapons that can kill guards without alerting others. Alerts are given to the player through text messages on the HUD. Health can be gained through use of wall-mounted vending machines, operated with tokens picked up off dead guards. An automap and stat-tracking are both available during gameplay. Finally, there are friendly AI characters who offer clues and powerups when you speak to them - provided Blake doesn't accidentally shoot them first!

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Credits (DOS version)

80 People (58 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Engine Programmer
Engine Tools Programmer
Jam Productions
Contributing Artists
Music
Texture Mapping Engine
  • id Software
Cover and LINC Computer Illustration
Comic Book Illustration
Comic Book Storyline
Financing & Resources
  • Apogee Software
Special Thanks to [1]
Apogee Technical Support
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 65 ratings with 10 reviews)

Tragic.

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.

DOS · by Quackbal (45) · 2007

James Bond meets Flash Gordon in a bargain bin near you.

The Good
Generally good use of the Wolfenstein 3D engine, with a few minor enhancements. The manual is full of lovingly-drawn comic book art and backstory, suggesting that the producers of this game truly appreciate the old-fashioned action hero genre.

The Bad
The plot/setting is kind of silly, yet not at all humorous--so don't expect an Austin Powers-style romp. There really isn't much here that wasn't done in Wolfenstein 3D, so this game lacks the impact of that classic.



The Bottom Line
Although not terrible, this game is really only worth buying if you need to play every FPS out there.

DOS · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2015

A great shooter, which is somewhat underrated.

The Good
Based on an enhanced version of id software’s Wolfenstein 3D technology, Stone is the direct followup to that smash-hit, which, quite unfortunately, was cut down in its prime, namely by id’s not so secret weapon released shortly after that same year, I don’t think I have to name it.

At a mere glance, Stone appears simply to be nothing more than an austere reiteration of the formula set by Wolf 3D. Undeniably Stone shares many fundamental indiscernible traits with its older brother, as you would expect. That said, Jam Productions certainly impart some, (if only a few) fresh innovations, & touches to the game which contributes to a unique aura of its own.

The storyline for Stone is strictly inoffensive cliche’ science fiction schtick, here is the crux of the premise - The time is the future: You’re a trained soldier turned a secret intelligence agent out to stop a crazed scientist known as Dr. Pyrus Goldfire, who had butchered your family and now has a rather sinister plan for the entire galaxy involving his legions of genetically engineered mutants. You must stop him at all costs.

As for Wolf 3D, you negotiate labyrinths of corridors (the auto-map feature means you never get lost), searching rooms, building an arsenal of increasingly powerful weapons - the ‘plasma discharge unit’ (re a grenade launcher) is a very welcome new addition, as is a stealth pistol, more on these later. Of course there is the usual plethora of secret areas to discover, plenteous with spoils - hence the ‘aliens of gold’ subtitle. Not to mention the usual decree of skirmishes with countless guards, & other assorted nasties. The orthodox goal is to find the red keycard to unlock the next elevator floor. The hub-like elevator system allows you to return to previous floors if you want to scour for ammo, health etc., which incidentally, becomes imperative when tackling the ‘Veteran’ difficulty. The ultimate objective per episode is to reach the exit at the top floor of each of the six installations, which is always guarded by one of Goldfire’s exceptionally tough guardian nasties.

From the outset, I was genuinely impressed by one of the new aspects presented herein - Namely the friendly NPCs, which I believe is a first for a FPS. These are insider informants decked out as lab-coat scientists’ who will assist you with your cause. They wander around the corridors, going in & out of rooms, inspecting computer panels and so on, blending in seamlessly with the actual dirty scientists’ working for Goldfire. You can interrogate these good fellows (you read the dialogue spoken on the HUD), and they will give you some useful advice, on things like using your stealth pistol effectively, or even identifying which areas are safe and which dangerous, among other useful tips. Sometimes they will give you items like weapon charge-packs or credit tokens - the latter of which I’ll talk more about in some length later. This was the first instance of a FPS where you don’t shoot everything that moves.

There is a good assortment of enemies - big green mutant experiments on the loose, experimental cyborgs, electro-spheres, floating-drones which explode on close proximity, and more. This is good. That is, there is a solid contrast in variety of enemies. I was often surprised by how just when you though you had seen it all, something new creeps up on you. The AI presented in Stone is reasonably solid. As for Wolf 3d, the enemies can literally ‘hear’ gunfire, and not only respond on sight. One time I was slugging it out with a couple of mutants, completely absorbed by the task at hand.“Arrgh!”. Dead. I was flanked by a sneaky guard from a nearby room who had honed in on my position from all the noise I was making. This can give rise to a stealth aspect for this game. Your most basic weapon, though infinitely useful - is a stealth pistol. It makes absolutely no sound when fired, and if you can catch the opposition unaware, like say if a patrol guard was standing facing a vending machine, you could take him down with one shot with the stealth pistol, and no enemies would be alerted to your presence.

I feel the challenge herein is more or less as demanding, if not a little more than that of its predecessor Wolf 3D, particularly on the harder difficulty levels. The enemies are suitably cunning & some are particularly resilient to your assaults. The sentinel guards who wield automatic rifles are powerful enough to make short work of you if caught out off-guard. These guys can even play possum - they will lay there as if dead, and then after a time gets back up again guns blazing. So this calls for even more frequent defensive style play - hanging around corners, popping out to shoot, waiting patiently to the sides of doorways to get the drop on enemies, conserving ammo - if you run out of ammo amidst a firefight, it means having to slug it out with the pistol, which can be quite labourious. You also have to be wary of sentry turrets, which cannot be destroyed without a rapid assault laser rifle. So you have to cunningly sneak by these defences, which presents some tense moments, particularly initially, in the first level.

The grenade launcher I mentioned earlier brings forward some interesting dynamics. There are often mutants which are safely stored in status containers, some you can even see floating in liquid, which looks rather cool by the way. If you shoot the container, the nasty will be rudely awakened. What’s interesting is, if you carelessly doused a room with grenade explosions, it would effectively open up any containers that were about, as the grenade launcher has a splash damage which affects a larger radius, thus creating more pesky hostiles to deal with. As well as this, a stray grenade explosion could inadvertently kill innocent informants. So this also causes you to think a bit more before shooting.

Some of the action sequences are really cleverly constructed. One time I went through this door into a rather narrow corridor. I pursued forward, and then I was confronted by this huge menacing monstrosity, which was imposing enough to obstruct the way ahead! As I was only armed with my charge-pistol rapidly running out of ammo, I turned tail and ran back for the entrance I came through. “This door can’t be opened from this side!” “Oh, @$#*!” Then as the nasty advanced on me, I frantically strafed from side to side, shooting, shooting & shooting some more, before it finally drew its last swollen gasp, and dramatically collapsed to the ground. This was one of those truly classic moments in gaming you never forget. Also, Goldfire himself pops up now and again, something akin to the G-MAN on half-life, except here Goldfire doesn’t waddle around behind unbreakable glass windows, instead he freely wanders around, and even attacks you! “Ha, ha, ha. You’ll never defeat me!”

Now I want to talk a bit about the credits system I mentioned earlier. Sometimes when you ice the guards they will drop a coin which you can collect. Alternatively you can receive coins from some informants, as previously mentioned. There are vending machines that can be found about the place, which you can interact with. Dispense a coin, and you might receive something which resembles food, or a cold beverage to replenish some health points. You can also find things like discarded candy bars or sandwiches to eat (which leave behind a wrapper), or even chow down on chunks of raw meat which has been thrown in to the hostile mutant areas. There are still the standard med-kits which just happen to be conveniently lying around, but the realistic means of health restoration - like using the food dispensers, I think is quite nifty in implementation. Also interesting is you can shoot supply crates open to reveal ammunition, food etc.

The audio visuals herein I thought were suitably atmospheric. The pallette is full of rich bold vibrant colours, and the overall presentation has a nice subtle cartoon-like flavour. The environment textures are varied well enough throughout the course of the game, with much for interesting interconnecting futuristic impelled metallic-tapestry. For the first time ceilings and floors were also textured, making for generally more detailed scenes. The NPCs are suitably well animated, and the enemies’ death’s are particularly gruesome, e.g. when you dispatch a star sentinel guard, his right shoulder is literally torn off, and separated from the thorax in a gory animation sequence. There is a good assortment of speech samples, such as how the threatening mutant genetic guards’ say “You’re Dead!” in a charismatic deep & gravelly tone. Or if you by accident shot an innocent informant, he will cry out “Not Me!”. I liked how your health is indicated on the HUD by a heartbeat monitor, which the ‘thud-thud’ sounds become increasingly fast as you take damage. The music compositions by Bobby 'Doom' Prince are suitably energetic, and carry along the action with great style. All of these elements contribute to the distinctive ambience.

The Bad
Well the thing is . .

The Bottom Line
. . In short, Blake Stone is simply a fantastic shooter. All the right ingredients are there - Pleasingly colourful aesthetics, great fast-paced action and a fittingly emotive soundtrack. It may not have the technical clout of Doom, and even if the fundamental game-lay is firmly that of the Wolf 3D canon, I think the added aspects like more interactivity, including the friendly NPCs, and also the stealth element, even if somewhat minor, adds some welcome extra spice to the proceedings. With six episodes to prowl your way through, it will keep you blasting away for absolutely ages. It’s definitely an awesome challenge, especially if you play it on Veteran. I really enjoyed it, and I suspect you will as well.

DOS · by Nick Drew (397) · 2008

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Before it's time ? GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) Mar 16, 2008

Trivia

Comic

The original documentation for the game included an 11 page comic book which introduced Blake and his arch-enemy, Doctor Goldstern.

Dr. Goldstern's name

The main antagonist of the game was originally named Dr. Goldstern, however, this had to be changed to Goldfire after Apogee received a complaint from a watchful customer, as Mike Maynard recounts:

Dr. Pyrus Goldfire was originally called Dr. Goldstern. One person sent an email to Apogee complaining about how the name "Goldstern" portrayed Jewish people as evil. So we had to change the name.

Were the name kept as it was, it would have served as a bilingual bonus of sorts, as Stern means 'star' in German, and Goldfire's research centre where the first episode of the game takes place is called The S.T.A.R. Institute.

This change had not prevented the developers from playing with words though: the new -fire part of the name is echoed by Goldfire's first name, Pyrus, which is obviously derived from Greek pyros, meaning 'fire'.

Screen shots from the beta of the game that show the original name of Dr. Goldfire can be found here.

Engine

While Blake Stone uses an updated version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine, it is not the significantly upgraded engine that appeared in Shadowcaster.

German index

On January 1, 1995, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS for being extreme violent. The game group offers more information about this topic.

Release

The programmers that developed Blake Stone (JAM Productions) were friends of id Software from when both teams worked at Softdisk Publishing as employees. JAM Productions was aware DOOM was going to be released and that it would kill all sales of Blake Stone, so the game was released early, 1 month before DOOM to hopefully see some sales. The first 30 days of sales brought in a good $100,000 for the development team. Once DOOM was released all income dropped to below $10,000 a month. The company struggled to release Blake Stone: Planet Strike then later the company broke up.

Information also contributed by Jim Row, Xoleras and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Omniscia.

Windows added by Cantillon. Linux added by Sciere. Macintosh added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Apogee IV, vedder, Patrick Bregger, MrFlibble, Kayburt.

Game added January 24, 2000. Last modified February 14, 2024.