Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (PC, 1993)

Back in 1993, after the success of Wolfenstein 3d, a little developer called JAM Productions, with the legendary Apogee at their side, decided to usurp the first-person shooter throne. They licensed the Wolf3d engine and in December of that year, released a game called Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. A week later, id Software unleashed Doom, and Blake Stone never stood a chance.

The concept was sound: take what was great about Wolfenstein and build on it. More enemies, more weapons, more tricks and traps and brilliant innovations that sadly just don't get the credit they deserve. It was all a great plan, just fated, in the end, to be overshadowed by the colossus that was Doom.

In the game, you play secret agent Blake Stone in the far future, on a mission to stop the mad Dr. Goldfire on a quest to rule the universe. He has created an army of mutants, robots, and armed soldiers and is staging a final assault on the Earth. Let me say right here that the game doesn't take itself too seriously, and you shouldn't either.

Where Blake Stone shines is the gameplay, as it should. The maps are surprisingly clever, the combat tense, and the guns satisfying -- the explosive plasma launcher very gets old. The design of the levels is impressive, and additions like switches, one-way doors, traps, and teleporters keep things interesting. With the sheer volume of different enemies, you will never know what to expect behind the next corner. There's even one kind of monster that continually respawns in certain rooms, making for some super-tense levels. Each episode ends with a unique boss, so you're always in for a surprise when you get there. But one of the greatest advancements is a sort of precursor to the Hexen hub system: within each episode, you can use the elevator to move to the next level, but also back to completed levels -- in the state you left them -- to stock up on health and ammo or just to explore and search for secrets.

Of course, there are plenty of things you can gripe about. The friendly scientists (another feature ahead of its time), will often get in the way during fights or block doors and hallways. You can kill them, but if you do, you'll never be rewarded with a 100% for the level. The latter half of the game is clearly rushed, too. The last three episodes have less inspired level design and the bosses start to get somewhat repetitive in behavior (but not character). Finally, once you reach the end, don't expect too much of a climax.

Still, if you can bear the outdated graphics and laugh with the silliness of the plot, you may find something special here. And if you end up enjoying the game as much as I did, there's a sequel (more of an expansion pack, really) called Blake Stone: Planet Strike!. Check it out.

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold is a first-person shooter computer game created by JAM Productions and published by Apogee Software. It uses the Wolfenstein 3D game engine to render graphics in first person, while adding many features. The shareware version of the game was released December 3, 1993. The registered version of Blake Stone shipped with a comic book, called a "Blake Stone Adventure". To date it is the only title in the company's product line to do so. In 1994, a sequel called Blake Stone: Planet Strike was released, which continues where Aliens of Gold leaves off.