RETRO GAME REVIEW: BLAKE STONE: ALIENS OF GOLD (Shareware)

Blake Stone is one of a few games that had the misfortune of being released near the same time as Doom. Being a first-person shooter, and using the Wolfenstein 3d engine, it was fated (doomed, if you will) to fall into almost complete obscurity.  However, here on the retro game review, I like to take these games based on their own merits.

From the outset, Blake Stone bears a lot of resemblance to Wolfenstein 3d, from the self-imposed PC-13 rating for violence to the title card to the way its difficulty settings show the title character with an increasingly more confident expression on his face as you ramp it up. However, Blake Stone trades in the World War II setting of Wolfenstein for a sort of futuristic James Bond – like atmosphere. The title and selection screens are all in the green on black screen lettering like you'd see on old computers, and the tech-base theme of the first level looks like something out of Star-Trek.

GAMEPLAY: Gameplay in Blake Stone is almost identical to Wolfenstein 3d. Each episode is made up of nine regular levels and two secret levels. The player's goal on each level is to find the red keycard and get to the elevator to move up to the next floor. These floors are populated with enemy scientists, soldiers and monsters. Additional weapons, health and ammo can be found scattered throughout the levels. However, Blake also adds vending machines which can be used to purchase additional health packs using tokens found throughout the levels.

Blake Stone also adds in some elements not found in Wolfenstein. For example, some of the scientists are actually spies who will help the player out by giving information, ammunition or tokens to use in the vending machines. It adds a dimension of depth to the game when approaching a scientists and wondering whether or not he's going to try to shoot you. Of course, its possible to just kill them all, but I found it to be sort of depressing when the game told me that I'd accidentally killed an informant.

The level design in Blake Stone is pretty good as well. There's a decent variety of textures to be found as well as some interesting and unique locations that keep things from getting too repetitive and make it easier to navigate around. There are also some interactive environment puzzles like electric fences that turn on and off via wall switches and cages which release monsters. Also of note are the ceiling-mounted turrets which can be a pain, but they do add some tension to otherwise enemy-free areas. The game also features an automap function, which can be very helpful given the maze-like structure of all Wolfenstien engine games.

All good science fiction guns have to be colorful.

Blake Stone's enemies are a sort of standard variety of humans, science fiction soldiers and alien style monsters. None of them stand out particularly much, although the game's mad scientist who serves as the main antagonist does periodically beam into a level and then teleport out again after taking a few shots. Its weapons also look like something you might see on an episode of Star Trek, although I did find them quite satisfying to use. The assault rifle in particular is very fun to use in spite of being remarkably similar to its Wolfenstein 3d counterpart. In fact, that might be why its so fun.

However, the gameplay of Blake Stone is not without its problems. I had some difficulty getting the game to run properly under DosBox, and it took a few minutes of adjustments before I was able to get going. Even once the game is running, it has what I can best describe as a sluggish feel to it. Where Wolfenstein 3d is fast and smooth, Blake Stone is fast but somewhat jerky. The problem is compounded when there are multiple enemies on the screen.

VISUALS: The Visuals in Blake Stone are very bright and colorful, as befits its setting. Even the weapons feature a wide palette of reds, blues and oranges splashed liberally throughout. It might not be the most appealing art style in the world, but it is at least coherent and consistent throughout. Likewise, the textures on the walls and ceilings may look a little dated when compared even to Wolfenstein's graphics, but they are nevertheless pleasant.

The enemy design is also decent, but I found it to be a little bland. The enemies don't all look the same, but none of them struck me as particularly unique or frightening. This can make the game a little less fun later on when you come across enemies that don't really look any tougher than the monsters you've already been killing but which can absorb and dish out substantially more damage. It doesn't break the game or make it not fun to play, but in some ways it feels like a missed opportunity.

FINAL VERDICT: 6.5/10 Blake Stone is a decent game and it adds some things to the simple Wolf3d formula. However, in spite of these additions, it ends up being a fairly unremarkable experience. Not necessarily bad, but there are several other Wolfenstein 3d – engine games that are superior.

RETRO GAME REVIEW: CATACOMB ABYSS (Shareware)

Wolfenstein 3d is often erroneously credited as being the very first of its genre (this sentence being constructed in order to avoid repeating the word 'first' one right after the other). While Wolf3d may have been the first successful first-person shooter, it was not the very first. That honor belongs to a different Id software game: Catacomb 3d. Made for and published by Softdisk, Catacomb was therefore unable to gain the fame and popularity that Wolfenstein did due to it only being available to subscribers to Softdisk. Nevertheless, it gained a considerable following and has its place in gaming history.

It should be noted that this is a review of Catacomb Abyss, which was the sequel to Catacomb 3d.

I first encountered Catacomb Abyss on an old CD-ROM filled with shareware games that included some of my all-time favorites: Wolfenstein3d, Doom and Heretic, along with quite a few other games from that era, all of which have been almost completely forgotten. (Reviews of games like Corridor 7 and Blake Stone are coming). Nowadays, the shareware of Catacomb Abyss can be downloaded almost anywhere, and using a program like DosBox makes it run just fine on almost any computer. The question is, is it worth your time?

From the moment you boot it up, its clear that this is an Id software game. The status bar showing the player's face, the icons indicating ammunition, health and other essential stats are all present. There are, however, some key differences. First off, Catacomb is a fantasy style game rather than the traditional gun-based shooter. The environments are all bricks, graveyards, dungeons, caves and even an almost hellish demon-wold (foreshadowing, anyone?). Likewise, the enemies range from zombies to skeletons to goblins and more bizarre monsters.

Don't think for one minute, though, that this is an RPG. Catacomb Abyss moves and acts just like Wolfenstein 3d. The movement is crisp and given how old the game is, the animations are smooth. Like later id games, it has secret areas with loot to be gathered.

GAMEPLAY: As mentioned above, Catacomb basically plays like Wolfenstein 3d, although there are some key differences. First off, there is almost no weapon diversity here. The player has an unlimited supply of fireballs which have to serve for most enemies throughout the game. There are also two alternate modes of fire which are supplied through little spheres picked up throughout the game. One is a rapid stream of fireballs, the other one shoots them in all directions, which can be useful in later levels when hordes of enemies abound. In addition to these spells, the player can also find treasures which just raise the player's final score and potions which can be used to restore all health. The presence of what essentially amounts to a primitive inventory system is pretty unique.

Like all shooters of the early '90's, the levels of Catacomb Abyss revolve around finding keys and eventually finding an exit. The level design is roughly equivalent to that of Wolf 3d, which means that it is entirely made up of rooms of equal heights and areas defined by ninety degree corners. Early games like this didn't have a lot of options in terms of making areas easily recognized, and so it is pretty easy to get lost. That being said, it doesn't take too long to find your way around.

VISUALS: Because it uses EGA graphics, the game looks pretty dated. Not that one would expect a game that's over twenty years old to look new, but the switch to VGA for Wolfenstein3d was a huge upgrade. That being said, the artwork is of course good and the bright colors lend themselves to the fantasy styles. Not only that, but the shareware episode offers a wider range of environments than other games of the time period. With castles, graveyards, caves and the hell dimension, its easy to get engaged with the levels in order to see what the next one will look like.

FINAL VERDICT: 7/10 Fans of old shooters ought to enjoy this one. Its bright and colorful visuals combined with smooth and classic gameplay are pretty darn fun, especially when one wants a fantasy style game but isn't in the mood for a full-sized and complicated RPG. That being said, like all pre-doom shooters, it suffers from crowded and sometimes confusing level design.