Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

Aliens of Gold had a rough start; DOOM was released just a week after it, sealing Blake Stone's fate as a forgotten shooter. While id Software's masterpiece is completely deserving of the praise it has and continues to receive, Aliens of Gold is a game that should have had its day in the sun. With its colorful environments, wide range of enemies and innovative mechanics, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold would have made its mark if it had not been released so closely to one of the greatest shooters of all time. The game is not without its faults, however. Sporting a poorly implemented and arguably unnecessary stealth system alongside significant issues regarding difficulty, the game is definitely flawed.

Agent Stone is outfitted with a silenced pistol as his default weapon. Unlike the other four guns, the silenced pistol is infinitely rechargeable, and therefore does not require the players supply of plasma units, and as it is silenced, shooting it will not attract nearby enemies; but here's the problem: the pistol does so little damage it's only capable of killing a few types of enemies in a single shot, and on the higher difficulties where foes are hardier it's practically useless. As for whether or not one even needs to bother playing stealthily? It's rare for an enemy soldier or mutant to follow the sounds of gunfire from another room, and during the occasions where they actually do so they have a hard time making it through the doorway. While I consider stealth mechanics in first-person shooters to be entirely welcome, JAM Productions didn't manage to implement a system that was worthwhile this time around.

A defining feature of first-person shooters from this era was their difficulty. A player had to ration the supplies they found around a level carefully, as enemies tended to use hitscan weapons. One was going to take damage; they generally couldn't avoid it. If one found a healing item that restored 30% health and their character was only down 15% health, they would leave it alone and save it for when they really needed it. That's not the case in Aliens of Gold. Health and Plasma pickups are all over the place, and a great deal of enemies have projectile attacks. These projectiles are easily dodged and often get caught on the geometry. To add to that, on the default and 'Easy' difficulty settings, guards and monsters have such low amounts of life that they are killed with just a couple of well placed shots or less.

While the stealth system may have been a wash, Aliens of Gold had more than one quirk that differentiated itself from its peers. As Agent Stone infiltrates one of Dr. Goldfire's installations, he will run across a multitude of scientists. Some of these are loyal to the nefarious villain, and others are informants that will assist the player when confronted. To find out where their loyalties lie, one need only ask them. Informants give whatever supplies they have available and occasionally offer useful information, like the location of nearby secrets. Scientists loyal to Goldfire will cry for help and begin shooting the player. This gamble the player takes each time they question one of these men is a dangerous one; at point blank range any enemy is capable of dealing massive damage. On the higher difficulties, a shot from this range could very well lead to death, making each encounter with a scientist quite possibly the player's last.

It's quite clear that the developers had some old-time science-fiction in mind when they created Aliens of Gold. Everything from the weapons, the uniforms, and the environments scream 'cheesy, low-budget science-fiction series from several decades ago'. Even the title of the game sounds like the name of a crummy movie from the 1960's. All of this is done exceptionally well. While this theme is mostly realized, the briefings before and after missions were lacking. The player was greeted with a wall of text that was entirely forgettable. I probably wouldn't have thought twice about this except for the comic in the games manual. In the comic, Stone and a few of his friends react to the deeds of Dr. Goldfire. He then gets into his absurdly sleek spaceship and flies to his first location; the comic ending as he blasts his way inside. That they went to the trouble of having something like this made, but not inserted into the game itself is perplexing and a little disappointing.

The final aspect of the game that's worth mentioning is the antagonist: Dr. Pyrus Goldfire. More specifically, I'd like to talk about how he interacts with the player. The good doctor is not the type of villain to wait around for his machinations to unravel; he actively hunts the player as they attempt to foil his plans. Besides being a boss at the end of each mission, the doctor teleports in at random times and places to catch Stone off guard. The possibility of the doctor warping in during a firefight, or when the player is low on life adds a level of apprehension that was greatly appreciated throughout the course of the game. The randomness, however, is a strength and a weakness. At times he showed up far too often, each subsequent arrival diminishing the impact of his presence.

Aliens of Gold has its ups and downs. Every so often a level devolves into a key hunt, and some enemies are not threatening in the slightest. However, the setting and some of the more interesting mechanics the game pulls off make up for most of its deficiencies. Standing in between titans like Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM, it's clear why it didn't achieve greater success, but in terms of quality the game holds its own pretty well; if anything for the heights of which it aspired, even if it didn't manage to reach them.