WA

Commander Blood

by

Mindscape

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FORMAT: PC/CD
DATE: DECEMBER 1994

From the makers of "Dragon Lore" and "Megarace" comes a space adventure called "Commander Blood". It is not an adventure game like the "Space Quest" series, for example, which features a control panel containing the common icons such as talk, get, look, etc... But instead, the game is more closely oriented to dialogues, puzzles and action. Using the CD-ROM format, Cryo the developer managed to pack the game with 256 colors of impressive animations, that rival those which were used in "Dragon Lore" and "Megarace", and includes great original sound tracks.

When you start the game, you are captain of the Ark, Commander Blood, and your mission will be to travel back through space and time to the Big Bang so that Bob Morlock can see the awesome spectacle.

Bob Morlock is the oldest being in the universe aged over 800,000 years old, and he wants answers to questions he has always asked himself during his very long life. Where do I come from? Why am I living? And where am I going? These are the questions that he wants to solve, and maybe traveling through black holes to ultimately reach the famous Big Bang will help him in his long-life quest.

However, being so old is quite unnatural and Bob spends most of his time in a cryobox where he sleeps. His company, Kanary Corporation, spends a fortune to keep him alive in this bunker. This journey would be impossible for Bob without your help, and you will be his guide through the universe.

Helped by Honk, the on board computer, you will travel from planet to planet in the galaxies and discover several species. In the beginning, only two planets will be available on the map. Fortunately, when speaking with people wisely, you will be able to obtain some coordinates of other planets. On each planet you will be faced with new puzzles to solve, discover new species, and gather information about other species, special locations and peoples' history.

On the arrival to a new planet, the surface will be displayed with splendid animations before landing to talk with the inhabitants. Dialogues use an easy interface that lets you choose what you want to talk about. Do not forget to click more than once on the same subject to see if the alien has something more to say about it... it may surprise you by revealing new coordinates! Rotoscoped video imaging was used for all the characters in the game and they really come alive on the screen.

The game also features a television with six channels, each with programming from different species. As some are scrambled, you will need a decoder to view them all.

When the telephone rings and you answer it, a small video image will appear on a monitor. It probably will be one of the following: messages from aggressive species, coded messages or even an advertisement. Sometimes you will even receive modem calls from a pirate in the galaxy who will help you by providing you with some hints.

The cyberspace is a three-dimensional place where you will have to go if you want to complete your quest. In there you will find something very valuable that you will need to take. In this section of the game, you will find yourself immersed in a virtual world made of real-time 3D rendered graphics, and you will have a lot of fun surfing in the net.

Conclusion:

"Commander Blood" is another great looking game but when I played the game at first, I started to lose interest. Fortunately, I kept playing and after three hours, I found myself being amused by the characters and their sense of humor, the great music and the amazing animations.

System Requirements

486 DX-33 MHz or better,
Min 4 MB memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required with 6MB free,
Single speed CD-ROM drive (150 Kb/s) or faster,
VGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
Sound Blaster and compatibles.

Ratings and Developer:

                                    Mindscape,
 GRAPHICS ------------------ 91%    Priority House, Charles Avenue,
 SOUND    ------------------ 85%    Maltings Park, Burgess Hill,
 MUSIC    ------------------ 91%    West Sussex RH15 9PQ, England.
 GAMEPLAY ------------------ 78%    Tel: +44-(0)444-246-333
 INTEREST ------------------ 78%  
                                    Mindscape,
                                    60 Leveroni Court,
 OVERALL  ------------------ 84%    Novato, CA 94949.
                                    Tel: 415-883-3000

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