Zomb's Lair

Commander Blood is an extremely weird game. You'd think it was actually made by aliens. The reality, which is both believable and explanatory, is that is was made by the French. I have a real soft spot for Cryo. They made quite a few interesting, unique, experimental and often flawed games; and I'd say Commander Blood sits squarely in the center of that description. It's the sequel to the considerably better known Captain Blood, which was equally unique if not quite as weird.

 

You're the commander of a space ship called the Ark, and are on a mission to transport an 800,000 year old alien named Bob Morlock (who spends most of his time in cryo sleep, though you can wake him up for a quick chat now and then) through a series of black holes so that he can go back to the beginning of the universe and see the Big Bang. I'll let you process that for a moment.

 

In order to accomplish this mission you'll have to travel to various planets and interact with various alien species in order to try and chart your course (you don't know where the black holes actually are).

 

Like most of Cryo's previous efforts, artistically the game is quite impressive and full of weird touches like your shuttlecraft... thing... somehow being connected to some kind of dolphin... thing. I... don't know. It's French.

 

Say what you will about it, but I'd challenge anyone to play this and make the statement "Yeah, I've played something very similar to this before," (unless it was maybe another Cryo game). It's not quite as good (or coherent) as Dune or Lost Eden, but you'll be hard pressed to find much else like it.