Ludography
Commander Blood cover

1994 · Cryo Interactive · Adventure · Puzzle

Commander Blood

Bob Morlock is an interstellar businessman who also happens to be the oldest living being in the world. Feeling that his time to depart has finally come, Morlock wishes to go back in time to the very beginning, in order to witness the Big Bang and the creation of the universe. His company Kanary has a clone-constructing department, which promptly produces the fearless Clone Consortium Commander Blood, who must navigate his ultra-modern ship, the Ark, in order to fulfill the wishes of the eccentric boss.

Released
1994
Platforms
MS-DOS
Genres
AdventurePuzzleScience
Developers
Cryo Interactive
Publishers
Mindscape
Series
Captain Blood
Modes
Single-player
Themes
Science fictionComedy
Country
France
Age ratings
ESRB E
Entry
#2 in Captain Blood

About

Commander Blood is a science fiction adventure game that was developed by Cryo, a French company that also created Captain Blood (released in 1988). Designed to run on MS-DOS, Commander Blood was released in 1994. The Big Bug Bang, the sequel to Commander Blood, was released in 1996, and was available in French only.

Keywords

  • rotoscoping
  • platform exclusive
  • full motion video
  • in-game radio
  • real-time over pre-rendered movies

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Communication with the game's characters is carried on clicking on a series of words that serve as topics. Captain Blood utilized UPCOM (an icon-based communication system), while Commander Blood makes use of a multiple-choice conversation system, in which players click through word-choices in order to learn more information. Players traverse both time and space as they enter black holes in the search for the Big Bang.

Story

Bob Morlock, a biomechanical mastermind, is the founder of a massive company called Kanary. Thanks to scientific advances, Morlock is the oldest being in existence. Knowing his time in this universe is nearing an end, he would like to see the Big Bang and the beginning of the universe. Kanary's Clone Consortium branch builds Commander Blood in order to help Morlock achieve his goal. Commander Blood is placed on a high-tech ship, the Ark, and aided by Honk, Blood's onboard computer personality; the ORXX, Blood's biomechanical 'clone'; Olga, Blood's onboard translator; a radio, television set; and other technology.

Development

The game focuses on Commander Blood's interactions with the denizens of the worlds players travel to in search for the Big Bang. Thus, the game makes use of complex FMV sequences that depict orbiting planetary systems, expressive characters, and an onboard television with different channels to watch. The animations of the non-CGI characters were created by performing live action puppeteering in front of a chroma key screen.

The game makes use of original scores by the French composers Stephane Picq and Philippe Egret, and the various planetary inhabitants each make distinctive sounds during the game.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
MS-DOS31 December 1994Worldwide

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Collections2 collections

Development status

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.