Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy!: The Armageddon Machine
released on Dec 18, 1991
After completing the mission in episode one, Keen learns of the Shikadi's enormous ship, which doubles as the largest weapon ever built. So in episode two, titled "The Armageddon Machine", Keen faces his greatest challenge yet - to save the Galaxy!
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My absolute favorite of the Commander Keen franchise that was officially released (I'll get to the unofficial trilogy soon enough since it's on here). Just like "The Earth Explodes," this game explores a satellite that is about to destroy the Earth. Unlike the previous title, it adds so many new and interesting enemies that vary up the combat in the game. The way you use one of them to actually complete the game is just genius.
I turned down the difficulty to Easy so I was breezing through this. By the end of the game I had so much ammo that the counter couldn't keep track. That's a sort of criticism but I had a good time.
As for the campaign itself, once again exploring a starship is not the best game world. It's very repetitive although the one or two hours it took to beat this game minimized how annoying it would be. That doesn't mean that the game doesn't have presentation problems.
The levels have a lot of details and doodads that make the aesthetics very busy. Combine that with the fact that the game doesn't have any real sense of colour– there's a lot of colour but it has no identity– and you get a game that has bland visuals. The music's also bland aside from one theme. Still surprised how much I enjoyed playing this though being that this one doesn't have the best reputation.
As for the campaign itself, once again exploring a starship is not the best game world. It's very repetitive although the one or two hours it took to beat this game minimized how annoying it would be. That doesn't mean that the game doesn't have presentation problems.
The levels have a lot of details and doodads that make the aesthetics very busy. Combine that with the fact that the game doesn't have any real sense of colour– there's a lot of colour but it has no identity– and you get a game that has bland visuals. The music's also bland aside from one theme. Still surprised how much I enjoyed playing this though being that this one doesn't have the best reputation.
As a kid, I played Keen 1-3 religiously. I had Keen Dreams and the shareware version of Keen 4 as well, but didn't like them as much, so I never had much interest in trying 5 or 6. While I maintain that The Earth Explodes and Keen Must Die have excellent aesthetics and levels, this one might be a better game?? This probably doesn't sound like a big revelation or anything to most people, but the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy was arguably my most formative gaming experience. It turns out that I was simply ignoring an incredible sequel for all these years, and I'm very glad to have finally finished it! Definitely won't wait another 25 years to beat Aliens Ate My Babysitter!
More of the same as Secret of the Oracle. This one is more linear, and feels more like a final stretch before saving the day for good, as opposed to the more open-ended adventure feel of Secret of the Oracle, but it's fun nonetheless. Some nice level designs here.
Melhor que seus antecessores. Level design competente, visual bacana que trabalha bem a identidade visual da série e gamefeel e controles melhorado. Nesse ritmo, só mais uns 10 e a id enfim faria um platformer bom!
Tries to do another alien ship episode like the second part of the original trilogy but it's just an ugly mess. All of the problems of the previous one plus increased difficulty and worse art. Is KEEN DREAMS actually better than these?