What I'm Playing (Volume 67): Commander Keen: Keen Must Die!

Keen Must Die! is the third and final game in the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy, and, having recently completed both the first and second parts of the series, I finished up episode three over the weekend. As with my review of the second portion, I won't spend a ton of time discussing the similarities between the three games, but will focus primarily on where this one diverges from the previous two.

The story of Keen Must Die! focuses on Keen taking the fight to the Vorticons' home planet in an attempt to discover the identity of the Grand Intellect, a mysterious force who has been controlling the aggressive actions of the Vorticons.






Graphics, sound, and controls were all identical to the first two games in the series, and are generally fine.

The approach of this game, however, is much different than in the first or second games. The basic strategy in the first game is to save as much ammo as you can due to its limited supply and avoid enemies wherever possible. The second game takes a much more strategic approach, requiring you to be very thoughtful about the paths that you take and the different environmental factors you can activate in order to move through the game successfully, especially as many of the enemies in the game are completely immune to your gun. The third game, however, takes a much more run and gun style of gameplay, as ammo is generally plentiful, but enemies are harder to avoid than ever, and can all be killed with the gun.

Unfortunately for this title, the difficult controls make this game the weakest of the trilogy for me. Gunning down jumping enemies karate kicking is fiendishly difficult. The game doesn't control like Mega Man, which makes this run and gun style tough to accomplish with your slow movement speed imprecise firing, and slow speed of your projectiles.

The game definitely steps up the story conveyance, however, and is the best in the series (thus far) in that regard. The development team goes to weird and absurd levels to demonstrate Vorticon society, including seeing the first sight of female Vorticons, making your way through Vorticon schools (the students are learning to read English by learning how to spell "Keen Must Die"), and seeing Vorticon apartment complexes. It also has an absolutely hilarious ending, in which Keen receives a medal for saving all of the Vorticons who he "didn't slaughter". The reveal of the Grand Intellect also has a very funny and personalizing touch that helps to draw the story to a close.

All in all, the third game is probably about the same as the first, although I tend to prioritize gameplay and level design over polish, so I rate it slightly lower than that one, which is more bare bones in visuals but also slightly better in terms of design, in my opinion. I'll give Keen Must Die! an 8.2/10.

Next up in the home console edition of What I'm Playing is the fourth (full) game in the Commander Keen series, Secret of the Oracle. I'd guess I'll have it done in the next few days, so keep an eye out!

-TRO