Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!

The Good
Keen Must Die! is the third and final episode of the original Keen trilogy. Commander Keen had a lot of interesting adventures so far. He found himself on Mars where he had to retrieve four vital components of his “Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket”, then hopped on board the Vorticon mothership, whose Tantalus Rays threatened to destroy Earth. Out of all the episodes in the original trilogy, this is the most beautiful. The episode’s subtitle is the order in which the Grand Intellect gives the Vorticons who have been succumbed to mind control.

His final destination is Vorticon VI and, unlike the last two episodes, Keen does not move along a pre-defined path. There are five islands, each housing a number of cities, and there are a number of teleports that take you to different islands. A green creature can be seen swimming around, and Keen can get on its back to be taken to the only secret level in the game. Keen waving at literally nothing is a nice touch. As always, Keen walks around the planet in a top-down perspective, but it changes into a side view once he enters a city. A green halo surrounding each exit makes it stand out against all the other exits in the first two episodes.

The Standard Galactic Alphabet (SGA) plays a vital role in the game. Upon entering a city, you are greeted with huge yellow signs with red writing written in SGA. To translate the writing in this episode, as well as the others, you have to enter the aforementioned secret level. As well as this, the Vorticon's homes look quite beautiful, with nice wallpaper and lot of munchies and toys that the Vorticons can be occupied with.

The usual chocolate-themed items are there; get enough of these and you are awarded an extra life. There are also items called ankhs, and getting these will cause a bubble to cover Keen, meaning that he is invincible for a few seconds. The invincibility spell is quite useful when trying to get past enemies in tight spots. If you activate God mode, the bubble reappears but this time it will be flashing. The bubble is not see in the first two episodes.

The difficulty level is also ramped up, with the new Vorticons requiring more than one shot to go down. VortiNinjas are quite aggressive and are much harder to kill since they jump quite a lot. The Vorticon Moms are another aggressive enemy, throwing fireballs your way. These enemies require more than one shot from your pistol so it is important to stock up in every level. Also, you have to go through a labyrinth before you face the Grand Intellect, who happens to be the only boss in all of the Keen games. When you finally reach him, the climax is satisfying. You have to destroy his Mangling Machine, and this gizmo is well designed.

The Bad
The [Ctrl] and [Alt] keys are still confusing. If you want to fire your pistol, you need to press both of these keys down at once, and even if you do not want to fire it, you do anyway when you want to do a high pogo jump.

The Bottom Line
Keen Must Die! is the third and final game in the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy, where Keen explores Vorticon VI to meet the master that controls the Vorticons. Most levels in the game allow you to see how they live, by going into their homes and making a mess of it. Also, this is the first and only Keen game where Keen has to defeat a boss to complete the game. The translations to the SGA are provided somewhere in the game, just that you have to find which level that they are on. Sounds are arcade like, even though that they are using the PC Speaker. In conclusion, I have to say that Keen Must Die! is slightly better than the previous episodes of the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy.

The Good
Graphically it's the same as part 1 and 2 because it's from the same release (the try one free and get the others by buying them formula) but it there is much more to see in this one because you are on the home planet of the Vorticans. You will see buildings with houses and schools in them and lots of different Vortican enemies such as ninja's big mother's and kids. This is also the only Keen with an actual boss battle, which is nice. You must help eight-year old genius Billy Blaze A.K.A as Commander Keen defeat the Grand Intellect after having repaired his ship and destroyed the Vortican ship in the first two parts. The identity of the Grand Intellect is unknown but if you manage to reach him it will be kind of surprising. It's a pretty good story. There are some secret areas as well just as before which is a cool twist. The controls are still the same too, which is good because it was very smooth for such an old PC game.

The Bad
There's still the annoying ALT+CONTROL shooting method and the sound is just some simple bleeps just as before. The controls were good as I said but are dated now, especially when you are jumping. It may also be a bit too hard even for a CK game which are all pretty tough games.

The Bottom Line
Yet another fun classic that should be in your collection for DOS games. It's old but still brilliant and addictive.

The Good
The final chapter of the "Invasion of the Vorticons" series is probably the best. Sure it looks and feels just like the first two chapters, but this time you get to visit the aliens homeworld. This beautifully designed and is a lot of fun to play. Wander around their cities, through their homes and their schools (a lovely touch). You'll have to learn their language to complete this game, and watch out for the baby Vorticons who run around the place at high speed - their trick is to knock you over, stunning you for a few seconds. The final scene involves one of the toughest bosses in any platfrom game, and there's a little surprise for anyone who gets this far.

The Bad
I've said it before and I'll say it again - the control system is a real pain. If I ever find the guy who decided that CTRL+ALT would make a good fire button...

The Bottom Line
The best of the bunch, it makes a great finale to the series. Obviously you would have finished the first two games before you play this, but it's well worth the wait.