Summary
What is the secret of the oracle, anyway?
The Good
After restoring peace and order to the Vorticons and their home planet, Keen once again returns home to play with his latest creation, the Photachyon Transceiver. It is a device that lets anyone tune into radio signal from anywhere in the galaxy. After receiving a bunch of bad sitcoms, Keen intercepts a strange message, saying that the Shikadi, an evil alien race, is planning to blow up the galaxy. Keen flies off to Gnosticus IV to consult the Keepers of the Oracle, only to be told that they were kidnapped and held at their own will, to stop them from interfering with the Shikadi's plans.
The very start of the game is neat. After the game checks your memory, the opening credits are displayed,
Terminator-style, and this is followed by a
Star Wars-style introductory sequence after a demo of the first level These are repeated in the next two episodes.
When you start a new game, which now has three difficulty settings, you face with what you faced in Keens 1-3: the world map. The world map this time consists of three areas (forest, desert, and icy areas) that you can travel to on foot. The map itself is more detailed than the world maps from the first three episodes. Keen enters structures that blend in with the area that you are visiting. For example, in the desert area, Keen can enter structures that look like an oasis and sandcastles. In the forest areas, Keen enters huts. But no matter what structure that you enter and in what areas, the gameplay switches to a third-person perspective, just like in previous Keen adventures. The backgrounds in the main perspective are quite nice to look at. In the first three levels, you will be looking at a lot of trees which happen to be alive and stare at Keen as he walks past them.
There are many inhabitants that Keen must face, and some of them are sneaky and do anything else to stop Keen in his tracks. Slugs not just crawl around, but they leave puddles of acid behind, and the acid will kill Keen if he steps in it. My favorite of the enemies is the walking rocks that eventually jump and attempt to land on Keen. There are hazards to look out for, including tar and fire. Completing a stage causes a flag with the letter K to be raised, and not just the word “DONE” over the structure.
There is background music and sound effects using the Adlib/SB combination. The sound effects have a cartoony feel, and the sounds that the inhabitants make are very good. The ending to this game (and in Keens
5 &
6) is now much longer, with animations and such.
The gameplay involves you running to the exit, shooting inhabitants that get in your way using your pistol. You need only press one key to fire, not two. There is a bit more to this. You see, you can cling onto ledges and pull yourself up onto platforms. This is useful if you just cannot reach it with the pogo stick. Not only that, but you can also grip onto poles and slide yourself down, and Keen slides down them much faster then when he goes up. Keen sliding down is much useful if items are on both sides. Two other things I like about the gameplay: all throughout the game, your score/lives/raygun charges are displayed in the upper-left corner, which is great because this saves you from bringing up the status panel (which slides down rather than pop up from nowhere), Also, when you die, you are given the option of trying the stage again or returning to the world map. The first option is useful if you keep dying and want to try the stage again, fixing the mistakes that you made the last time. This would be the best option because you get double the points as well as lives and raygun charges.
There is a
Pong-style mini-game that you can play, and it is located in the main menu. The object is the same: get more points than your opponent by making their bat miss the ball. You can play it if you had enough of Keen once and for all.
The Bad
Like the first three episodes, Keen cannot enter stages that he has already completed. To re-enter stages, you have to access the built-in cheat keys, if you know what they are.
Also, there is a bug where any keycards that you obtain will be lost if you save your current game then load it.
The Bottom Line
Secret of the Oracle is a major step-up in the
Commander Keen series. The game has detailed graphics and nice backgrounds. There are more stages in the game, and in those stages, Keen has to deal with enemies that have more tricks up their sleeves, but Keen may have the last laugh since he can do more than just jumping and shooting. The opening credits, introduction, and extended ending are a pleasure to watch.
