Summary
Shut down the machines or the galaxy will be destroyed
The Good
At the end of the
last episode, Commander Keen learned that the Shikadi are planning to destroy the galaxy with a device known as the Omegamatic and that he must get on-board to find the four (five?) machines that will do the destruction.
The Armageddon Machine is the conclusion to Commander Keen's
Goodbye Galaxy games.
This episode has you doing the usual routine: Go around the world map and enter stages that are located in each corner of the Omegamatic. The Omegamatic has elevators that take you to different sections of it. You are forced to use the elevators; you cannot walk up or down the Omegamatic. I believe that episode five has more than what episode four has. When you select a stage, you will more often than not find out that the graphics are much more detailed, and that there are some smooth animations, such as Keen surfing when he is on those little moving platforms. When I came across the machines, I liked how they look, and it makes me think that they are futuristic. The final machine that Keen comes across takes a little bit of effort to destroy.
There is more music, and some of it is excellent, starting from the first stage to the stages where you have to destroy the machines. I enjoyed listening to the music in the secret stage at Korath III. It has a Scottish theme, with harmless creatures walking around wearing quilts, and background music that is made with bagpipes.
Gameplay is the same, with Keen jumping, both normally and with his pogo stick, and shooting enemies with his raygun. Keen can climb up and down poles, and climb onto ledges if he happens to just miss the platform, even if he jumps or use his pogo stick. Locked doors are scattered throughout the levels, and they must be unlocked with gems. Another addition to the game requires Keen to obtain a keycard that opens the exit door made out of steel. I like the sound of this door opening very much.
The enemies are much tougher, with the Shikadi team requiring more than just one shot to dispose of and trying to destroy Keen while he is on poles. There are the Shikadi dogs that jump on you. Enemies that do not die are located in the last stages.
The Bad
On the world map, you are restricted in moving Keen around a limited space, the space being the Omegamatic itself, and you cannot go outsides its boundaries. The only way to do this is to enable the no-clipping cheat that allows you to walk anywhere. Enabling this lets you go out for a little space walk and go back inside if you had enough of playing astronaut for a while. The flooring of each section of the Omegamatic has that dull cyan look.
Without using the warp cheat, there is no way that you play stages that you have previously completed, so you cannot be amazed at how gorgeous the stage is a second time.
Cheating is your friend, I guess.
The Bottom Line
The Armageddon Machine follows on where
Secret of the Oracle left off. The game features more music and excellent graphics. The controls and gameplay is the same as any other Keen game. Although you are limited to only walking around the Omegamatic, this would not stop you from cheating to get a little bit of enjoyment out of it. Unlike the last episode, you have to pay to get this episode, but it is worth the money with the additions and stuff.
