Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes

The Good
Before id Software released their hit first-person shooter, they created a trilogy of platform games starring Billy Blaze, who transforms into Commander Keen after donning his brother’s helmet. His first adventure took him to Mars where he recovered four vital parts to his Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket the Vorticons stole. Keen then returned home only to find their mothership hovering above Earth. The second game, The Earth Explodes, finds Keen on board this mothership.

When you start the game, you are presented with a top-down view of the mothership. As you go through it, you will find it resembles the shape of a flying monster. There are different types of rooms (Engine, Weaponry, and Home), and several warning lights that are not used at any point. Your main concern though is the X-14 Tantalus Rays housed in eight of the rooms, aimed at the same cities featured in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. Destroy all eight rays, and you will complete the game.

When you enter a room, the view switches to a side-on perspective, and the aim here is to find the exit, while unlocking a series of doors blocking it. Once you have found the exit and go through it, the entrance will be replaced by a red square with the word “Done” in it, and you can’t enter the room again.

The thing I noticed straight away is the change of graphics. The gray background from the last episode is gone, replaced by nice patterns with a touch of gray to them, and they look like a good match for your next bathroom. The corridors of the mothership contain tiled floors that look like the gray blocks from Arkanoid, while some of the levels have patterns that resemble a chain-link fence.

The items are similar to those in the first episode. With the exception of the Stuffed Toy Vorticon, every item has a food theme. You can get candy bars, hamburgers, chocolate cake, and “Vorta-Cola”. Of these items, the Toy Vorticon has the highest number of points. These stuffed teddy bears are often out of reach, but if you manage to collect two or three of theses, you may find yourself awarded with an extra life. Keen is equipped with his pogo stick which he carried from his last adventure, and this will help him reach items he cannot get to by foot.

There are several creatures to watch out for. Several Vorticon Elite guards are found protecting the Tantalus Rays from intruders like Keen. Other enemies include the guard robot and the Vorticon Grunt. Contact with any of these creatures will result in a loss of life. He can get a raygun that will help him deal with these creatures. Each raygun contains five charges. Since some of the creatures require more than one shot to kill, it is important to stock up on ammo.

The two impressive cinematics are on par with the first episode in terms of quality, and these are worth watching more than once. One of these signals a game over, and is triggered when you flip a switch in one of the Tantalus Control Rooms. The other one occurs when you successfully protected all eight cities.

The Bad
The same problem is present as it is in the last game. You keep firing your pistol by accident because you need to press two keys simultaneously: the [Ctrl] and [Alt] keys.

The Bottom Line
The second episode of the Keen series, in which you have to save certain cities from destruction, has the same gameplay as its predecessor: top-down view for the world map, side-on view for the rest. Even though the sounds and controls are similar, the graphics have been improved, with the background changing from a dull gray to an actual pattern. Like in the last game, you can save the game in one of nine slots, as long as you do it on the world map. Even though that Keen was made in the early Nineties, this game can be played on modern systems due to the fact that there are no timer issues you need to worry about.