Commander Keen in Keen Dreams: Definitive Edition

I wanted to be the person here who wrote about having a positive experience but it was not to be. Clearly not QA'd, which is a shame as this Definitive Edition was obviously a passion project for someone. Immediately on launch, the menu bugs out sometimes - the 4x save slots get overlaid on top of the actual title screen. Game speed seems to be linked to screen refresh rate though at 60Hz it runs too slow; at 85Hz slightly too fast. Pressing Enter during the game brings up a menu to Restart, Exit etc but with no way to actually select the options present. It looks like it is a port of the Switch version as the controls listed on the in-game menu are the same (Y=run, ZR=throw etc), even though this Steam version doesn't support controllers. The Definitive Edition still has its merits - widescreen and some new music which fits well but purchase the Switch version as this works great. On Steam though it is borderline unplayable.

I got this game for 99 cents and frankly it's not even worth that. The port is very buggy and to even be able to run the game properly I had to limit the framerate of the game to 60 fps on the nvidia control panel. You can't save inside the levels anymore which means the game is borderline impossible now because one hit sends you back to the start of the level and you lose everything you collected. 12 bonus levels? Yeah, good luck even reaching them. There's no difficulty selection anymore and you also need to have the hindsight that ctrl jumps, alt shoots, shift runs, the arrow keys move you and enter pauses the game. Yeah that was the original controls of the game but this was fine in the year 1990, not 2024. If you want to play the game with more modern controls you can't because there's no way to rebind the keys. The "devs" will not do anything about the game because of the controversy surrounding the licencing of this game. Id Software and Microsoft should be ashamed for the state of the series because it's so easy for them to release a Commander Keen Collection with all the games but instead they left the ip in the hands of random grifters that misuse it for personal profit.

Похоже здесь ещё нет обзора “Keen Dreams Definitive Edition” на русском языке. Тогда мой будет первым. Прежде чем начать, отмечу, что ранее я прошёл как DOS-версию, так и предыдущую версию для Steam (Windows-порт, который, к сожалению, был удалён из магазина и теперь его хз где найдёшь). Рассмотрим достоинства издания: 1. Поддержка Windows и экранов с соотношением сторон 16:9. 2. 12 новых уровней, открываются после первого прохождения. 3. Недавно добавленная оригинальная DOS-версия. А теперь недостатки: 1. Главный герой (Кин) прыгает с эффектом замедления, чего не было в оригинале. Возможно, это задумка разработчиков, связанная с тем, что всё происходит во сне, и в нём Кин лёгкий как пёрышко, я не знаю. 2. Отсутствует возможность выбора уровня сложности (easy, normal, hard), как в оригинале. Сложность одна и её уровень неясен. 3. Сохраняться можно НЕ в любом месте (как в оригинале), а автоматически после завершения уровня, что усложняет прохождение. 4. Отсутствует отметка о прохождении уровня, приходится самостоятельно запоминать или записывать пройденные уровни, а сам уровень можно перепроходить сколько угодно раз. 5. Чтобы попасть в замок необходимо пройти ВСЕ уровни, тогда как в оригинале это условие не было обязательным. 6. Отсутствуют достижения и карточки, которые были в предыдущей Steam-версии. 7. Я не понял, как выйти из игры… в смысле совсем выйти, кнопка ESC не помогла, пришлось принудительно завершать процесс. Очевидно, что минусов в данном издании значительно больше, чем плюсов. Данное издание нельзя считать окончательным из-за множества недоработок. Я смог вернуть деньги. Не рекомендую тратить на него даже 30 рублей на распродаже. Вместо этого советую обратить внимание на бесплатный фанатский мод Keen Dreams Gold Edition.

I'll begin by saying that this "game" is absolute trash! It's just really terrible. The physics are incorrect compared to classic Keen. I just feel 'totally disappointed' with this, even with the generous discount. So all of that being said, I am a game developer myself.. and we wish that you had hired us to help with the work to make it just right, but we know how it goes. We are basically waiting for "Gold Edition" to be released soon and then we'll all be very happy. Thank you for trying though, if you actually did.. but it wasn't accurate this time. Off target by a long shot with the controls. I apologize.

Commander Keen: Keen Dreams Definitive Edition is an ancient game from 1991. It's a whopping 33 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge, or just a cash grab to try profit from abandonware. It must be known this 2D retro pixel platformer was never the best in the Commander Keen series... it's Commander Keen without the iconic blaster and pogo stick. Leaving a really mediocre platformer. But it gets worse. This is a really hamfisted, badly done re-hash of the original game that's actually worse... leaving the severely dated 16 colour EGA graphics, but somehow making the control scheme, movement, and the whole game itself worse. Even if you really want to play this (over any of the other, better Keen games?), this is the WORST version of it. Find a different edition if you can. Or just don't... come on, it's 33 years old. Let it rest. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? Commander Keen: Keen Dreams Definitive Edition is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $3 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

Well, can't say that was money well spent. Love the series. Not this version of Keen Dreams. Can't the company patch things? Did they just give up on this? Was this just a cheap lazy cash grab? FIX THE ISSUES. Or take this off of Steam. Do not waste your time.

Como é que existe curadores que recomendaram uma b0st4 desta? Comprei porque estava de 5 conto, mas de graça ainda é caro! (não é possível que agora esteja de 32 conto!). Definitive Edition é meu ovo! Nada comparado à versão original que tem, por exemplo, no Archive ponto com. Um monte de detalhe retirado. Pelamor, não adicionem isto nem quando estiver de graça! pode dar azar!

Was ist das für eine unfertige Scheiße!?!? Wie kann man sowas veröffentlichen?! Es fehlt ein Hauptmenü, man sieht manchmal nicht, was man ausgewählt hat, also der blinkende Rahmen, um das was man ausgewählt hat und es gibt kein Beenden-Button! Dann läuft es alles sehr langsam ab, man kann nun rennen, toll. Aber die Standart-Spielgeschwindigkeit, ist wie niedrige Schwerkraft! Wie wäre es, erstmal ein Spiel fertig zu machen und auch für PC anzupassen, bevor man es veröffentlicht?!?

I paid $10 for this game and I am pretty perturbed. I wanted to play after I finished the OG commander keen, so when I requested a refund 8 months later I was denied. I don't know how this company was able to use the commander keen name and looks, but this is not what I ordered. Id love for the company to do the right thing and offer my money back, but I highly doubt that will happen. I take responsibility for not seeing this was not the same publisher and not looking into things, but come on....

horrible