Vorticon VI 

                               !THE BEST UNOFFICIAL KEEN GAME YET! 

     Ahhh....  When I first saw the demo for this game, then called Keen:  Infinity, I was awed.  It was the best Keen Game ever!  And all done unofficially!  I first heard about it from an e-mail from a guy named DML 1001.  I didn't know who he was, I thought of deleting it because I thought it was from Peter Heardgahna.  But I opened it anyway.  (Especially since the subject was "New Keen Game for your Site")  
Inside, I got the adress for the game.  While I was downloading it, I thought that it would be some crappy game made with Klik and Play, or Games Factory.  It finished downloading, and I noticed it wasn't a GF or KnP or any of those files!  It was a real .exe file!  I opened it up, and started playing it.  It was the best game.  Superb graphics, smooth scrolling, and everything else a Keen Game should need.  A few things I thought that should be changed about it of course.  I didn't really like all the guts flying around when I shot a yorp.  Same with all the other creatures.  Thankfully I think this is fixed now.  One bug was in the demo, it's fixed now, but the game froze when you died.  After I played the game, I sent an e-mail to that DML 1001 guy, saying how great his game was, yadda, yadda, yadda, and so forth.  I put a link to the game on my downloads page.  (MAN, THIS IS A LONG ARTICLE SO FAR!)  
     I didn't think much of the game for awhile.  I got a e-mail from DML saying to put a sorta add on the site for image people that could make images or something.  I forget.  I did it gleefully.  I mean I was happy to be doing it!  Somewhere along the line, I learned that Geoff, creator of cc314 was also involved in the project.  Then he posts a page where you can go to get the latest info on the game.  They also then changed the name of the game to Commander Keen:  Mystery of Isis II.  I thought, "Hey, this is a pretty cool name!"  I went to the website, and found lots more info about the game.  Like I learned that their was lots more people working on the game then I knew there was.  I learned about how the game had started and so on.  Suddenly, I wanted to add an article about the game to this magazine, so here it is.  I also wanted to learn some more about the game that wasn't on the webpage.  I e-mailed DML 1001.  And that's where I leave off.  Enough of my yapping, here' s some info on Commander Keen:  Mystery of Isis II! 

NEW FEATURES INCLUDE: 
NEW WEAPONS! 
AN EDITOR FOR THE GAME! 
HEALTH! 
UNDERWATER SHOOTING! 
16-20 Levels! 
AND LOTS, LOTS, MORE! 

     The Game is the best Unofficial Keen Game ever done.  Made with real programming! (C++ if I'm not mistaken.) They change Keen a little bit in this game from what he was before in Keen 4-6.  They make his skin slightly darker, almost like if he had a dark tan.  Here is the transaction from Keen 4-6, to Isis. 
 

     There will also be new weapons of course.  No one knows what they're really going to be like.  The following are screenshots in which two new weapons are used. 

A unknown Keen Weapon of yet, that seems to shoot plasma or something. 

  A unknown Keen Weapon of yet, that seems to shoot energy or something. 

     Unfortunately, I have no story of the game YET.  When I have it, it will be shown on Vorticon VI.  No release date has been mentioned yet.  Also included with the game, will be a Game Level Editor, that I guess enables you to create your own levels for Isis II.  Here is a screenshot from the Editor. 

     You will also have health in the game, where as you can get hit once, and not die.  Yet.  After 10 hits you will die.  Also underwater shooting will be in the game.  I don't know what it will be like, but I'm pretty sure there will be one.  Now, here is a short interview that DML1001, the programmer of Isis II, filled out for me. 

 1.  Why did you decide to make a Keen Game?  Were you a Keen fan before you met Geoff? 

The first real video game I EVER played was marooned on mars.  It came free 
with our joystick that my dad bought to use with our brand new 386/16.  The 
vorticons trilogy was also the first program that I ever registered.  Ever 
since then, I loved keen.  I liked the later games a lot as well, but I still 
think that the original marooned on mars episode was the best.  Anyway, I 
knew about keen for pretty much ever, and I have been a fan for just as long. 

  2.  What new weapons can we expect for the final game? 

We plan to include around 6 or 7 new weapons.  I don't want to give them all 
away, but there will be an underwater weapon, as well as many others.  We 
tried to avoid makeing all the weapons traditional boring projectile weapons 
by adding rapid fire bursts, instant hit weapons, and arching projectiles to 
some weapons. 

  3.  Do you think ID knows about the game? 

I do not think that id is aware at this point.  We have made several attempts 
to get in contact with id software, but we have recived no reply. 

  4.  What kind of new enemies? 

All kinds.  We are giving the artists freedom to make pretty much anything 
that they can think of that is cool. 

  5.  Will there be new music? 

Hopefully.  I believe that Geoff was looking to recruit someone to do midis 
for us. 
 

     Also, apparently, The Isis Demo currently available right now, used to be a game called Worminator that DML made up. Geoff and DML just integrated Keen Sprites into it.  I have a one Level Demo of Worminator if you wish to try it out.  Go all the way to the bottom of the page.  There, there will be links, and downloads about this game.  One last thing.  There are 5 people involved in Isis II so far.  They are... 

DML1001 
 Programmer 
 
eK 
 Artist & Assistant Game 
 Designer 
 
pLeitorian 
 Game Designer & Level 
 Designer 
 
Vertigo 
 Tile Artist 
 
Geoff 
 Project Leader 

That's it on this article! 

Vorticon VI Rating:  (5 out of 5)