Keen 2 is actually my favorite of the Vorticon trilogy. It had some great puzzles and cool little tricks that the other games lacked.wiivn wrote:I bet they didn't have time to make one. Now I know very few people here adore this episode for unknown reasons, but this is the least favorite keen to the most people and to me as well, so I don't really care if it does or doesn't have. The fact that it doesn't contain a secret level makes this episode even worse. So no, it's not better. But if it had, it would slightly increase my interest to playing it a bit more at the time I played it, just to find it out.
-lights you could turn on/off to affect enemy behavior
-critters that could carry you up walls to other parts of the levels
-items you could stand on (pressurized soda cans)
-ways for you to lose the game other than dying
In my opinion it had arguably the best level design, and while the levels felt a bit cold, I found the palette less monotonous than the other two Vorticon games. I suppose the other thing it has on 1 and 3 is that you actually have to play most of the game to beat it, whereas you can skip the vast majority of levels in 1 and 3. Seriously only 3 levels to speed-run keen 3--two of which are quite easy!
I think the other thing that appealed to me about keen 2 was that there were no giant monotonous mazes, and there was nothing random that required luck to get through--everything was deterministic and under your control if you played carefully and skillfully. Whereas in 3, 4, and 5 there are some areas with totally random enemies that require some luck.
Things like music, secret levels, a less ugly overhead map would've made the game better but it's still a great game. All the games have their quirks, their plusses and minuses. I consider all of them great games except for the GBC one.