Didn't Keen Dreams get some sort of new edition?

[JM2006]

I heard stories of Keen Dreams having a new edition released.

What are the features of this that make it different from the original? Can I get this on xbox or PC?

[dark]

I haven't played it yet but yes I recall there is a new version. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2496 ... e_Edition/

Looks like several new levels, new music, 16x9 expanded viewing area, and maybe some more new stuff.

[Tormentor667]

According to the reviews it pretty much sucks

[Mobiethian]

According to the reviews it pretty much sucks

I read them before almost purchasing it. Do the developers of these Keen games not know that we exist at all? And that we can do a way better job? ha

[lestagio]

I saw this a little while back and I thought it was... interesting...
I haven't played it, so I don't want to spread false information about it. However, it seems like it was rushed and wasn't made by someone who knew what they were doing.
Tl;dr: Game seems to be a lazy cash grab according to reviews, missing basic support and even removing features from the original game. Also oddly expensive for such a (presumably) bad remake.

The reviews say that the controller support is kind of a mess. Controller doesn't work, no button remap (on keyboard or controller) etc. Some other stuff that I picked up is that people were having to manually limit the game's framerate. If a game ever needs to have a lower framerate, due to animation or something else, the devs should put a cap on it themselves.
No difficulty selection, some weird added "running" mechanic, hard to access levels. No manual saving, no indication of completed levels, and more. Nicer sprites and new music, allegedly.
Seems like a cash grab in my opinion. Look around, we have other things like Szemi's Keen Dreams Gold Edition. Also, look at the quality of other FREE mods and fan games from this community. Commander Keen - Galaxy Reimagined was a great reimagining of the galaxy games. This is the quality expected, if not higher from a developer making their game cost any money at all! This so called "definitive edition" seems like it is pretty low quality. Also, doesn't it cost 100 USD to even publish a game on steam?

Anyway, that is just my two cents on everything, and this was just what I interpreted from reviews. I might buy it, however, and then refund (if it is actually horrible) just to see the general quality of the game.
Edit: Just noticed a blurred watermark on the 'official' trailer on steam. But it isn't constant. Definitely seems like they needed to make a trailer and so they took some early access footage off of youtube. Ha!

[Roobar]

DO NOT BUY THIS garg!!! Geez...

[dark]

When I first heard about it I was intrigued, but when I saw the trailer awhile ago I was put off by it.

As soon as I heard the NES style chiptune music I got the feeling the developer was not someone well acquainted with Keen or dos gaming, and was instead someone who had a preconceived popular idea of what something that is "retro" should look and sound like. After I saw the run ability in the trailer that worried me too. It might be kind of fun to play the game with that in a game breaking way, but with the NES style chip music and the run ability, it looks more and more like the developer is trying to insert Super Mario tropes into the game to cheaply increase its appeal to casual gamers at the expense of the game not sounding or playing like Keen. I'll still probably check it out one of these days but I have the feeling I'm not going to like it as much as the various mods and passion projects around here!

[lestagio]

cheaply increase its appeal to casual gamers at the expense of the game not sounding or playing like Keen.

Yep. It feels like someone played a couple of NES games and then was told to remake Keen Dreams, without having any idea of what they actually were trying to do. It seems that they were leaning into a "retro aesthetic" rather than actually remaking and refining Keen Dreams. By retro aesthetic I mean pixel art, those chiptunes, etc. for people to lean into nostalgia. But to someone who actually plays retro games, it doesn't 'feel' right at all.

[Mobiethian]

Oh my.. I suppose I should see the trailer to know why it's so bad. ughh.. I've been going by the reviews and posts on here. In other sort of related news, Szemi's Keen Dreams - Gold Edition will put this game in it's place. I helped to work on that mod a lot and he has some amazing things coming.

EDIT: Ehh, yeah, that game looks and sounds awful, no wonder why it has such negative reviews!

[Roobar]

I hope everyone here who bought it will refund it.

[lestagio]

Welp. I folded and spent a whole dollar on this... program? Its too much of a mess to be considered a legit published game. I refunded it shortly after. Also, I am confused as to who even has the rights to this mess, or if it's just straight up an illegal game. According to the steam page, it was developed by "Keen Dreams". Wow. Extremely helpful. Anyway, here's what I experienced:

Pros:
- Sprites look kinda nice
- Some of the chiptunes are alright
- They tried? Maybe? Perhaps? ehhhhh

Cons (the fun part):
- The save select often bugs out and combines with the title screen. After some testing, seven out of ten boots had this bugged screen.
This is the bugged save select screen.
This is what the save select SHOULD look like. And even so, it doesn't look very pretty.

- The movement is extremely fast on my PC. That's because I have a modern cpu and the game was running at 144 fps, I assume. I couldn't find a way
in my graphics card settings to cap the frames specifically for this game.
- The jumping feels like moon gravity.
- Extremely hard to jump from one pole to another. Probably due to the fast movement.
- Fonts for finishing a level, as well as other parts of the game are way too big. It makes it hard to read and hurts my eyes
- While I said some of the chiptunes are alright, most of them sound like there is something... off. Also, they don't sound faithful to Keen music imo.
- There is no flag that appears to mark a completed level, and because levels are replayable, it is very hard to tell what you have and haven't beaten.
- No difficulty select. Really? REALLY?
- No settings menus, keybind changing menus, or anything of the likes. They basically took out features from the original Keen Dreams. The only way to change the volume is to open the Windows Sound Mixer and change the volume that way.
- The pause menu is broken. The options to do things like leave a level or quit to title do not get highlighted by a cursor. This makes it extremely hard to navigate the menu when you don't know what option you are about to click.
- Controller would not work. And guess what? There's no settings menu in the game so you can't even try to troubleshoot.
- Game crashed twice
- I found a funny glitch where Keen started flying after throwing multiple items.
- Music overpowers sound. So jumping, as well as other sfx sound really quiet compared to the ear defening music.
- A bunch of other small things that I'm not going to list off, but they just annoy me a lot, especially when they are all added together.

Overall, I give this game: /10
In other words, 10 barfs out of 10. Horrible game.
Also, there's no DRM on the game whatsoever, so........
And again, I have refunded this game. Wasn't worth even a dollar imo.

[szemi]

Reputation = Commander Keen Mobile Game 2

If you really want to play something, I can suggest my Keen Dreams Gold Edition that I'm still updating, which is going without problems.

[lestagio]

Yes, absolutely play Keen Dreams Gold Edition! I left a link to it in my negative steam review of Keen Dreams 'Definitive Edition'.

[szemi]

I've just found a too optimistic review for the Definitive Edition:

https://www.bonusstage.co.uk/archives/176754

8/10? Never ever...

[Mobiethian]

Yeah, I can't help but to think this is way too optimistic: "Diplodocus Games went above and beyond to introduce some new areas that both fit and don’t fit into this world of the Dream Machine." ... So why would we want areas that don't fit into the world?

My thoughts. Well, first of all, now we know who made it. Unless it's been mentioned before. I just wonder who the "masterminds" are and if they aware of us. Secondly, what the hell is Diplodocus Games?!