Posted October 08, 2009
Some games have a special feeling, a magical touch, which keeps you enchanted for a long time, and every time you look back and think of them, you get the same satisfactory feeling again. Commandos, is one of those games.
‘Commandos’ seems much simpler than your standard RTS. There are very few units under your control (a maximum number of 5 units) and there is absolutely no base building. But if you look close enough, you will find a huge amount of depth, numerous fresh features and an insane amount of tactical micromanagement, all under the seemingly simple face of this game.
‘Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines’ is a Real Time Strategy game which puts you in control of a squad of specialized soldiers. Your objective is to infiltrate Nazi bases and perform dangerous operations. Every single soldier in your small (but deadly) army has his own unique abilities and weaknesses and in the end, it's up to you to utilize their abilities as best as you can and devise a good strategy to overcome your numerous enemies. These units are completely under your control. You control them in a way much detailed than a classic RTS. You can tell your units to kneel or lie on the ground, or perform special actions.
For example one of your characters simply called the ‘Spy’ has the ability to dress like a Nazi. This means based on the clothes he is wearing; he has the ability to infiltrate Nazi ranks without being detected by most Nazi units. If you can find a Nazi officer, you can kill him using other units, take his clothes, infiltrate an enemy building using the spy and dispose of a Nazi general silently, or use you can use your sniper, climb a tall building a take out the general from afar. This is not that simple however, and the player will have to overcome many obstacles in each level. This sometimes can only be done using several units and their special abilities at the same time, which adds to the fun.
Since the structure of each level in Commandos allows a huge amount of combinations and the Nazis have completely dynamic behaviors, every single player’s approach can be vastly different from other players, and even other play-troughs of the same player. This means the game has a lot of replay value and addictive potential and the player will be hooked in front of the computer-screen for a long time.
Since the behavior of most Nazi soldiers can change dynamically (for example, they will react if they see dead or unconscious Nazis on the ground), the player must keep an eye on their actions. This can be a huge challenge, because controlling and micromanagement of the squad members is a difficult task in its own right. In order to solve this problem, ‘Commandos’ introduces two unique features: ‘Line of Sight’ and ‘Picture in Picture’.
If you use the ‘eye’ tool (located at top-right of the screen) on an enemy, a green cone of light will be displayed on the screen which show exactly where that enemy is looking. This feature is a great advantage for the player, because there are many enemy soldiers on the screen and the player will have to move his units without being detected. In most missions this is not critical and the player can simply kill the enemy, but in more critical missions being detected leads to an instant game-over and the player cannot afford to be detected. The eye-tool tunes into an invaluable asset in such missions.
Picture in Picture is another great feature which looks a lot like PiP feature of a TV. Using this ability, the player can display small screens inside the main screen or split the screen in several different ways and adjust each sub-screen to lock on a specific location or enemy unit. This means the player has several views of what is happening at the same time and can easily control several or avoid being detected by the enemy.
The game introduces multiplayer features as well and allows two friends to control the units simultaneously.
‘Commandos’ series of games introduced a new kind of RTS. The first game became an instant classic and a fan-favorite. It was continued by one stand-alone expansion and two sequels, but the fourth game in the series was an action shooter which is not favored by the fans. However, its legacy was continued by games like Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood and Chicago 1930, but every single person who has had the opportunity to experience a Commandos game, will definitely confirm that these games were the best of the lot, and probably some of the best RTS games of all time.
‘Commandos’ seems much simpler than your standard RTS. There are very few units under your control (a maximum number of 5 units) and there is absolutely no base building. But if you look close enough, you will find a huge amount of depth, numerous fresh features and an insane amount of tactical micromanagement, all under the seemingly simple face of this game.
‘Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines’ is a Real Time Strategy game which puts you in control of a squad of specialized soldiers. Your objective is to infiltrate Nazi bases and perform dangerous operations. Every single soldier in your small (but deadly) army has his own unique abilities and weaknesses and in the end, it's up to you to utilize their abilities as best as you can and devise a good strategy to overcome your numerous enemies. These units are completely under your control. You control them in a way much detailed than a classic RTS. You can tell your units to kneel or lie on the ground, or perform special actions.
For example one of your characters simply called the ‘Spy’ has the ability to dress like a Nazi. This means based on the clothes he is wearing; he has the ability to infiltrate Nazi ranks without being detected by most Nazi units. If you can find a Nazi officer, you can kill him using other units, take his clothes, infiltrate an enemy building using the spy and dispose of a Nazi general silently, or use you can use your sniper, climb a tall building a take out the general from afar. This is not that simple however, and the player will have to overcome many obstacles in each level. This sometimes can only be done using several units and their special abilities at the same time, which adds to the fun.
Since the structure of each level in Commandos allows a huge amount of combinations and the Nazis have completely dynamic behaviors, every single player’s approach can be vastly different from other players, and even other play-troughs of the same player. This means the game has a lot of replay value and addictive potential and the player will be hooked in front of the computer-screen for a long time.
Since the behavior of most Nazi soldiers can change dynamically (for example, they will react if they see dead or unconscious Nazis on the ground), the player must keep an eye on their actions. This can be a huge challenge, because controlling and micromanagement of the squad members is a difficult task in its own right. In order to solve this problem, ‘Commandos’ introduces two unique features: ‘Line of Sight’ and ‘Picture in Picture’.
If you use the ‘eye’ tool (located at top-right of the screen) on an enemy, a green cone of light will be displayed on the screen which show exactly where that enemy is looking. This feature is a great advantage for the player, because there are many enemy soldiers on the screen and the player will have to move his units without being detected. In most missions this is not critical and the player can simply kill the enemy, but in more critical missions being detected leads to an instant game-over and the player cannot afford to be detected. The eye-tool tunes into an invaluable asset in such missions.
Picture in Picture is another great feature which looks a lot like PiP feature of a TV. Using this ability, the player can display small screens inside the main screen or split the screen in several different ways and adjust each sub-screen to lock on a specific location or enemy unit. This means the player has several views of what is happening at the same time and can easily control several or avoid being detected by the enemy.
The game introduces multiplayer features as well and allows two friends to control the units simultaneously.
‘Commandos’ series of games introduced a new kind of RTS. The first game became an instant classic and a fan-favorite. It was continued by one stand-alone expansion and two sequels, but the fourth game in the series was an action shooter which is not favored by the fans. However, its legacy was continued by games like Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood and Chicago 1930, but every single person who has had the opportunity to experience a Commandos game, will definitely confirm that these games were the best of the lot, and probably some of the best RTS games of all time.