Background–It is the late 1940s, and the Axis forces control all of Wester Europe. The German army is
gathering strength for an imminent invasion of Great Britain. A British officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clark,
has created a special unit with a handful of exceptional men who are skilled at handling any type of weapon and
excel in all forms of combat. These Commandos work in small units, carrying out stealthy raids.
Commandos--You are in charge of a unit of six Commandos. You must go behind enemy lines and destroy their
forces. And, you can't lose any of your men. They are indispensable, as each Commando has unique combat abilities
that others cannot match. You need to eliminate every enemy who stands in your way without any of the other enemies
noticing. And they see footprints, dead bodies, and hear everything unless you are silent. You have to coordinate
your troops. For instance, the marine is an adept killer, but he needs the Green Beret's brawn to dispose of bodies.
The men are:
- Green Beret "Tiny" (there were no Green Berets in WWII, though)–the
brute force of the operation.
- Marine "Fins"–the
Australian alcoholic and silent killer who can control
water
vehicles and sneak under water.
- Driver "Tread"–the man who controls land vehicles.
- Spy "Spooky"–a French nationalist that can imposter Germans.
He can also distract and poison the enemy.
- Sniper "Duke"–English Royalty and a long range lone gunman.
- Sapper "Inferno"–the fiery destruction person who places and
detonates explosives.
Missions--The missions cover various theaters from Norway to North Africa to Normandy; each mission is
open-ended enough to let you beat the enemy in a variety of different ways. Commandos uses a scoring system that
will make you want to go back and play a mission again just so you can do it faster and more efficiently. There
are:
- Seven missions inspired by the Commando raids in Norway.
- Five missions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia centered on the war in North Africa.
- Three missions in France, during the period that begins with the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day).
- Five missions that take place during the final assault on the Third Reich.
At the start of each mission, you will be given a briefing. These brief instructions outline the context of
the mission and your team's objectives. You will receive such information as:
- The strategic circumstances in which the mission takes place.
- The main objective of the mission. Examples include blowing up an enemy installation, rescuing a prisoner or
the "elimination" of an enemy general. And, you have several secondary objectives that must be completed
in order to complete the main endeavor. If you do not succeed in the main objective, you will not have successfully
completed the mission and will not be allowed to continue onto the next assignment.
- A brief mission run through by Colonel Smith in which you will be given the position of the objectives, the
location of the points of interest or danger, and tactical advice that you should listen to.
Depending on the amount of time you have needed to complete the mission and the wounds you have suffered, you
will be assigned points. The number of enemy casualties that you cause is totally irrelevant. Stealth is the name
of the game. You need to quickly and quietly do in your opponents. You can't charge head-first into the enemy camp
with pistols blazing. You should be fast and very careful to check the movement patterns/view points of every German
soldier or you'll be playing the game over. If you lose a single commando from your team, the game ends. Depending
on the accumulated points, you may be promoted. You can't play the last mission unless you've done average or better
on all the previous missions.
Manual and cards–There is a manual/CD cover that contains quite a bit of information. There is a plastic
card with the details of all six Commandos, Camera View, Camera Selection, Action Keys, and Combat Hot Keys. Another
paper page contains an outline of your first mission.
Tutorials–Under the Main Menu you will find the help that you need to quickly become familiar with the game.
There are two kinds of tutorials:
- Seven Theory Sessions: These are short video lessons in which you get an
explanation of the game controls. There is a Theory Session that shows the general concepts of the game and commandos
profiles.
- Six Training Missions: There are mock missions that work as in the real
game, except that they take place in a training camp, allowing you to use a single man in each mission, and your
soldier can suffer unlimited damage. You should become familiar with the specific actions of each of your soldiers.
Features & Interface–The interface is intelligent and doesn't get in the way of the game. Hot keys
are helpful. There are symbols to the side of the screen that you can click to use, such as the Colt .45 and a
Knife. Commandos employs a line-of-sight feature (illustrated by a two-tone green cone), thus a player is actually
able to call up an illustration of his enemy's line of sight. The line-of-sight cone is obstructed by obstacles,
and accounts for distance. There are six simultaneous cameras to keep an eye on the men. You have nearly limitless
reconnaissance data at your disposal; you can scroll all around the map and identify all enemy patrols.
Graphics–There are accurate 3D models of more than 350 structures,
vehicles, and weapons from the WWII era. The prerendered 2D maps all
look different, beautiful, and realistic, and realistically depict
Nazi-occupied regions. Eac
h
mission has a different look with such features as: enemy barracks,
tanks, electric fences, and river dams. All of the features are done
in detail with appropriate sounds and animation for objects. Terrain
and vehicles are not only very realistic, but they are also in correct
proportion to each other. The environment is fairly interactive. Many
buildings and vehicles are explosive and when you have a spare grenade
it's lots of fun to take them out.You can chuck a grenade in the midst
of a patrol of men and blow down a nearby tent while sending the enemy
fly
ing. All of these
animations are fun, from German soldiers smoking cigarettes while
at their post, to the trucks exploding in tiny little pieces. Frame
rates are smooth and the video sequences are well done. An added advantage
is that a higher video resolution (800x600 and above) is not required
for high quality graphics.
Sound–There is not much music to speak of. Commandos sound great, very authentic, and become immediately
distinguishable through their speech, but they are limited to about two or three speech lines each.
Personal Comments–This is a very well designed and creative stealth game. Studying enemy's movements, strategizing,
synchronizing troop deployment, and then launching forces in a swift and powerful attack that requires intelligence
and resourcefulness should keep a player occupied for many hours and many replays.
Wish List–Even though the sounds are realistic, there could be more.
A mission builder or a good map editor would be useful.
Other Goodies–Eidos arranged with mplayer.com, Earth's free multiplayer Internet game service, to give a
3-months access to their premium game service Plus.
Commandos: