[Commandos Series] All up in your base

Waka Laka

What the fuck is this shit?

Commandos is an overhead strategic action and tactics game from Eidos that features a bunch of rag-tag dudes wrecking havoc on Nazi occupied Europe, Russia and the Japan occupied Pacific. Each commando fits a particular role, and all must work as a team to bring World War 2 to a closure. There are many in the series;Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty, Commandos 2: Men of Courage and Commandos 3 : Destination Berlin. The first person game, whilst not entirely bad, can go fuck itself. The game was best when it was a strategy game, not another shooter that takes a few scraps from it's ancestors.

Ok... so Nazis? They're getting a bit old.

The game is still fun. it encourages stealth, patience and a plan to avoid being detected by afore-mentioned Nazis. If you go into this game without planning ahead, you will find your men dead and the mission over very quickly. Avoiding guards or taking them out silently and hiding them, sabotaging discretely and ensuring not to raise the alarm while completing the mission is vital.

So these dudes, you mentioned they had roles.

Oh right the Commandos. Here is the run-down:



Jack "Butcher" O'Hara (Green Beret)
This guy is known mainly for one thing: Stabbing dudes without question. The commando also has a few other skills, such as climbing, carrying heavy loads and burying himself to conceal his position.

Sir Francis T. "Duke" Woolridge, (The Sniper)
The sniper in the team, with one click you can aim directly down his sights and blow the head off a Nazi from a great distance. So it's best to keep him out of sight and at a distance

Thomas Hancock, (the Sapper)
If it's explosive or needs exploding, Thomas is the man for the job. Give him dynamite, grenades or a bazooka and he will rain hell in spectacular fashion. He can also cut wires and set bear traps for unsuspecting enemies. (grenades were usable by everyone in Commandos 3) *hinty hint*

René Duchamp, (The Spy)
Master of Disguise, Speaks German with ease which comes in handy with getting in to places he is not normally allowed to go. By equipping an enemy uniform, he will be able to distract anyone of lower rank to do his bidding. Specialises in poisons and sedatives for the silent takedown.

James "Fins" Blackwood (Marine)
The drunkard of the crew, that also happens to love throwing knives and boats. Can also dive underwater to avoid being seen and infiltrate with a grappling hook.

Samuel "Brooklyn" Brooklyn (Driver)
Samuel for some reason is the only guy that doesn't shit his pants when sitting behind an automobile or tank. The team will need to rely on him to drive them around like a taxi and run the enemy down in a conveniently unguarded tank.

Natasha Nikochevski, (The Seductress) (Introduced in Commandos 2)
Natasha is a harlot and for good reason, showing a bit of leg will distract low ranking troops and keep their attention. Can also dress as the enemy and snipe, so a girl of many talents and busy hands.

Paul Toledo, (The Thief) (Introduced in Commandos 2)
A small guy, that makes up for it by being the fastest on the field and very nimble. Can lockpick, steal and climb through windows. Handy for getting things done fast.

As you can see, they all have their own individual strengths, which all come in handy at some point.

Through the series there were some additions and changes to the overall gameplay that differentiated themselves from the first two ( Behind Enemy Lines and Beyond the Call of Duty )

Commandos 2 introduced a cover mode, that allowed any troop to fire on an enemy within their field of view, this made ambushes possible, and made the commandos more useful when attacked. Commandos 2 Also introduced 3D buildings and the ability to see the area better by rotating the camera to 4 different views of the field. Interaction with the world, such as climbing telegraph poles became very useful.

Commandos 3 separates the campaign into 3 sections, rather than one straight campaign as with previous titles. The Spy and others could also use weapons other than the default pistol, which in previous games was kind of annoying. Speaking of annoying, Commandos 3 has missions with time limits, which is all kinds of fucked.

Gameplay

The game is point-and-click, though there are shortcuts on the keyboard that you will want to get used to. You can select individuals or every soldier in your unit, though only selecting individuals allows for their specialities.

Enemies patrol or just stand around for most of the part. All enemies have a field of vision that you must exploit. Standing in the open with your balls out will get you shot and the alarm raised quickly if you waltz into this view. Thankfully the Nazis are mostly blind as laying down in their furthest cone of view (dark green) will make you invisible to them, standing or crawling in the closer light green cone will get you spotted instantly, unless you are behind walls or other world objects.


An example of the enemy field of view.

If an alarm is raised, the area will be flooded by all near troops and possibly more from reserve buildings. In alert mode, the area will be scoured in a more irregular and fast fashion, so make sure your troops are hidden well or ready to fight if this happens


Sweet mother of fuck, we've been spotted

Items can be used to your advantage, cigarette packets can be thrown and guards will come to pick them up ( set a bear trap or ambush,all Nazis can't resist cigarettes for some reason )

Guards don't like breaking from their patrol, so if you watch their path correctly, they will most likely have an opening. Knock them out or stab/ garrotte them and hide their bodies in barrels or out of the view of others
Unconscious guards will eventually wake up, so be sure to hog-tie them so they don't alert others.

Searching bodies will give you weapons and other items. Check them where you can, if you disarm a guard and he is woken up, he will be mostly defenceless.

Items can be shared amongst troops, so if someone needs it more than you, give it to them.

The game is Multiplayer, and excellent if you can find another player with patience. Co-ordination with many is more useful than one lone soldier and a pack of retards.

Anything else worth noting?

- The game is not historically accurate, so don't nitpick.
- The German and Japanese in the game is mostly gibberish/nonsensical.
- There are references to a large amount of WW2 movies -> Bridge over River Kwai and Saving Private Ryan are a few to mention

I'm sure I've missed something, but hey. Just play and enjoy this great little series and discuss further.

Klyka

I could never beat Commandos 1, it was just hard as fuck.

I did finish Commandos 2 and 3 and LOVED them! Great series of games, everyone should play them.

Honk

So good games, at least Commandos 1 + the expansion and Commandos 2.

Commandos 1 was tits hard, and I never completed it though I had great fun with it. Commandos 2 in comparisson is easy mode.

JebusUD

Took me days and days to beat the commandos one first level. I don't think I ever beat the second one. Damn near impossible to even get off the raft in the first level.

altid

Any idea how they hold up on modern systems? I'm guessing widescreen support may be patchy.

For the first game I'll join in with everyone else saying "hard as fuck". The second one I almost beat, mostly by getting the spy to tell people to go and stand in the naughty corner and stare at the wall.

Waka Laka

I've finished all of them except 3, which I only just picked up and I'm playing through now, I so far think the original was the easiest. Mainly because you don't have to flick through so many viewpoints.

Commandos 3 so far has been punishing in the sense that the mission ended before I realised it was timed, for instance "Blow up as many objectives as possible before the Normandy landing", I was knocking out guards when suddenly a large group of vehicles left the compound and the mission failed because of it. Knowing that I had to now set up an ambush prevented them from leaving. Bit odd.

That and the Sniper mission straight away. "Hey here is this sniper that can hit you if you so much as breathe. Deal with it". Once again, straight in without much chance to think about what you're doing without trial and error.

Still enjoying it though, just scuttled the boats and started the beach landing.

As for how it holds up on modern systems, I'm running it at 800x600, but I assume there are resolution patches out there. Everything is big and bold on a 32 inch screen and it's not widescreen, so yeah a bit of stretch.

Waka Laka

Just found a supposedly safe widescreen/resolution fix on the steam forums, though I don't trust it as it requests to use a "No-CD Key". That is internet speak for "You have to go to a dodgy site and end up with porn and suspect crap on your drive to get it, also that zip you just downloaded is pure aids"

Commandos Widescreen and Resolution fixes

Rami

Commandos was indeed balls hard, and 2 was so much easier. One of my favourite things from 2 was the sound the Nazis made if you set them on fire, the scream just sort of faded in and out. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...HHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Waka Laka

I like how the Nazis can spot a small carton of cigarettes from miles away, but a guy on his stomach... nope, blind.

SammyF

You can't tell in contemporary movies because they're all black and white, but it's a little-known fact that all cigarette packets were coated with a bioluminescent substance in the 1930s and early '40s in order to better help people achieve the medicinal benefits associated with the daily use of tobacco.

Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo

I played Commandos so much as a kid but never beat it, just too hard. These were my first introduction into stealth-based games so figuring everything out and watching a plan or a trap go through flawlessly was amazingly fun.

Think I may have to reinstall

subedii

I remember playing through Commandos 2. Was good, but the problem I had with the gameplay was simply that I was knocking everyone out and clearing entire levels that way. By the time I left, half the place was usually a ghost town, and nobody ever really noticed.

At the same time I'm wondering whether that was just an issue of how pedantic I used to be when gaming back then. These days if I were to play Thief for example, I'd focus more on getting past people undetected than simply knocking everyone out, because that's what's more fun and it typically takes less time.

Makes me curious for a replay. The key thing I remember though is wishing there were a way to give my guys timed commands instead of just having to control everyone directly in order to carry out tasks. That way I could say for example, time my dudes to knock out two guys simultaneously without either of them raising the alarm.