I’m a big fan of the old Commandos games that came out on PC twenty-plus years ago. I had the big box versions of Behind Enemy Lines and Beyond the Call of Duty on my shelves for many years before selling them off recently. The Commandos games were originally developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive, but all of that has changed hands. The re-releases of these games in a HD Master form came via Raylight Games and Kalypso Media. The games weren’t changed much from their original releases at all, though having modern console support and significantly improved visuals (though still not awesome) make these games worth a look for anyone with nostalgia or those seeking a challenging WWII strategy game.
The Commandos games are historical fiction, real time strategy games that put players in control of up to six unique commandos behind enemy lines to carry out audacious missions against the Nazis. Missions are long, challenging, and usually rather particular, requiring disciplined strategy and lots of game-saving. Even on the console versions, players can set the game to automatically save every two or more minutes, and you can also quick save as much as you would like. Load times, be they when you first start a mission or if you’re loading up a save, are nearly instant on the PS4 Pro that I used to review Commandos 3: HD Remaster (C3HDR). Commandos 3 originally carried the subtitle Destination Berlin, but for some reason that was dropped in this release. Some of you may recall how the Commandos 2 Men of Courage HD Remaster dropped material deemed offensive, including Nazi symbolism and the like. I’m glad that players are given a choice to disable things like Nazi flags and such at first boot on C3HDR rather than it being a decision made for them like it was in the previous game. Personally, I preferred to leave these symbols enabled as its closer to the original developers intent.
C3HDR might be unlike any game you have played before you if you’re unfamiliar with the series. Fortunately, a two-part micro-mission tutorial exists to get you accustomed to the controls and general gameplay elements. Make no mistake, there is a learning curve to be had here, but it isn’t a particularly steep one. I will say that I would recommend playing these games on PC, though, because the UI and HUD are so much snappier to navigate with a mouse. While you can increase the speed of the sticks in the console version, it’s just generally a lot more cumbersome to navigate the in-game menus and get your commandos where you want them to go, as well as other very routine tasks like placing the enemy vision cone markers. So if you have the choice, pick this game up on PC instead of console, as it was originally designed for that and still plays best there.
Anyhow, controls for console players take some getting used to but aren’t a deal-breaker in themselves. Players use R1 to bring up the Camera Mode which has several functions to allow players to pan, tilt, and zoom the camera to get vitally important information about the game world. Being spotted in this game is often shockingly easy, and often when you’re spotted the mission is either over right away, or practically over because your characters die quickly and health can be hard to come by. Should any of your commandos die, the mission is over, so playing the camera angles and getting a full view of what’s what and what bad guys are around the corner is really important.
Other controls you will need to master are selecting your team members, which you can control one at a time or as a group. L1 brings up the character menu to do this. Triangle, R2, and X perform actions based upon the context of the game and what item might be equipped. For example, the Spy might have his syringe to subdue an enemy equipped in the R2 slot, or the Sapper his remote bomb in Triangle. Players access their inventory for each character with the Touchpad, and items between players can be exchanged, with some limitations. L3 is really useful to help players see what objects in the world are interactive, as without this highlighting it can be tough to tell sometimes.
Use down on the d-pad to bring up the vision cone option that lets you see the field of view of a single enemy. You might be amazed at how far and quickly enemies scan with their eyes, which is obviously one of the biggest challenges of the game because you’re never in a position really that you can expect to survive an encounter with multiple enemies. I wrestled with the AI at times because you have some instances where the enemy are absolutely eagle eyes, while other times they’re kind of braindead. For the most part, the enemies are very aware, hyper aware even at times, and you can never let your guard down. Save early, save often, as the mantra goes.
Unlike most games, C3HDR opens up all it has to offer from the get-go. There are twelve total missions spread across three areas (the first area, in Central Europe, having six missions). Players can choose to tackle any of these three campaigns and their missions within at their leisure. While story elements of the missions are interconnected, it’s not necessary by any measure imposed by the game itself to play them in order. I think it’s neat that players have this option, especially if you’re someone who enjoyed this game in the past and want to hone in on particular favorite missions, for example.
Another bonus is the inclusion of the Rookie mode. The two difficulties, which can be chosen per mission, are Original and Rookie. To be honest, both are tough, and game-overs can happen within seconds of a single mistake, though in a real commando mission, that’s accurate, too. I spent most of my time playing Original, but I could see the appeal of Rookie which gives you more time to try to recover from a mistake. Additionally, one mission that has to be done within a certain amount of time is made much less difficult by removing the original time limit. Each mission screen includes a marker to indicate if you have completed it in Original mode or not.
Besides the twelve missions, multiplayer modes are included. I haven’t found any games in the few times I looked, but you can also host a game with up to eight players. The two modes of play are Deathmatch and CTF, and players can free-for-all or split up on teams, doing commandos vs commandos even. Criteria for winning can be configured as points based or time based as well. Honestly, I don’t see myself playing this mode at all, but it would have been cool to have a campaign co-op mode.
Regardless of the mode you play in, expect better-than-the-original-2003 graphics, but still rather underwhelming graphics quality overall. This is not a beautiful game, and I thought a lot of the general appearance was a little muddy and lacking crispness. Now, some of the larger, static structures and things look great, but on the whole the graphics were a disappointment, personally. You just have to remember this is a straight-forward and probably low-ish budget “remaster”, and not a full reprisal of a great game.
In about six weeks, a double pack will be released that includes this game that frugal gamers may want to set their sights on. Regardless, C3HDR is priced well as is, and will stir a lot of nostalgia in gamers that first took their crack team of commandos towards Berlin as much as twenty years ago. On console, the game is clunkier than on PC, and time hasn’t been entirely kind to the game experience in general. However, if you’re looking for an engaging and tough strategy game in WWII, this series and this release specifically can provide a lot of hours of entertainment.
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