Anyone Remember Desperados?

[toblix]

It was a Wild West Commandos clone game, and it was great. It had fantastic graphics and awesome gameplay. The characters and levels were even varieder than in the Commandos games, and there was a system for setting up several of your characters to perform some command simultaneously, which was actually useful and fun, and there were lots of stereotypical Wild West stuff and I loved it.

Anyway, there came another game from Spellbound (the developers) called Robin Hood (and something about Sherwood), which used the same engine, but sucked because it was action oriented.

Aaaanyway, right out of the blue comes the demo for Desperados 2, which i'm downloading right now. The blurb for the demo doesn't sound to promising, with talk of zooming into firefights and real time 3d and stuff. Anyway, hopefully it'll be as great as the previous one.

Oh, and if you never played Desperados, but liked Commandos or Commandos 2, try it. It's probably dirt cheap now.

[toblix]

Seems they chose the action route for this one too.

Oh, well.

[Nappi]

I'm still planning to sue Kellogg's because of this game. I bought a box of their cereal (I don't even eat cereal) in order to get Desperados... The full game, not some crappy one level demo!

Anyway.. Desperados is one of the best games I have ever played. It is so much fun to try to kill people in creative ways. Yea, I get excited setting up a scarecrow in the balcony, placing a poisonous snake in front of the door, shooting in the air deep south style and watching more than 20 people die as they rush to see what's happening. Big whoop! Wanna fight about it? I have cleared out a room with just one playing card, a punch in the face and a well-placed kick to the groin, you know.

I read somewhere that although the sequel is in 3D and you can aim and so on, the game won't be that different from the first one. But we'll see. Thanks for pointing out that the demo is available!

[Erik]

The full game, not some crappy one level demo!

Did you try the one level demo ? It's a real perk to Desperados. It features a nice little town with Cooper, Doc and Kate. The demo's level is not one of the full game.

After so many years, I still have both the demo and the game installed, just in case I want to play it again and in good order.

The demo is sort of a "prequel" to the game, like a typical mission a few months before the whole El Diablo story.

[miffy495]

I played the demo, but never got around to trying the full game. I really liked what I played, but unfortunately at the time I was in the 8th or 9th grade and had no funds with which to purchase the game. This may be another thing I'll need to add to my list of stuff to eBay...

[Nappi]

I played the demo and actually liked it a lot. The point is that I paid for something that I could have downloaded for free. I swear that they didn't mention anything about Desperados game actually being Desperados demo in the cereal box.

[elmuerte]

Play desperados, liked it a lot. at the end it because a bit less interesting. Specially the last mission wasn't that great.

[Thrik]

And you really thought they'd just give it away on a box of Corn Flakes?

[Erkki]

I loved Desperados. And I kind of liked Robin Hood too, but they generified things too much and the graphics were kind ugly-ish. Gotta try that Desperados 2 demo.

[Roderick]

I reviewed Desperados for a Dutch magazine when it came out, but the magazine went bust before it appeared. However, I gave it an 8.5 because I too thought it was absolutely great. Especially the atmosphere just really elevated it above being 'just' a really sharp Commandos clone.

I also played Robin Hood, but lost interest fairly quick. It tried some more non-linearity, but that really only made it feel more generic in every way. And the enhanced options to choose for an action-oriented play really only served to make your playing style sloppy and unprepared. So there you have it, kids, more options and more freedom isn't always the best thing!

[Nappi]

And you really thought they'd just give it away on a box of Corn Flakes?

No, I'm not that stupid. They were Rice Krispies.

I was almost certain that they wouldn't give the full version of the game with their cereal, but, as I said, they didn't mention anything about it being a demo. And Desperados wasn't particularly new and shiny back then either.

Anyway, I quite liked that Desperados 2 demo. It feels pretty much the same as the original game, and I only used the aim mode a couple of times to test it. It was nice to notice that at least some of the places are from the first game.

Camera takes a while to get used to, though. And I couldn't get the line of sight thing to work. I probably missed something or it's a bug in the demo.

[toblix]

Just for the record, I also thought the Desperados giveaway was the full version. I remember thinking it was the demo at first, then looking at the box and finding no mention of it being a demo, so I thought it might be the full version, since the game was a couple of years old then, and I didn't get the impression it was very popular.

Anyone remember all the talk about expansion packs with new levels for Desperados? I was at the Spellbound/Desperados forums, and people were getting pretty bitter as they slowly realised there was no new contents coming.

Oh, and I didn't bother playing the demo for long, since it seemed pretty clear it was going to be an action game. Was I wrong?

[Nappi]

I pretty much played the demo the way I played the original Desperados: hiding, throwing bottles of gas, tieing, hiding, punching. Too bad you couldn't play with Cooper in the demo. Man, I loved distracting guards with the clock, throwing them with a knife and carrying the bodies away.

One of the best things in Desperados was that after you had murdered an enemy and hid the body (without being seen), you could stay at your hiding place for as long as you want and plan your next move. That way you could set the pace of the game yourself. I mostly played it really slow and planned my strikes very carefully so that I wouldn't have to use the guns at all. Judging by the demo, it is still possible in Desperados 2.

[Thrik]

Sounds just like Commandos. I meant to play it after loving the aforementioned game, but never got around to it sadly.

[brkl]

Desperados is better than Commandos, though. The gameplay is very much alike. As in, Dune 2 compared to Command and Conquer alike.

[toblix]

If the pace of the game is like the original, I'll give it another shot.

Also, even though I think Desperados is better than Commandos, my absolute favorite of all of these kinds of games is Commandos 2. Everything about that game was perfect. The graphics are absolutely fabulous, with really detailed graphics everywhere, making all the levels really interesting to play in. The fact that you can rotate and watch the level from four angles also rocks when the graphics is so great. The gameplay, too, is much better than the predecessor. No impossible tasks, just a huge level full of guards, and you begin with one guard, and then you can take the next. And then, if you go around there and distract that guy, you can use the other character to quickly grab the guy patrolling the bridge, and so on.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that the fact that you control the pace of the game yourself is one of the most important qualities in these games. There's no countdown, and no sequence where lots of guards come running from everywhere. If you play it right, you can leave the game running for hours without anyone noticing you've knocked out half the army. That's why I didn't like Commandos 3.

[Erik]

The more I think about it, the more I realise that the fact that you control the pace of the game yourself is one of the most important qualities in these games. There's no countdown, and no sequence where lots of guards come running from everywhere. If you play it right, you can leave the game running for hours without anyone noticing you've knocked out half the army. That's why I didn't like Commandos 3.

Agreed. No matter the game, I just love to play slowly over looong sessions. Desperados is one of these games where it is actually meant to be the best way to enjoy it. It takes your entire afternoon without notice, hugely addictive.

I played Commandos too, but not Commandos 2. Reason is I got beaten by the demo of the add-on for Commandos the first. It was just mission impossible. This never happened before or after that day with any title : what was its name ? Anyone finished it ?

I thought if the sequel was going to be 10x as long and difficult as this demo, it would have been a huge amount of time to spend on just one game, and I couldn't afford that back then.

I'll settle this outrage and get the add-on some day.

I've heard so much good feedbacks about Commandos 2 I can't ignore it much longer : I'll get it and Robin Hood as well.

[Nappi]

I tested Robin Hood, but for some reason I didn't like it at all. It just didn't feel Desperados.

I also tried some Commandos demo, but it was insanely hard, so I thought it would be a waste of time to for me to buy the full version.

Is Commandos 2, for example, much harder than Desperados?

[Erkki]

I also liked Commandos 2 a lot, but I did not finish it -- got bored eventually in a level with a big castle or something.

I don't think it was much harder than Desperados, nor was it noticeably easier. At least that's what I remember.

[toblix]

No, both Desperados and Commandos 2 (as I remember them) both have that slowly rising difficulty curve that never goes too high and always let you work out the levels at your own pace. There's never a time limit or the need to quickly manage a lot of stuff at once.

Commandos 2 has a bonus system I enjoyed, which consists of gathering pieces of a photograph in each level (they're spread around in lockers all over the level), which leads to some kind of bonus level, which can be defending a little fort from oncoming Germans (which means placing soldiers at strategic locations and waiting for the enemy) or a boat race.

Also, the levels in Commandos 2 are amazingly detailed and beautiful, and since there's no hurry, the ability to rotate the camera (in 90 degrees increments, since it's prerendered) doesn't detract, but add to the scale and beauty of the environments. Also, Commandos 2 has indoor segments, which mesh wonderfully with the outside ones.

Man, I'm going to play Commandos 2 again. And Desperados.

[Nappi]

Thanks. I guess I have to try Commandos 2 then.

[toblix]

Definitely. If you give me your address I'll send you a copy.

[Nappi]

A friend of mine has the game and he already agreed to borrow it.

But thanks anyway!

[Erkki]

I just tried the Desperados 2 demo. I don't know what you are talking about D2 turning into an action game -- it seems exactly like the previous one. In fact, I'm quite surprised how similar it looks, being 3D.

If someone were to play it as an action game (mostly in the action mode), I think they would find the game to be quite crappy. But I think the action mode complements the tactical mode very nicely, and I've enjoyed it on the few occasions when I've had to do some shooting.

[toblix]

I think I might just have to give it another chance, then.