Commandos

[toblix]

Pyro Studios has apparently said they'll be making a fourth Commandos game. One of my absolute favorite games is Commandos 2, which I've played through a bunch of times. The third game was absolute bullshit, with a fast paced actiony approach rather than the slow, tactical approach of the two first games. Luckily they've realized that direction was a horrible mistake.

I'm very afraid that they'll go the real-time 3D route, but we'll see. This is excellent news!

[Nappi]

Awesome! (maybe)

Commandos 2 is a fantastic game (although I liked Desperados a bit more for some reason). Never finished it though because I lost my saves at one point and didn't have time to replay all the levels. I guess I could cheat.

[Thrik]

Oh god, I loved the original two Commandos games (and the first one's expansion thingy). It was kind of a top-down Metal Gear Solid for me with regards to the actual play mechanics: cones of vision, alarms, absolute reliance on stealth, etc.

I don't remember Commandos 3 being too bad, though. Not nearly as bad as Commandos 4, anyway.

[toblix]

Oh, no! It seems that when they were admitting mistake, they weren't talking about Commandos 3, which I've played and hated, but Commandos: Strike Force, which I haven't played. Oh, wait, he's still saying it'll be closer to Commandos 2, which is great, since it's an one of the best playing, best looking games ever.

Oh, and I loved Desperados too. Especially the action-queuing was neat, where you could queue an action for each character and then trigger them all at once. Both Desperados and Commandos 2 (more so than Commandos, I thought) had absolutely awesome levels.

[Cigol]

The third was a little different, and more action orientated, but I really enjoyed how the livened up the world around you with skirmishes and such. It had a better atmosphere in that respect - and the online co-op was a lot of fun too. Not as strict as the earlier titles as far as the puzzle mechanics went, but not worse off for it either.

If they stick to the original formula and don't throw in a crappy 3D engine which robs it of its personality... then count me in.

[Nappi]

Oh, and I loved Desperados too. Especially the action-queuing was neat, where you could queue an action for each character and then trigger them all at once. Both Desperados and Commandos 2 (more so than Commandos, I thought) had absolutely awesome levels.

I played Desperados before I did Commandos but I, for some reason, assumed that it had copied pretty much all the gameplay mechanics from Commandos series. That's why I was very confused when I couldn't figure out how to queue actions in Commandos 2. You could do such awesome things with that in Desperados.

[elmuerte]

Desperados was awesome, still haven't played the sequel. Also didn't play any commandos. The last 2 levels of Desperados kinda sucked, you didn't have as much freedom as in the earlier levels.

[Nappi]

Was one of them some sort of cave? I stopped playing at that point, not because of the level itself but for some other reason I can't remember anymore. But I figured I wasn't missing much because the level didn't feel very interesting and I hadn't really been paying attention to the story anyway.

[toblix]

Yeah, the last levels were typical bullshit where they "mix it up" and instead just smear shit over everything. The level I remember best is the bank robbery one, and the one with the train tracks. Oh, and the prison.

Of course, an interesting parallel to the whole Commandos turning to shit thing, and an important lesson for everyone who wants to spruce up their series, is that instead of making an awesome Desperados sequel, they went ahead and made that Robin Hood game, which was all actiony, but also sucked.

But then it seems they made Desperados 2. I wonder why I nev--

Oh, right.

[Erkki]

I actually kind of liked some bits of Robin Hood (but taken as a whole it was pretty crappy).

I bought Desperados 2 and despite that screenshot, the game actually plays quite similar to Desperados as far as I remember. For some reason I stopped playing it after a couple of levels, though.

[Erkki]

PS. Has anyone played Helldorado? I remember playing a demo some time but can't remember if it was any good.

I was thinking of some other game, can't remember the title. Helldorado seems to be a new Desperados game. GameSpot gave it 4.5 (but they also gave Desperados a pretty low score: 6.5)

[edit] and they gave Robin Hood 8.6!! Also, Metacritic score for Robin Hood is much more favourable than Desperados. WTF? Shenanigans

Edited August 24, 2009 by Erkki

[Roderick]

Man, I loved Desperados (and the first Commandos first as well!). The setting was just awesome. I sucked grandly at it, never getting passed the storming-the-hacienda level (which must have been like, level 6 or something).

Robin Hood had its niceties, but on the overall wasn't really... I dunno.

[toblix]

Yeah, I deliberately chose the lamest shot I could find.

I remember it feeling less "precise" (visibility, positioning) and more sluggish than Desperados, though. Not sluggish as in "my Riva TNT can't handle this crazy bump mapping!", but as if the scripts running behind the scenes were running too slow.

Also, graphics are (as always...) a huge reason why I love these games. Just look at this: http://chq.gamemod.net/Images/Screenshots/commandos2_14.jpg

Every map looks this good, and it's rendered from four angles. Look at the detail! There's nothing like it! I'd say the most impressive level is the Castle Colditz one, but I can't find a large screenshot of it anywhere. It's basically an entire huge-ass castle with the surrounding town, a factory, a church and a bunch of crap, in just amazing detail. Oh, and of course the interiors of every single building (including the huge castle) is also modeled, though in real-time 3d.

You start in a yard on the outskirts of town, near a greenhouse and some bales of hay, and by the end there's just hundreds of bound-up Germans everywhere on the map.

And what amazed me the most is that, even though it's prerendered 3D, all the geometry is still in the game, both to determine visibility and where the thief can vault over shit and climb all the walls and in and out of windows and Jesus Christ why am I not playing this game right now!!!!

edit: Oh, and this: http://chq.gamemod.net/Images/Screenshots/commandos2_41.jpg

http://chq.gamemod.net/Images/Screenshots/commandos2_53.jpg

I could stare at these images for hours. In fact I will.

[elmuerte]

Why does Helldorado look like a clone of Desperados, except with creepy 3D characters and low quality interface art. I mean, most of the levels in the screenshots look like Desperados levels. (Some look nice, but look terrible).

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/helldorado/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gsupdates&tag=updates;title;2

* Grueling difficulty

* Out-of-date visuals with some frame rate problems

* Not enough atmospheric audio or vocal cues from sentries.

If anything a Desperados like game couldn't need is a higher difficulty. The original Desperados was sometimes quite difficult (specially the later levels where you were often required to kill everybody).

Desperados 2 looks much better than 3/Helldorado :/

Edited August 24, 2009 by elmuerte

[Nappi]

edit: Oh, and this: http://chq.gamemod.net/Images/Screenshots/commandos2_41.jpg

I was absolutely stunned when I reached that level.

[Erkki]

Found this old thread: http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3990

Those screenshots you posted, Toblix, make me want to play Commandos 2 right now as well. And Desperados. And maybe Desperados 2.

[toblix]

Found this old thread: http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3990

That's awesome. It's like Groundhog 5-Year Period.

[Roderick]

Goddamn those Commandos (1?) levels are beautiful. Just, absolutely, unapologetically beautiful.

[Nappi]

Goddamn those Commandos (1?) levels are beautiful. Just, absolutely, unapologetically beautiful.

2

And I agree in order to fill the minimum character limit.

[Thrik]

Yeah, Commandos is definitely a game that hit every notch when it comes to the 'wow' factor.

I mean Commandos 1 had some complex levels, but I remember my face and cock literally dropping off when I saw the scale and detail of some the levels in Commandos 2.

God, man. You are only amplifying how disappointed I'll be if it's another Strike Force.

[Erkki]

Just bought C2 (actually, C2+C3 double pack) on Steam.

[Roderick]

,,Comin' riiiiiight up... sir!"

[elmuerte]

Found this old thread: http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3990

Awesome, I've been consistent. Hooray for me.

[Coldkill]

Commandos 2: Commandos 3: Commandos 4 (Strike Force):

So here's to hoping that it's more like Commandos 2 again. That was an excellent game, mostly because of the stealth orientated action.

[Nappi]

hmm...

edit: It was already mentioned in the update of the original story. Nevermind, I'm blind.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Nappi