Commandos.

Is hard.

Really hard.

Note that what I am saying now only applies to the original game, not to Beyond the Call of Duty. I have not had the time to try and finish that game yet, mainly because of the above reason.

It is a good thing it is so hard though, because that makes it all the more fun, and adds a lot of respect for the real commandos. Forget those soldiers of today who just call airstrikes whenever things do not go their way. This is the REAL thing.

Each mission requires tactical planning beforehand (luckily, there is no fog of war) and it requires quite a bit of improvisation if you are discovered. Or a quick load, depending on how much mayham you have already caused.

Improvise you will, because you are six or fewer men against an army of extremely well equipped germans. You may have only your wits, skill, and a rubber boat to fend of your opponents. Although one of your men is capable of wielding rather serious firepower (if he is with you), he is just one guy. He stands no chance against the german longer range rifles, and as soon as one man is down, you will have failed the mission. He'll be heard too. You have a sniper rifle (most of the time), but it has limited ammo. You'll have grenades (ocassionally), but they alert just about everyone.

What you have to do then, is be carefull. Very carefull. There is some room for error, but it is very small, and you are most of the times just quick loading instead of working your way out a nasty situation. Which is a bit of a shame, because I like that kind of improvisation. Still, it makes you all the more carefull. Applying stealth, carrying bodies around (Germans don't like stained uniforms), and setting up the occasional ambush.

The game suffers from a few small things that can be rather frustrating. For one, the pathfinding of your characters is ocassionally quite bad, requiring a bit of babysitting and micromanagement. For the second, there is no 'mission select' screen. If you want to replay a mission, you will have to rely on an earlier save game (and those are limited, there are more missions then save slots) or on the password that is given upon completion.

Also, perhaps the characters require a bit too much micromanagement. For example, every shot fired must be 'authorised' by you. You select a commando and click where he shoots. THere is absolutely no initiative. This is on one hand usefull if you want to be stealthy (shots are loud!), but on the second hand, doeing ambushes becomes quite difficult as it involves you clicking like crazy as if you are using a semi automatic pistol in a FPS. There are other things, for example, if you order a prone commando to backstab or shoot an enemy, drop a trap, etc. he will stand up. And remain standing up, which makes him rather obvious to various enemies. Especially frustrating if those enemies wouldn't have seen him if he was prone, which is the case when shooting.

Still, it's a good game, and aged very well due to it's unique gameplay. It's more 'close and personal' than even the squad based games such as company of heroes, and sucesfully completing a mission is extremely rewarding.

No doutbs here, a must-have, and the price is ridiculously low. Last poster (kjetilkvalo) is right, it is retro but excellent. The perfect example that a game does not need optimum graphics to be good.

Dirty-dozen kind of game. You have your team and fulfill given tasks. The great aspect of this game is that coordination is necessary, and there is a great way to 'window' your appraisal of the action: you can create multiple windows, put one to follow a guarde, use the other to track your sniper, etc.

Great retro game, just as exciting today as it was 5 years ago.

You are controlling a team of commandos inside enemy territory, sabotaging and killing. How you do it is your own choice: Go stealthy and take down a group at a time, or lure all the nazi's into a killing zone.