Commandos: Strike Force  Review for Xbox

Thursday, April 20, 2006

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Title: Commandos: Strike Force .............................................. System: Xbox .............................................. Genre: First Person Shooter .............................................. Publisher: Eidos Interactive .............................................. Developer: Pyro Studios .............................................. Release: 4/4/2006 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: Teen (T) .............................................. The Commandos series has long been a favorite among strategy gamers. Respected for the deep gameplay and level of difficulty, the real-time strategy war games were cult classics. However, the franchise wasn’t as popular as some of its peers. This led developer Pyro Studios to reexamine Commandos’ place in gaming today. Ultimately, they decided to try something new: turning Commandos into a first-person shooter. While a great idea, the execution and gameplay make Commandos Strike Force a huge black mark in the respected Commandos library. From the beginning it is obvious this is no ordinary Commandos game. Where players once had a plethora of choices when it came to units, they now have a choice of three: an espionage expert, a sniper and a Green Beret. Each character is unique, but not all of the unique abilities make much sense. For example, the sniper can withstand freezing temperatures and has excellent knife throwing skills, while the Green Beret can easily freeze to death and can’t throw knives. Other aspects do make sense—such as the Green Beret carrying more weapons and the spy having disguises—but often it is poorly implemented. If you decide to play as a spy, be warned that it is ridiculously easy to lose your disguise. Drawing a weapon, entering a cutscene or even random bugs will cause the enemy costume to no longer work, and your spy to be targeted by the Nazi soldiers. The enemy AI in the spy gameplay’s mechanics also seems a little odd. For example, you can kill one of two guards, then run away and hide. After a short amount of time, the living guard will no longer be on guard or suspect you, even though his comrade has just died right next to him. Sadly, despite the shortcomings in the spy’s gameplay, it is still a better choice than the Green Beret. While the Beret can carry multiple weapons, the spy can use the better weapons just as well, making it as efficient as the Green Beret is in terms of quickly killing the enemy. On the other hand, the sniper in Strike Force is a blast to play (pun intended). One-shot kills and almost cartoony ragdoll physics have always been a fun combination, and in Strike Force it once again holds true. The biggest complaint I have about the sniping aspect of the game is that it’s too short. If more emphasis would have been put on sniping missions rather than the poorly executed espionage missions, the game would have been much better. Despite the shortcomings in the gameplay, it’s not the worst portion of Strike Force. The graphics are pitiful, especially this late in the Xbox’s life. If you have played any of the newer WW2 games (Call of Duty, Battlefield, etc.) you’ll notice right away that Strike Force is at least two laps behind in the engine race. With the amount of action present in the Commandos franchise, it’s surprising that so little work was put into making sure the engine could handle the events and still be able to make them look nice. Facial animations are horrible—even in cutscenes—and the models look outdated. Even the vehicles look poor, especially when compared to other new Xbox games. On the bright side, the weapon models are done very well. Many of the guns are accurate to real life designs, and the bigger guns even realistically kick when fired. Because it’s an FPS and the weapons will constantly be the center of the screen, it’s good that they at least got those looking decent. This brings me to the one truly well-done aspect of Strike Force: the sound. The music sounds good, and is reminiscent of what one would hear in World War II movies. When you get to certain areas of a mission, the music fits the scene. Voice acting in the game is also well done for the most part. There are a few lines which sound like they’re being read in a high school drama class, but they are far and few in between. A majority of the weapons also sound realistic. Larger guns are louder, smaller guns are quieter. However, some of the sidearms sound too quiet and this makes it feel like it would be more of a nuisance to be shot by one rather than potentially fatal. The rest of the guns do sound intimidating, though. Overall The poor enemy AI, easy level of difficulty, dated graphics and lack of truly unique characters makes Strike Force seem more like a demo than a final product. If you are a diehard fan of the Commandos series of games, stay away from Strike Force. What was once a difficult and thought provoking series has turned into a shallow and linear one. In the end, I can think of no reason for someone to buy Commandos Strike Force. If you’re looking for a World War II shooter, there are plenty out there and most of them are better. If you want to give the game a try, do yourself a favor and rent it before you purchase it. You’ll most likely end up saving yourself some money.   The Core Score Overall 6.4 Fun 5 Gameplay 6.5 Graphics 6 Audio 8 Replay 6.5   How we score games