Commandos 3: Operation Berlin

Commandos 3 is the latest installment in the real-time strategy series that puts you in control of a troop of elite commandos. This installment puts you in three campaigns to fight from Stalingrad and central Europe to the beaches of Normandy. You are in charge of a squad of commandos and must carry out covert operations against often overwhelming odds. You must use tactics and stealth to defeat the Nazi troops who unlike in some games are highly intelligent and competent.

The control system is fairly unwieldy and difficult to get to grips with but the tutorial does a fairly good job of introducing the controls to you. The controls never really become intuitive but you do eventually learn where everything is. The tutorial makes a better job of teaching you basic tactics. You learn how to use enemy uniforms to pass unnoticed through their ranks and tying up your enemies to allow you to move through the level without killing anyone or making a noise. Once you get into the game proper this becomes especially important.

The Nazis are on the ball

The Nazis are certainly on the ball. From the first mission in any of the scenarios you feel like you’re on the wrong side. Of course, you are taking a squad of two or three units into battle against the Nazi army so you wouldn’t expect things to go your way. There is no difficulty setting and so the less experienced real-time strategy gamers must fight on the same level as the most experienced. This makes the game rather limited in its appeal. Whilst it’s great to have a really challenging game, the difficulty will immediately put off casual fans of the genre.

Even ardent fans might find themselves getting frustrated with the difficulty of it all. You can view the enemy soldiers line of sight and this will allow you to at least plan your line of attack. You will also need to move the camera around the level to plan out how best to attack the mission. The tutorial makes a big point of the auto-save feature and after you get past the first wave of guards only to be immediately killed a few times it really brings home the need for it. The developers have made Commandos 3 really more difficult than it need be, by providing enemies who are eagle eyed and putting in plenty of them so that navigating between their lines of sight is very difficult.

Hey good looking

The graphics are a bit odd in Commandos 3. The indoor areas are fully 3D whilst the outdoor areas are 2D isometric. This makes controlling the camera rather tricky especially as the levels often allow you to move seamlessly between indoors and outdoors. You just get used to rotating the camera freely around indoors only to move outdoors where the camera rotates in 90 degree steps. This quickly becomes disorienting and in the heat of battle it becomes difficult to work out which way you’re facing when you only wanted to rotate the camera slightly so that you could move a tree out of your line of sight.

Aside from this, the graphics are nicely drawn and well animated. The character models look good and have a high level of detail. The uniforms are well detailed and the characters are detailed in their animations. When a character ties up an enemy you see the enemy being rolled around and tied up. You can even see the Nazis turn their heads as they patrol. The scenery is well detailed in both 2D and 3D mode, which allows you to identify areas that will provide cover from the enemy’s view. This is also well implemented as the items you would expect to provide cover do indeed provide it.

Weird accents

The sound effects are pretty good. Gunshots sound like gunshots and other sound effects, such as footsteps, also sound convincing. The characters comment as you order them around with such remarks such as “easy”, “yes”, or “no”. The dialogue is delivered in campy, stereotyped European accents such as French or upper class English. This adds an element of humour to what is an otherwise serious game. These accents persist into the story line, which is presented through briefings delivered by a very English accent. Before each mission is a brief cut scene with the troops that you will be in charge of in the mission discussing the objectives and setting the scene. This helps you to get a feel for what needs to be done and can carry some hints as to how to approach the mission.

Too hard for most

The main thing that stands out about Commandos 3 is the difficulty. Whilst most reviews complain about the AI not being good enough there is not a hint of that in this game. The AI isn’t super intelligent but it is on the ball. The difficulty is really provided by the mission structure and the number of enemies in the level. The difficulty does make it worth persevering, as there is a great sense of achievement by finishing a level. The graphics and sound do make the game less frustrating in the short term as it gives you something nice to look at. In the end the controls do let this title down making it more difficult than it would otherwise be. With a better control system and a variable difficulty level this could become a great franchise. As it is, it stands as a good game. The difficulty will appeal to hard-core real-time strategy gamers who find normal RTS titles too easy but will make casual fans avoid it.