Why I Loved Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, and Why I'm Not Trying Out the Sequels

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is a unique game. Mechanically, it looks a lot like an RTS and controls like one, with a lot of mouse clicking and hotkeying. There's a big catch, though: you don't make anything. Nope, zilch, nada. Instead, you are supplied a limited number of men and are given the task of sabotaging the enemy's central facilities, while considerably outnumbered. Thus, the focus is not on outgunning your enemy, but rather undermining them with smart tactics, stealthy kills and careful yet quick maneuvers.

With that out of the way, why my title? To put it simply, I feel like the sequels to Behind Enemy Lines change the formula in ways that loses the appeal for me. To elaborate, I've seen parts and pieces of them through playthroughs, and they seem to tend wayyyy too much towards making all characters powerful. And that seems like a good thing on the surface, especially considering how weak some characters, notably the sapper and the driver, were in Behind Enemy Lines. But what this does is effectively undermine the puzzle aspect of the game, which in turn also starts to make the games feel more generic as you can bruteforce through far more situations than you normally could.

I don't want to give the impression that I completely disliked what I saw of those games. Commandos 2 and Commandos: Origins in particular seemed pretty cool as stealth games, and there were some neat additions to the formula, such as a tiered disguise system, as well as definitive improvements, such as making vision cones less obtuse. But they're just not the kind of game I'm looking for.

I have heard praise for Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, and I might perhaps give it a try. I'm a little wary of the game featuring some Sengoku era cliches that would irk me, but if the gameplay is good enough and captures what I liked about Behind Enemy Lines, I could overlook those. We will see.

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About Me

I am Dev Jyoti Chand, a man of many interests. Chiefly, I like playing video games, specifically, strategy 4xes, strategy RPGs, and anything involving strategy. My favorite games are Master of Magic, Tactics Ogre, specifically the SNES/PS1 version, and Quintessence - The Blighted Venom. I also am very interested in learning about history, especially ancient and medieval history, and am ever curious to learn more about the world. This blog is mostly a grab bag of subjects I felt strongly enough about to dedicate words upon words. Most notable among them are a series of challenge runs of the Star Ocean 2 remake, a long form commentary on To the Moon that I am not particularly proud of these days, and, more recently, LPs of the classic Mana games . I am ever eager to talk about my interests, and am very accepting of feedback, as long as it is given in good faith. If you wish to contact me, you may do so through the following means: Shoot an email to dev221117@gmail.com Join my Dis...

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