Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
�but within the realm of reason
- GamePro Score
- User Score
- Write your review!
The follow-up, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty--a standalone product with eight new missions--recaptures that feeling perfectly. Indeed, it captures it even better than the first game. While Beyond still operates under certain constraints of the original's design, developer Pyro Studios has beefed up elements to lend a sense of greater flexibility.
As in the original game, Beyond finds you dispatching a selection of six World War II commandos (along with two new allies) on perilous missions within German installations rendered (beautifully) in stark, contrasting colors. The accent is still on stealth--staying outside the green cones that represent sentries' fields of vision--and teamwork.
Each trooper shares general skills with his mates--everyone can use a pistol, for instance--but certain abilities continue to be cast in absolute terms. (If you need to cross a body of water, and the fellow with the inflatable boat skill happens to stand up while a German sentry is looking in his direction, the mission is probably over. Apparently, no one else in the team ever rowed a boat.)
At the same time, the designers have expanded the range of available activities so the original game's limitations seem less onerous. The main change, and one from which others flow, is that you don't have to kill or evade everyone you encounter. Three commandos have the ability to render German guards temporarily unconscious with their fists, a blackjack, or chloroform, and two to handcuff guards once knocked out. And once an enemy soldier is down, all the commandos can force him to perform a wide range of tasks�and one can steal his uniform. The happy result is that Beyond the Call feels less hemmed in.
In addition, you can now lure sentries out of position with dropped cigarette packs and thrown stones. And you'll have to deal with members of the Gestapo, who can penetrate your spy's disguise (and also recognize one of your allies). (Pyro has also added "easy" and "hard" difficulty levels, though "easy" still seems every bit as challenging as the original game.)
Now, the enemy AI could still use some fine-tuning. A patrolling squad allowed its members to be picked off one by one by my sniper without taking cover. On the friendly side, I'd like to see the ability to give your commandos a measure of autonomy in self-preservation situations. Then when an unexpected sentry stumbles onto one of my men while I'm busy on the other side of the map, he at least has the wherewithal to return fire or just run. (In the current game, he's pretty much dead meat.)
But I'm as happy as someone who's addicted to a game and not very good at it can be. While not officially the sequel, Beyond the Call of Duty has a lot of the things I'd like to see in one. Well done, men. Medals all around.
