Commandos: Strike Force
- Platform: PC, PS2, Xbox
- Published by: Eidos
- Developed by: Pyro Studios
- Release Date: Apr 4, 2006
- Genre: Action
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Online: Yes
Commandos: Strike Force Interview
-- April 5, 2006 by: David Craddock
While "strategy" still applies, the game is radically different than its predecessors. However, while change can be scary, Eidos and Pyro Studios aim to show that it doesn't have to be a bad thing. I had a chance to talk with Inigo Vinos, of Pyro, to learn a bit more about the game.
The first difference Commandos veterans will notice is the game's perspective, which is first-person. Why the change? "We always said that Commandos 3: Destination Berlin was the end of the strategy saga," Vinos said, "and at the same time we had the desire, from a long time ago, of placing the camera at the level of the character's eye, so that’s what we did. And once you have the camera there, you are in the road of making a first-person shooter. In any case we have kept the elements from the Commandos universe that made Commandos a very different type of game."
Perspective is a key theme in Strike Force, and is evidenced through the unique type of characters you will be able to choose from. There are three total: Lieutenant William Hawkins (sniper); Captain Frank O'Brien (Green Beret); and Colonel George Brown (spy). Each Commando will grant you a unique game play experience through the use of their custom abilities and techniques. Captain O'Brien will be your standard tough guy type of soldier. "He joined the Commandos through duty," Vinos explained, "to do what is right. His main abilities include his expertise in the use of close combat weapons, specially the knife, and the use of heavy weapons." The good Captain will be able to do things such as wield two machine guns at once, making him a prime candidate when you have to quickly and brutally cut your way through enemy lines.
"Hawkings [the sniper] ... joined the strike force team because he is an adventurer," Vinos said. "He is fearless and a little bit unpredictable." Hmm... 'a little bit'? A direct caption from his performance report reads: "He joined the army because it sounded like fun." Just the type of sane guy you want hidden on a mountaintop picking off guys around you. His main abilities are, obviously, the extremely proficient use of sniper rifles, knife throwing, and is an excellent swimmer. And he's single, ladies.
Colonel George Brown is the man. Literally. He runs all the operations, and all Commandos answer to him. Want to know more? Well, too bad. His personal bio is classified. Vinos informed me that his "main strengths, apart from being a natural born leader, are his stealth and language skills together with his cold blood. He is capable of going behind enemy lines, killing silently, wearing an enemy uniform and infiltrating inside their headquarters. He also likes to carry a silenced pistol." Spies do not enjoy getting caught, after all.
So... three unique Commandos, each with his own strengths and weaknesses. Great! So when do/should you use each of them? Actually, the decision will be made for you. "Some of the missions are specifically designed for one of the characters," Vinos said, "so we will be playing specific missions for each one of them, while in others we will have two characters available and the player will be able to switch at any moment among them. Different missions have different combinations of characters in order for the player to fully experience action and infiltration."
Depending on how you feel about this sort of thing, taking the decision out of the player's hands can be good or bad. On the good side, you don't have to worry about using the wrong Commando for any given situation. If you're given the Sniper, well, then that's what you've got to work with. But on the other hand, it would have been far more strategic (and more fun, perhaps?) to get to switch off between the three Commandos on the fly. However, we've got what we've got, and I don't think it's a negative point at all. If I enter a stage as the Spy, I only have to worry about how to get through that level as the spy. You'll get to harness your skills for each Commando when it comes time to fire up the multiplayer modes—but more on that later.
Vinos was eager to demonstrate the boon of crafting levels for specific Commandos, and I was eager to hear his explanation. "There are different ways of solving the missions, but to give you an example let’s talk about ‘White Alamo’, a mission where you have to stop the advance of the Nazis from the other end of a bridge. In this mission you have the Green Beret and the Sniper. You may want to place the Green Beret near the entrance of the bridge and use him for close combat while you place the Sniper in a good shooting position, at the top of one of the surrounding buildings. The Green Beret will be taking most of action throwing grenades and using machine guns, while at any moment you will be able to switch to the Sniper in order to cover the Green Beret or to take enemies coming from different paths, for instance the ones using boats to cross the river."
So in essence, even the biggest control freak should not have too much to complain about. Some of the later levels will feature more than one Commando—as Vinos mentioned—and I'd venture to guess that there will be a mission or two that lets you make use of all these elite soldiers' abilities. The game will be in stores today, so we won't have to wait too long to find out for certain.
Multiplayer is also included and should be interesting, especially if you've mastered the nuances of the Sniper, Spy, and Green Beret. The standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch fare will be included, with the former leaving you on your own to deal with the different types of Commandos running around, and the latter.... I shouldn't have to explain that, really. The third mode, Sabotage, is what you'll really want to sink your teeth into. The objective of Sabotage is to use "the abilities of the Commandos to get an enemy code in order to enter and destroy their base. The spies will play a key role in this mode as they are the only ones that can interrogate enemies while at the same time the carry more information on the code than the rest."
The main point of Sabotage is teamwork. Many squad based games have tried to capture the feeling of a military atmosphere in the past, but very few have been successful. Since Commandos has three different and useful characters to make use of, it should be interesting to see how teams containing players who have each mastered their chosen class work together to dispose of teams with equal or greater skill.
Commandos: Strike Force looks to provide more than just standard shooter fare, and works very hard at keeping intact what made the past Commandos games so popular: strategy. "It has been a big effort making this game," Vinos said, "but we are very glad we made it and hope that ... gamers will [enjoy] playing it."
Commandos: Strike Force is showing up in stores today for PC, Xbox and PS2. We have a singleplayer demo on FileShack.
