4. Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
Developed by: Pyro Studios
Published by: Eidos
Release Date: Q3 2003

	What's Ahead: The Commandos series is notoriously hard, and we'll have to see if the new design approach makes significant inroads toward making Commandos 3 more accessible. The eight-player multiplayer sounds like it has a lot of potential, but it's still in the works. Pyro noted that it likely won't be possible to control more than one commando at a time in the multiplayer, but you will have a group of regular soldiers to back you up.

As deep and visually appealing as Commandos 2 is, it didn't get the attention it might have. Pyro Studios is moving in new directions with the follow-up, designing missions with a faster, more even pacing, breaking the story up into three distinct campaigns, and adding more-direct combat and more-powerful weapons. Still, what really grabbed our attention at E3 was how amazing Commandos 3 looks. The new game benefits from an engine with more 3D features, combining the tremendous detail we've come to expect from the mission environments in Commandos games with smoothly animated characters and vehicles, real-time lighting, 3D interiors, and the power to put lots of enemies on a single map.

There's an artful, heroic quality to Commandos 3's vivid portrayal of missions behind the lines of World War II. The graphics can be stunningly beautiful during the carefully crafted cinematic sequences and more interactive during the missions. In one impressive mission, we watched the operatives climb on the top of a train, scout out the interior of some of the cars, and climb out windows and along the side of a car. All this happened shortly before a bridge was blown out in front of the train and the locomotive crashed into a deep gully. Another mission was interrupted by an attack from the air, with fighters strafing the ground and a storm of paratroopers gliding to the ground. It's amazing to see such dramatic visuals in a game mostly locked in a top-down perspective.

As satisfying as Commandos' brand of tactical stealth gameplay has been, a wider variety of gameplay options will be a welcome addition. Some missions will require you to hold off sizeable assaults with your small squad of elite soldiers, while others--such as those that take place right in the middle of Berlin--have so many enemies around that only a subtle approach makes sense. In any case, the game will not only have a large number of solo missions to keep you busy, but it will also have a new multiplayer component that you'll be able to play competitively or cooperatively. Pyro showed us that we have a lot to look forward to until the game ships this fall.