Commandos 3: Destination Berlin Hands-On Preview
We rejoin the elite squad of soldiers, known as the dirty half-dozen, on the field of battle.
The Commandos games are among the most popular tactical strategy games that have been released in the past five years. You could even argue that the series paved the way for many of the new real-time tactical games we've seen from European developers since the first game was released in 1998. Regardless, its consistently challenging gameplay, which involves controlling a small squad of highly skilled field operatives on covert missions behind enemy lines, has helped the series make a name for itself. In fact, some players found the games to be a bit too challenging. However, the commandos are preparing for their next tour of duty in Commandos 3: Destination Berlin, and we recently had the opportunity to play through an early version of the game to see how developer Pyro Studios tackled the difficult issue of maintaining the series' trademark tension while making it more accessible for new players.
Fortunately for new players, and even for some old hands, Pyro has added several features, both to make the game easier to learn and also to streamline its general gameplay. For example, Commandos 3 now has a full-on playable tutorial that explains exactly how to control each of your soldiers and how to use their various skills, such as using Renee "Frenchy" Duchamp's disguise ability and flawless German accent to distract other enemy soldiers by donning a high-ranking German lieutenant's uniform after using morphine syringes to incapacitate the officer.
The game also places each commando's most-important inventory items at the bottom of the screen for easier access, including active weapons (such as guns, knives, and fists to quietly knock out patrolling Nazi soldiers) and an active miscellaneous item, such as a first-aid kit. The new game also has an optional minimap in the upper-left corner that displays a general layout of your mission as well as the general location of enemies. In some cases, like the train level in the Berlin campaign, you'll actually be able to peer through windows to see whether any enemy soldiers are garrisoned in the next train car.
You'll need to be more vigilant than ever about your movements through Commandos 3's various missions, since this time around, the team has landed in the thick of things. In several levels, they'll be up against many, many soldiers patrolling highly sensitive areas, like the German installation at Omaha Beach, which they must sabotage under the cover of night to weaken enemy defenses against the infamous Allied assault that takes place the following day. The team will also see lots more action in several missions, especially in the action-packed Stalingrad campaign, in which they must aid the Russian army's recapture of its capital city from occupying German forces. In cases like these, they must use the cover provided by the burned-out city's ruined buildings and piles of rubble to either stealthily pick off lone enemies with Duke, the blue-blooded British sniper, or line up the perfect blast radius for a grenade from Thomas "Inferno" Hancock, the team's detail-oriented sapper and explosives expert. They'll even be able to use a wide variety of vehicles, including jeeps, motorcycles, and commandeered Panzer tanks, as well as stationary weapons like mounted gun embankments.
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Downloads | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum | Check Prices
Games you may like…
-
Commandos 2
(PC) -
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
(PC) -
Commandos Strike Force
(PC) -
Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
(PC) -
Platoon
(PC)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
1 Comments