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REVIEWS

While many WWII strategy games are turn-based and operate at a gobal view, Eidos Interactive's Commandos: BEL takes a different approach. You are only given command of six commandos and the game takes place in real time not turn-based.

Each commando has their own set of skills. Tiny, the most frequently used commando, can climb walls, knife his enemies and carry the dead bodies away, and hide himself in snow/sand. Fins, the water expert, is equipped with a harpoon gun and can drive any sea vessel. On the other hand, Trend can drive any land vehicle and operates heavy machine guns. Inferno is your explosive guy. He is the only guy that can utilize bombs and traps. Your sniper, Duke can pick off any Nazi with a very long, but accurate range. Last, but not least is your spy, Spooky. Once he gets a German uniform, he can distract his enemies or even kill one instantly with a lethal injection. These are your only troops throughout the whole game, so do not even think about suicide rushing your enemies.

The controls are very simple allowing you to play through a point and click interface. You can access any commando instantly by clicking on his portrait at the top. What I liked about the interface was the use of hot-keys. Just about every action in the game has its own hot-key which makes the game easier to play.

The missions are very difficult. You will be out-manned and out-gunned in every mission so you must plan carefully. At the end of each mission, your time spent and sustained health will determine how much merit points received.If you do not reach a certain amount of merit points at the end of the game, you will not be able to play the last mission. The game is separated into four campaigns, seven missions in Norway, five in Northern Africa, three in France and five in Germany. In addition to solo play, the missions can be played cooperatively with six other players either through Mplayer or LAN.

Because stealth is an important part of the game, you will be equipped with a feature that lets you view your enemy's line of sight. This is effortlessly done by shift clicking on a unit. The line of sight is divided into two sections, a light and dark color. If a commando is in the enemy's light section, he will be detected and most likely shot at. A commando can avoid detection while in the dark section by crawling.

Computer AI is very intelligent, do not underestimate them. They will investigate any suspicious activity such as gunfire noises, dead bodies, and even footprints. When they get to the scene, chances are they will either sound the alarm and more patrol troops will be looking for you or they will follow the footprints or the noise until they determine the source. The latter can be used as an advantage by setting up an ambush by luring them into isolated areas and killing them with knives, or your choice of guns.

Commandos: BEL is visually stunning! The game features over 40 vehicles, 25 types of weaponry, and 350 structures. All of which are pre-rendered in 3D and from the WWII era. The terrain is also done with great detail. Africa actually looks like Africa, as do Norway and Normandy. Water currents flow in a realistic pattern, trees set on fire as do any thing that is flammable. Other graphic options include zooming, up to six split screens, and resolutions up to 1024x728.

Commandos: BEL is simply a great game. The only major problem with the game is it has only 20 missions which will lead to little replay value after you beaten the game. Other than that, you will not be disappointed with Commandos.

Reviewed by Tom C.

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