Your favorite Commandos type game.

[Zombra]

You know, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is one of my favorite games, period. Seems like I go back and play through it again every year or two. I showed it to a friend and now she's coming over weekly to sneak around and knife banditos. I highly recommend it if you like this type of thing.

I've been reading some (unfavorable) reviews of the sequels, and I remember I actually tried Desperados 2 for a bit, but immediately disliked it for some reason.

I know there must be other games like this that I would enjoy playing today. I remember playing the first Commandos some back in the day, but never finishing it. Was this because the mechanics were too annoying? Was the game too hard for my youthful brain? I don't remember. And there were like a bunch of sequels, right? But didn't they all change the formula in some bad way? Or did they improve on it?

Do you like games like this? Is there one that you keep returning to, that's still fun today? Sell me something.

 

[commie]

I like Commandos 2 the most: varied ways to play....as a sympathiser of the Axis in games I went through the game in a totally non-lethal way(apart from one mandatory target, and one particular optional mission which is impossible to do without a great deal of slaughter). It also has the most even difficulty level of all the games: always challenging but rarely pull your hair out timed fuckery like Commandos 3 pulled, even with the enforced challenge of playing without killing like I did. Obviously going on a killing spree makes it somewhat easier at times.

Desperados 2 and Helldorado are good, so long as you ignore the bullshit 3rd person action game option. Sure they aren't as good as Desperados but they are ok, though uneven.

Robin Hood Legend of Sherwood is also a fantastic game by the Desperados makers(if only Spellbound kept making this type of game insteading trying their hand at RPG's) with wonderful art and fine gameplay.

 

[anus_pounder]

I'll second Desperados and Legend of Sherwood.

 

[Telengard]

Commandos 1 was a bit rough around the edges, so I could easily someone dropping it, especially if they started with Desperados. Commandos 2 and Desperados were kind of the company's high point. After that, they seem to make a huge push for graphics and neglect the gameplay, and Desperados 2 and 3 maps feel kind of empty of personality.

Legend of Sherwood is a personal favorite, but the padding of it with its semi-randomized content leave the maps feeling a bit generic, in the end. Still, that's the one of I've replayed the most.

I used to replay Shadow Company fairly often, too, which is even rougher around the edges than Commandos 1, yet had lots of interactible vehicles. But eventually couldn't take its many (Ubisoft standard package of) issues anymore.

 

[J_C]

Desperados all the way. I never managed to play Legend of Sherwood though.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Can't choose between Commandos 2 and Desperados :/

 

[adddeed]

Im currently playing Commandos 1. One of my favorites. And even today, 16 years on, it looks gorgeous. Must have been te best looking 2D game on the market at the time, bar none.

Desperados 2 is not bad at all, Helldorado is an improvemet.

 

[Excidium]

Fun games but let's be honest, this was one stale genre

 

[Longshanks]

Long time since I played them, but I always preferred the Commandos to the Desperados. Second is probably the best, but the third is also perfectly fine, no real messing with the mechanics that I can recall. Desperado always felt a bit simpler than the Commandos games. Legend of Sherwood is also quite good, but seemed another step down from Desperados in difficulty. Looking at screenshots of Desperados 2 - I don't think I ever played it, but looks like it's 3D and allows a crappy looking third person view; possibly why I never gave it a look.

Overall, I can recommend any of them other than Desperados 2.

 

[Eyeball]

I did not like Commandos 2. Commandos 1 was, essentially, a puzzle game about figuring out how to best apply the skills of your team to solve problems, taking into consideration physical obstacles and patrolling guards without getting spotted. Commandos 2 added a lot more open gunfighting situations to the game and I really did not like that, preferring the stealthy puzzly approach.

Derperados was also damned good, with even more variety in character abilities and lovely art direction.

 

[Misconnected]

Agreed Eyeball.

Also, while Legend of Sherwood had tonnes of potential, it not only had the same issue as Commandos 2, it piled a stupid ass mouse gesture system on top of it.

 

[Excidium]

I liked the mouse gesture attacks at the time I played. It was a cool novelty to me

 

[Darth Roxor]

I played Commandos 1 killing everyone in sight and abusing the dumb AI:patriot:

 

[Jvegi]

Desperados is awesome, played it all my life.

Never finished it, until recently. Couldn't get through the later missions. My problems were solved however when I discovered that the ultimate way to play this game is to stand behind a corner, shoot into the air to lure every single motherfucker on the map ( more the merrier) to your location and shoot them all point blank.

Prison-fortress mission, I'm talking to you.

 

[ghostdog]

Desperados definitely.

 

[Boyarpunk]

Nothing might (hell, nothing WILL) ever beat Commandos 2 for me. Such memories.

RIP Commandos series.

 

[Cadmus]

Nothing might (hell, nothing WILL) ever beat Commandos 2 for me. Such memories.

RIP Commandos series.

I agree. I think Commandos 2 was the peak of this small genre. For me, it was perfect in every way - less rigid than Commandos 1, better graphics, better UI and lots of quality of life options were added, amazing soundtrack. Basically, when I think of a hypothetical perfect game, it's Commandos 2.
I didn't like Commandos 1 very much and hated Commandos 3 for some reason I don't remember.

Desperados 1 was kinda simple, I haven't played it much. Desperados 2 I installed about a month ago and deleted in the same evening in disgust.

The Robin Hood game looked interesting but I never played it much, I only had a demo I think.

 

[JarlFrank]

Desperados is awesome, played it all my life.

Never finished it, until recently. Couldn't get through the later missions. My problems were solved however when I discovered that the ultimate way to play this game is to stand behind a corner, shoot into the air to lure every single motherfucker on the map ( more the merrier) to your location and shoot them all point blank.

Prison-fortress mission, I'm talking to you.

How to win the prison-fortress mission: there is a certain dark corner large enough for Cooper to hide in, but still very small, you will be well hidden and enemies looking for you won't get into the darkness so they won't spot you. They will be close enough for Cooper to knife them though. Shoot once, have dozens of guards appear, knife them all, nobody will see you, they'll just crowd around the bodies and run to their posts calling for reinforcements. You can kill 3/4 of the guards this way with close to 0 risk.

 

[adddeed]

Nothing might (hell, nothing WILL) ever beat Commandos 2 for me. Such memories.

RIP Commandos series.

I agree. I think Commandos 2 was the peak of this small genre. For me, it was perfect in every way - less rigid than Commandos 1, better graphics, better UI and lots of quality of life options were added, amazing soundtrack. Basically, when I think of a hypothetical perfect game, it's Commandos 2.
I didn't like Commandos 1 very much and hated Commandos 3 for some reason I don't remember.

Desperados 1 was kinda simple, I haven't played it much. Desperados 2 I installed about a month ago and deleted in the same evening in disgust.

The Robin Hood game looked interesting but I never played it much, I only had a demo I think.

Desperados 1 is fantastic. Kind of in between Commandos 1 and 2 in terms of mechanics.

Robin Hood is also great, if not better.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Speaking of Desperados, it's on sale on Steam this week for $1.24, the price of a shitty cup of coffee.

 

[Boyarpunk]

Speaking of Desperados, it's on sale on Steam this week for $1.24, the price of a shitty cup of coffee.

Jesus I need to move to where you are; shitty cups of coffee are at least $ 2.50 where I live.

 

[Humppaleka]

I guess I was too casual for Commandos, because at some point the missions got infuriatingly hard. Not a good kind of hard in my opinion, as you had to do ridiculous positioning down to the pixel with your guys and shit like that, doing the right actions in exactly the right order and time. Or maybe I was just bad at the game.

 

[Boyarpunk]

I guess I was too casual for Commandos, because at some point the missions got infuriatingly hard. Not a good kind of hard in my opinion, as you had to do ridiculous positioning down to the pixel with your guys and shit like that, doing the right actions in exactly the right order and time. Or maybe I was just bad at the game.

Nope. That was exactly Commandos. But I loved it. Every blood clot inducing aggravating minute of it.

 

[anus_pounder]

alongside AoE1's classics, 'gonzoopera' was the first cheat code I ever learned. I haven't stopped cheating since.

 

[Zeriel]

alongside AoE1's classics, 'gonzoopera' was the first cheat code I ever learned. I haven't stopped cheating since.

Filthy casuals.