GamesRadar+ Verdict
Pros
- +
The brilliantly loud guns
- +
The satisfaction of completing a mission after much careful planning
- +
Enemy soldier animation: it's convincing and oddly engaging
Cons
- -
The slow progress
- -
Limited textures and structures
- -
Gaping holes in the story
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We have a lot of favourite bits from Strike Force. That must mean it's quite good.
History would suggest otherwise. Previous conversions of 2D strategy games to 3D action games have not been pretty. Converting the sedate, point-and-click puzzles of the previous Commandos games to FPS is a dangerous business.
The 2D games were about sneaking through German encampments with a team of rugged specialists. Each had a specific role: the Sniper sniped, the Green Beret slit the throats of baddies and hauled away corpses. There was a driver, a diver and a dog. It was a puzzle game, albeit one that saw you chewing your nails and sweating with tension.
Strike Force retains that spirit, but there are concessions. Chief among them: the number of characters under your control has been boiled down to just three. They're the spy, Green Beret, and sniper.
The Green Beret is the easiest to describe - he's just a big brutish run-and-gun type. He'll carry two sub-machineguns into a fight, blow chunks out of baddies with a big old shotgun, and generally make like a meat-head.
The sniper is a slower, more obvious stealth character. He ventilates goons from afar, but also carries a pack of six throwing knives.
Most interesting though, by a long way, is the spy. His special skill: wearing German clothes and speaking Nazi.
Why is this fun? It's a system that gradually extends your power and reach across a level. You begin afraid and alone, but gradually, as you progress, that feeling is replaced by a sense of power. You find yourself wandering freely, exploring, considering your options.
Even better, levels in which the spy plays a fundamental role are deep, complicated, and always interesting. Completing each mission requires tackling submissions.
To steal the truck, you'll need to engineer a train accident, thus dispersing most of the guards; to assassinate the general, you'll first have to sneak your way into a separate area and disable any alarms.
