- Shooting controls, especially for
the sniper, are nice and responsive
- Good 20-hours-or-so single-player story with cinematic-driven
action
- Online servers are a ghost town –
nobody’s playing over Xbox Live
- An abundance of invisible walls
- Another World War II-based FPS? Isn’t this genre saturated
enough already?
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Commandos Strike Force
Score: 7.0 / 10
One problem faces Commandos Strike Force.
It’s not that it is a terrible game, because it isn’t. It actually is
better than many similar first-person shooter titles, with the ability
to switch between specialized characters during gameplay when the
particular skill of one of the other commandos is required. It has more
stealth-style gameplay than the average FPS, and has a good
single-player story to follow with accompanying cinematic cut-scenes.
But if there’s ever a gaming genre that’s been completely saturated with
too many similar titles, it’s the World War II FPS.
I mean, how many games that have you battling against the Nazis do you
expect the average gamer to play? Even if they are a big fan of the WWII
FPS genre, there comes a point when the next game is one game too many.
Especially, as in the
case of Commandos Strike Force, when it has
sometimes too linear gameplay with too many invisible walls, mediocre
graphics, and despite Xbox Live support, absolutely no online
multiplayer opportunities whatsoever, an absolute sin for a FPS of any
genre.
However, as I said, despite being another in the long, long line of WWII
FPS games, Commandos Strike Force
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does have some positive attributes. It has a solid plot that isn’t a
total retread from previous games despite being based on the history of
WWII (but I must mention a mission that’s sort-of “rip-off” of the first
Indiana Jones movie, where you must recover a “relic” of some sort
before that Nazis do). You are in charge of a three-person commando
strike force, infiltrating the Nazi stranglehold on Europe. You have the
heavy-hitting Green Beret, the eagle-eye sniper and the deceptive spy
under your control. Missions usually take on two forms: the spy
missions, where you’re on your own using guile and stealth to accomplish
the goal at hand. Other missions, which employ a bit more strategic
gameplay to be successful, require switching between the sniper and the
Green Beret to vanquish Hitler’s men.
Traveling all across the European theater of war, from France to Norway
to Russia, you must use the abilities of all three commandos to get
yourself through the 20-hours-or-so story mode, which is kept more
interesting by the accompanying cinematic cut-scenes that tell the
game’s story (although the voice acting is not that well done, knocking
the game’s cinematic quality down a few notches).
While you are forced to follow an almost too linear path to meet your
objectives, the game does allow some freedom in giving gamers alternate
paths to finish your goals, although one path generally is a suicide
mission compared to a stealthier road. And there is an abundance of
invisible walls that frustratingly block seemingly travelable areas
throughout. I have to say, though, that at least there are plenty of
objectives to complete, as most missions last at least a half hour in
order to advance to the next mission.
Also making objective completion easier, despite some pretty taxing
challenges in many missions (particularly later in the game), is the
excellent game controls. Targeting enemies for weapon fire is really
fluid, as is the actual shooting, especially for the sniper. When you
use the sniper to target Nazis, focusing the shot (by going into a
bullet-time state using the left trigger that slows gameplay down so you
can “focus” your shot better) is one of the game’s more gratifying
gameplay elements, especially as you witness the blood spray that flies
from your successfully hit (and now dead) targets.
Graphically, Commandos Strike Force is a mix of mediocre environmental
visuals, with a variety of different looks from bombed-out cities to
small French towns to the snow-covered fjords of Norway, along with good
character modeling, including very good animated behavior that gives
each a realistic movement appearance.
So the single-player action is generally a good time. Let’s talk about
the multiplayer. Or rather, the lack of multiplayer in Commandos Strike
Force. I’ve experienced a first with Commandos Strike Force in relation
to its online play via Xbox Live. I’ve played games that had very little
players online. But Commandos Strike Force is the only game I’ve ever
attempted to play on Xbox Live where there wasn’t a single player
playing.
Not one. I literally had the entire online game to myself. It isn’t like
this is a just released title either. It’s been out nearly two months. I
didn’t ever think I would be on Xbox Live with a FPS game and not have
anybody to compete against. That tells me that Commandos Strike Force
must not be exactly flying off store shelves (and it may be telling
developers that enough already, no more WWII FPS games for a while!)
Good controls and a good story with gameplay that requires strategic
thinking and allows for switching between characters place Commandos
Strike Force somewhere in the middle ground of WWII FPS titles. If you
are one of the few Xbox gamers who hasn’t tired of the genre that has
you fighting Hitler’s Nazi forces yet again, then Commandos Strike Force
is a good title to play, but only if you are looking for a good,
20-hours-or-so single-player shooter, because unfortunately there isn’t
any online play to speak of.
