How do you pull out one brick - in most cases, a patrolling guard in need of a smoke - without the whole structure collapsing into guttural screeches of ' Alarm! Alarm!'? Neutralizing an enemy is another tricky task: kill him and you run a higher risk of being detected, but show mercy and he might be brought back into action. You have to disentangle the complex overlaps and interdependencies of the Nazi defense in order to infiltrate a target location. Whichever game you pick up in the Commandos trilogy - the arc of awesomeness of which is similar to the Godfather trifecta’s - your wits, foresight, and attention to detail will be challenged enormously.Īt its core, Commandos is a puzzle game. That’s unless you count the very many times you will die before completing even the tutorial mission.

It perfected the balance of fiendish gameplay and rewarding puzzles, sharpened up the visual presentation, and wove a beautifully detailed narrative through a series of variegated missions that never felt repetitive or stale. Pyro Studios already had a very good game on its hands with the original Commandos and the excellent Beyond the Call of Duty expansion, but 2001’s Men of Courage marked the pinnacle of the company’s output. Unlike legions of gung-ho WW2 shoot-em-ups, 'Commandos' rewards stealth, cunning, and guile Those traits are both visually apparent and functionally important, and they make each protagonist feel organic and real. The explosives expert is slow and deliberate, the reformed thief is sprightly and agile, and the big muscly dude can take a lot of damage. Instead of a one-man army, you get a crack squad of artfully differentiated commandos whose strengths and weaknesses contribute real depth to the gameplay. Unlike the legions of gung-ho WW2 shoot-em-ups that have you blasting through waves of identikit baddies, the Commandos series rewards stealth, cunning, and guile. For a game with an almost cartoonish art style, Commandos 2: Men of Courage happens to be one of the most visceral and realistic recreations of the Second World War.

Commandos 2 men of courage gameplay