- This is a stand alone product and does not require the original version of Commandos toplay. Product Information Eight new missionswith new goals, new scenarios, new buildings, substantially bigger s,new skills and new weapons. The Dirty 1/2 Dozen are back in action. Lead the team into harms way in"Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty". You are in command of Tiny, Spooky,Duke, Fins, Tr.
.com
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The Dirty 1/2 Dozen are back in action. Lead the team into
harm's way in Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty. You are in
command of Tiny, Spooky, Duke, Fins, Tread, and Inferno as they
sneak into Eastern Europe, Greece, and Germany to finish the job
they started. Armed with new weapons and devious decoys, the
Commandos vow to fight until victory. However, the Germans have
other plans for the boys. They have doubled their vigilance and
strengthened their bases with Panzer and Luftwaffe
reinforcements. Can you go beyond the call of duty to finally win
the war in Europe?
From the Manufacturer
---------------------
The dirty half dozen are back in action. Lead the team into
harm's way in Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty. You are in
command of Tiny, Spooky, Duke, Fins, Tread, and Inferno as they
sneak into Eastern Europe, Greece, and Germany to finish the job
they started. Armed with new weapons and devious decoys, the
commandos vow to fight until victory. However, the Germans have
other plans for the boys. They have doubled their vigilance and
strengthened their bases with Panzer and Luftwaffe
reinforcements.
Can you go behind the call of duty to finally win the war in
Europe?
New features:
* 8 new missions with new goals, including kipping a German
officer, destroying a big train-ed , and sabotaging
prototype aircraft
* New scenarios include the Channel Islands, Rastenburg, Bonn,
Belgrade, Holland, and Crete
* New buildings
* Substantially bigger s
* Improved quality of graphics
* New skills, such as using a pack or stone to distract
the enemy and arresting a German soldier and forcing him to take
certain actions
* New weapons, including a long-range, single-
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Review
------
Just about every good game gets an expansion pack or a sequel,
not just because it's profitable, but because it's easy. The good
idea's already there, and the existing technology can be recycled
to make a game that feels comfortably familiar but with new and
exciting content. Recent expansion packs like Starcraft: Brood
War, as well as sequels like Myth II and Fallout 2, all bettered
their predecessors. But Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty, a
standalone expansion to Behind Enemy Lines, ends up feeling like
a shadow of its former self, being both shorter and more
frustrating than the original.
The original Commandos was a surprise hit. It cleverly combined
strategy, puzzle, and action elements with great graphics and an
all-too-apt subject matter, and while there was some debate over
just what kind of game it was trying to be, most found its demand
for planning and precision to be both unusual and exciting.
At a glance, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty is more of the
same, with a few new bells and whistles. But the fact is, you can
have too much of a good thing. The original Commandos was a great
game because each member of the squad was highly specialized. A
couple of them, the Green Beret and the , ended up doing most
of the work, but that was OK, because the others like the marine
and the sapper got their moments in the spotlight. In Beyond the
Call of Duty, though, each character gains the ability to throw a
stone or toss a pack of s as a means of distracting the
unassuming enemy. Likewise, every commando can now force a
captured nazi to do his bidding, so long as the hostage remains
within the range of the commando's sidearm. The hostage can be
used to distract his comrades, so that one of your squad can
sneak past or sneak in for the kill. These new abilities are
fairly interesting, but the fact that every commando has them
clouds the sense that your soldiers are working as unique and
complementary components of some perfectly tuned machine. The
commandos' roles become less clear, and with that, some of the
game's appeal slips away.
It also doesn't help that the game is even more difficult than
the first. It's tempting to justify the excessive difficulty by
the fact that the game contains only eight missions (the original
had more than twice as many), but that would be a solution to the
wrong problem. Besides, nobody complained that the original
Commandos was too easy - all of its missions were difficult,
though some were far more difficult than others. Nevertheless,
all its missions could eventually be completed so long as you
were patient, and the game didn't get too frustrating because
each mission could be reduced to a series of smaller situations,
and you'd rarely get stuck at any one point for too long. On the
other hand, Beyond the Call of Duty starts out frustrating and
just stays there. These missions don't just seem difficult, but
downright unfair. In the first mission, if you don't save a
sniper round until the very last point, you probably won't
be able to clear the minefield and escape; and there's no real
way to anticipate this eventuality, so if somebody didn't warn
you, you'd end up having to restart.
At other times, there are so many enemy troops patrolling an
area that it doesn't seem like there's an appropriate way of
resolving the situation. You'll wonder what would happen if maybe
you threw the s, the stone, and used the decoy all at
the same time, while a hostage distracted everybody.... But
unfortunately, much like the first game, Beyond the Call of
Duty's interface doesn't easily lend itself to multitasking,
since the commandos are slow to respond and need to be
micromanaged. You absolutely must coordinate your troops in this
game, but it isn't any easier than before, no thanks to the fact
that all the keyboard hotkeys were shifted around. (While the new
layout is a little more logical than the original's, it's
inexplicable why the designers didn't just let you customize the
keyboard layout.) So the control feels more cumbersome than
before, since you need especially impeccable timing and
coordination, but the interface won't allow it. And even when you
finally get through a mission, you won't feel very good about it
since you won't be able to shake the feeling that you've figured
out something the designers didn't expect you to. The original
Commandos was satisfying because its puzzle-like situations had
specific solutions. These missions feel clumsier by comparison,
requiring at least as much luck as finesse, although the s
themselves all look distinctly beautiful.
On the other hand, maybe the problem is the awful new
voice-acting. The original Commandos had a problem with
repetitive speech, and that problem lingers in Beyond the Call of
Duty. Only now, not only does every one of your troops say the
same thing over and over, but every last one of them sounds
ridiculous. At least there's good musical accompaniment during
each mission, of the appropriate symphonic variety.
Meanwhile, the game's packaging gives top billing to a new female
commando "seductress," whose inclusion raises numerous concerns,
not the least of which is the fact that she is touted as a key
feature yet doesn't even play a significant role in the game.
In spite of everything, it's inaccurate to say that Beyond the
Call of Duty is far worse than the original. If anything, the two
games are difficult to distinguish, so fans of the original will
enjoy Beyond the Call of Duty because of its inherent similarity
to its predecessor. And to be fair, there are certain subtle new
twists to this game that add strategic depth, such as the 's
ability to wear several types of uniforms. But at the same time,
most of the subtle changes have adverse effects and make Beyond
the Call of Duty feel like more of the same in the worst kind of
way.--Greg Kasavin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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