Commandos: Origins

Commandos: Origins sees the grand return of the series established in the late 90s and early 2000s. A real-time strategy franchise that saw a group of elite soldiers known as the Commandos drop behind enemy lines during WW2. It sounds like the perfect synopsis for a B-list action movie Netflix recommends you on a Sunday night, but Commandos: Origins doesn't just let you barrel through dozens of Nazis with a machine gun.

Instead, you're tasked with crawling your way through enemy territory, taking down one or a couple of Nazis at a time while remaining as stealthy as possible. This is Commandos: Origins in a nutshell. I cannot speak for the other games in the series as I'm not familiar with them, but this current title blends a mix of stealth and strategy in a series of levels that each work as a large puzzle for you to solve.

For each mission, you'll be given a selection of the titular Commandos. From the hardy Green Beret to the silent but deadly Sniper, you'll find that while each Commando comes armed with a pistol and knife, their kit and abilities make them entirely different from one another. Their abilities can and are meant to be used in coherence with other Commandos for you to get that perfect silent run. A personal favourite was distracting the enemy with the Green Beret's sound emitter, only to have them follow the noise into a bear trap set up by the Sapper. It's a trick taught at the start of the game, but the amount of usage I got out of it was hilarious as dozens of Nazis marched unknowingly to their demise one after the other like lemmings.

Plan and execution. That's the way you play Commandos: Origins. The maps are so large that you can't figure out your whole route from minute one, at least not on your first run, and so you take each section almost as it's own mini level. You're given a few enemies, each looking at each other in such a way that means you can't just rush them with knives. Or, you can if you think there's no other option, just be prepared for an entire base to rush you soon after. The tactics in Commandos: Origins can be genuinely difficult to figure out, and it's worth noting here that if you screw up, it's on you to quick save before you test out a risky move, as the game doesn't have auto save.

While the lack of saves can be frustrating at times, overall the difficulty feels more rewarding than it is unfair. Hearing the successive slashes of your team's knives as they cut through Nazi throats just before any of them realise is very satisfying, pride swelling as you realise you figured your own way out of the problem. Even when things go poorly, you can still feel a sense of pride in the fact you survived. There was one level I just couldn't get my stealth cap on for, eventually just holing my Commandos up in a room as the alarm went off, blasting anyone who came through the door.

The satisfying difficulty of the gameplay may not appease everyone, as it feels almost like the Hotline Miami of strategy in how quickly and often you'll end up cursing and reloading to a safe point. Largely, though, it feels as if Claymore Game Studios has put a lot of effort into the cohesiveness of Commandos: Origins. There are many points where everything feels like it clicks into place. You get that with the Commandos, as in each level the team you've got is clearly designed to complete that map, using their strengths in a variety of ways. There is a part of me that wonders about the possibility of bringing any Commando to any map, maybe after you've beaten the original level, but there's just such a strong sense of purpose to the choices here I'd rather not tamper with them.

The scale of the maps is also a good showcase of Commandos: Origins' strengths. The level design here is very good, with maps spanning across the world, taking you from the ice-cold arctic to hot African deserts and everything in between. The intricacies and size of the levels make it so that you can easily spend hours on each one. With fifteen in total, and plenty of replay value to beat each one on the hardest difficulty, there's a lot of content. The maps are visually impressive, too. Nothing that'll blow you away, but models, explosions, and environments are all a treat to look at, keeping you immersed in the hours you'll spend staring at them, trying to figure out how you can get around that one guard who threatens your whole mission.

Speaking of visuals, the odd minor bug is still noticeable, mostly when it comes to dead enemies freaking out as soon as they hit the ground, their limbs flailing so wildly I'm surprised the nearby guards didn't notice. Otherwise, my only main wish would have been perhaps for some more narrative content. Commandos: Origins is a strategy game , and the genre hasn't exactly always needed a story at its heart, but some of the banter between the Commandos in the game has me wanting a bit more to the missions than just "we're dropping here to destroy a bridge, or collect important documents."

Commandos: Origins is a great game in a genre that sorely needs one. With a difficulty that'll challenge even the most tactical minds, combined with refreshing visuals and characters that are fun to play, what you get is a satisfying, rewarding experience that has you reloading save after save, believing the next strategy you try will be the winning one. The difficulty may cause the odd frustration here and there, and you may wish for a bit more besides a satisfying gameplay loop, but overall this is a win for the fans of RTS games out there.