Time Commando

Its funny to think this is one of the first games i ever played , i thought it was awsome back in the day. Sadley it hasnt aged nearly as well as i would have hoped the camera messes you around so much, you can be killed without seeing your character or what was attacking you. The game is insanely linear, i meen it teases you with little hiding spaces which contain bonuses weapons and health but as you progress there will only be one real weapon you use through out each stage. the clunky movement doesnt help the combat , your supose to be able to use the dodge key but too often i'd come back on to my desktop because i was holding some random hotkeys. The difficulty curve il say is speratic , some of the first few levels are the hardest and later when you get guns and futuristic tech its much easier, all be it at times it goes back to being hard. At one point on the medivial level i got so irratated by some enemys you cant block and cant shoot in time, i found my self turning to cheats just to give me a leg up so i could see the later stages. The enemy ai will at times be docile and stupid and other times overlly aggressive , you cant block some attacks and the ai at times will just wail on you till your dead. overall its okay not as good as remember funny to play it now after all these years, controls a bit hit or miss graphics...hard to judge based on its times not bad but i'd look at some clips somewhere before buying it, so you know what your getting into.

+ Lots of varied environments from several eras with fun combat and a good arsenal of weapons. Secret rooms and objects. Great graphics for the time of release. Great music as well! - Some frustrating camera angles coupled with clunky character movement make some fights and exploration a nuisance. Linear progression. Overall: A fun classic action game that I easily recommend despite its flaws. I love it!

In the 90s, developers made a few sprites and textures that they used again and again ad nauseam, which sometimes resulted in repetitive and boring games. TC was the opposite: it was very generous with the player as it featured a wide variety of settings, awesome weapons and unique enemies each of which you met only once. It is a short yet intense adventure with a good plot, a great soundtrack, a great final level and very funny credits. As a French, I must confess I was rather proud to see such a good game made in France. At the time, it was graphically fantastic, even on modest computers. It looked like no other game and it still does. If you think it did not age well, remember the 90s context. Players who do not know it should try it for their videogame knowledge; those and know it will play it for nostalgia.

i have so much nostalgia for this game, Time Commando was a product of it's time, it was part of the early-to-mid 90's 3D action games for PC on CD-ROM "push" with fast processing power on CD with higher quality music, graphics and runs full-motion CGI cutscenes (keep in mind this was in 1996 still during the CD-ROM craze). i got this game when i was young on my Win 95, and i was blown away at the time. i used to play this game a lot. my original disc stoped working when i got Win XP and i eventually tried the PS1 version, a solid port but the audio glitches and inferior controls made it difficult to enjoy when compared to original PC version. the plot takes place in the near future of 2020 (the same year i'm writing this!) in a high-tech military tatical center, when a super computer that can do combat simulations from any time period for military purposes, gets infected by a dangerous virus and protaginist "stanley opar" the S.A.V.E agent has to go inside the computer, go through virtually reality simulated time-periods and stop the virus before it's too late. it does remind me of "Tron" and "The Lawnmower Man" with a time-traveling twist. on the technical side this game didn't age very well, the stiff controls, low-quality pre-randered back-grounds, very liner, short lengh, old school FMV cut-scenes. it plays similar to the original "Alone in the Dark", but more polished, fast-paced, focuses on the action, less stiff movements and more playable. aside from that it's a very fun action game, you go through different time periods in chronological order from prehiostoric times all the way into the future, using weapons from that particulare period, sometimes finds secerts in those areas, the soundtrack is awsome fits the time periods very well, some peroids levels are better then others, "Medieval", "The Wild West" and "Modern Wars" comes to mind. very recommanded for old-school games.

Time Commando is one of those odd games that feels like a real trip back in time to an earlier era of gaming. First of all let me get the nostalgia I have for it out of the way. When I first played the demo of it back in 1996 it was an amazing experience and it did not take me long to buy the full game. Even today I can't recall another game since that offers fights with cavemen and future soldiers in the same game. The graphics are an odd mix between prerendered FMV levels inhabited by 3D modeled characters and objects most likely due to the limited power of the computers of the time. When this game came out few games had 3D models especially ones with animation. My only real complaint in this area is Stanley's - the player character - odd method of locomotion. He never runs and always jogs everywhere. Not helpful when you have a time limit! Sound is another area this game does well in. The music as others have said is fantastic and if you can get it working with the Gravis Ultrasound emulation then you're in for a treat. Now for the downsides. My biggest complaint wthis game is no doubt the camera. Whenever you advance through a level the camera (which is actually a predone FMV movie) moves ahead. Unfortunately this means that you can't backtrack. This can result in some annoying situations. If an enemy for example manages to attack you from behind the camera will advance potentially meaning that weapon you really wanted is now out of reach! The controls are also a bit clunky though passable. If you want to change them the game has options that let you do so. All said and done though it's not a bad game. The difficulty selection should please everybody - Very Easy is well, really easy and Hard is insane. If you're willing to forgive the flaws it has then its certainly worth playing through at least once.