This was such a nice surprise. It really is a beautiful game to look at, with engaging characters, fun game mechanics and more variety than most tactical games. Different playstyles of non-lethal and challenges increase the replayabilty.
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Game plays like a charm, quality UI and mechanics, nice stylized graphics, smooth gameplay. Fans of Commandos or Desperados can give this game absolute highest scores.
Groundbreaking return of original Commandos-like genre. Better in every (!) aspect in comparison with original games (Commandos, Commandos 2, Desperados, Robin Hood, Chicago), which means 1) better level design, 2) smooth modern gameplay, 3) smarter A.I., 4) important story line.
Some things you need to know:
1) The loading screen says it may take "up to a minute." What it's really going to do is take SEVEN (7) or more minutes. In return for this ENORMOUS load time, quickloading (QL) takes about 10 seconds each time. Unfortunately you will be QL a lot. Many times I would QL, play for just one second before making an error, then have to spend 10 seconds QL again. Imagine repeating this a dozen times until you stop screwing up. QS saves everything about the game at the time you hit the button, including your camera angle, currently selected ability, currently selected character, etc.
2) The bugs in this game are minor. I've had a few where my characters would stop playing their movement animations but would otherwise behave just fine. However if you give them move orders to the same position you'll notice your characters bump into each other frequently and impede each others' progress.
3) It took me three days to beat every mission once. Missions are made to be replayed at least 3 or 4 times each, to achieve every challenge. If you're a completionist you'll have a good month of gameplay here.
4) You can select multiple people at once by dragging a box with RIGHT click. RMB. Not LMB.
5) Characters' selection hotkeys are fixed. You will regularly be given a selection of characters who are not conveniently labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. If this bothers you you will need to rebind the selection keys.
6) You will often be clicking on things you can't reach because they are on different height levels.
7) This game has some kind of eye tracking software support. It's not TrackIR but it's something similar. I have no idea why they have it.
This game would have been vastly improved if instead of QS and QL they let you rewind or jump back in time up to so many seconds, like you see in Achron. Something to keep you in the game and not staring at a QL screen multiple times a mission.
Gameplay is solid; story and OST are forgettable. Play for the gameplay.