Commandos 2 - HD Remaster Review for Steam

The 2001 classic: Commandos 2, was remastered in HD by developers Yippee! Entertainment and Pyro Studios, and published by Kalypso Media on Steam. The original game has a loyal fanbase, and at the HD’s announcement, many were excited for its eventual release. However, despite the former game’s high praise, many disparage the remaster as an unnecessary addition to the series. But as I never played the original myself, I did not experience the same disillusionment.

For those new to the series, Commandos 2 is a real time tactics game set in World War II. You follow a squad of commandos deep into enemy territory as they complete behind the scene objectives for the war. The player controls different members of the squad. Each person has different specialties for the player to take advantage of. The player’s objective is to covertly complete missions using the environment and supplies at hand.

Upon entering the game, I immediately knew I was in for a unique experience. Often times old games that are popular enough for a remaster have several similar games to them in the modern era. But in the case of Commandos 2 – HD Remaster, I knew I had never encountered anything like it before. The closest comparison I could make would be to RTS games like Starcraft or Age of Empires, but Commandos had an ultra focus on a few select units rather than the broad battlefields of traditional RTS games.

The way Commandos 2 – HD Remaster presents its levels feels like puzzles for the player to pick apart. You are dropped down into a unique environment and have to analyze the situation at hand. Players could factor in how to use the telephone wire as a means of crossing a barricade. They can toss a distraction to pull enemies away from a specific location, or bait the enemies closer in order to neutralize them. In a way, it felt like Hitman before Hitman even came into being. It was incredibly satisfying to decipher a level’s efficient way of solving.

Commandos 2 – HD Remaster’s complexity is clear and respectful of a player’s capabilities. A pet peeve of mine is when games hold the hands of a player and deny them any added challenge of discovery. Commandos has just enough of a nudge to indicate what direction to go, but not too much of a handicap that I still felt like I was accomplishing something when I complete a challenge.

My biggest gripe with the game had to be the amount of control I felt I had. The controls and character movements felt incredibly stiff. I realize the stiffness can be attributed to its age as a game, but I also felt that there should be better ease of control when switching between characters. Gameplay could sometimes feel slow when controlling one character at a time as they crawled from location to location. Upon further research, I found out that the original version had many quality of life controls that the remaster does not.

Overall, Commandos 2 – HD Remaster is an incredibly good game and I feel it deserves the reputation attributed to the original. Upon release of the remaster, the game was filled with bugs and missing features that the original had; But the developers are continuing to update and improve from that initial release. It’s for these reasons I rate Commandos 2 – HD Remaster:

7.5/10