Commandosis a stealth-oriented real-time tactics video game series. The five games released between 1998 and 2006 are all set during World War II and follow the adventures of a fictional Allied commando unit. Each mission is loosely based on historical events during World War II to carry the plot. The series was developed by the Spanish developer Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The series has sold a total of 3.3 million copies and generated $41 million of revenue at retail.[1]
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (CBEL) was released on 1 July 1998. It was published by Eidos Interactive, and developed by Pyro Studios. It features 20 missions. The view is isometric with tactical gameplay. A Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, with the first 5 missions, was also made by Russian homebrew programmers, but lacked sound and certain other features of the PC version.
Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty, a set of new Commandos missions issued as a standalone game, was released on 31 March 1999. Despite it being much shorter than Behind Enemy Lines, it is a much more difficult game containing levels on a far greater scale to the extent of being comparable to those that were to be seen in Commandos 2. It has 8 missions, with locations including Yugoslavia and Greece.
A full sequel, released in 2001, was rebuilt with a 3D engine, more interactive environments, more skills for the commandos, and new characters. Like its predecessor, it drew heavily from war films and titled its levels in reference to such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Saving Private Ryan. The game received even greater praise.
Several new characters were added to the series in this sequel: a thief called Paul "Lupin" Toledo, a dog called Whiskey and Wilson, a shot-down pilot claiming to be from the Light Brigade.
This is the third sequel in the series and was released in October 2003. In this game the mouse wheel can be used to rotate the player's vantage point. It was the first in the series to use a true 3D engine, but the game was criticized for its short missions and lack of hotkeys.
Released during the first months of 2006, this game marks a diversion from the first three games. Although the missions are set up in a similar fashion (several different objectives, some to be achieved through stealth, others through use of force) and in most occasions the player is allowed to change between different characters, this is the first game in the series to apply a first-person perspective, similar to Medal of Honor or Call of Duty games than to earlier entries of the series.
Strike Force only has three Commandos, making it the only game in the series to have the least amount of playable characters. They are the Green Beret, The Sniper and The Spy but they are not the same characters from previous instalments; they each bear different appearances, names, and skills.
The game attracted an overwhelmingly negative reaction, especially from fans of the earlier games in the series who saw this as a massive modification, concurrent with a great reduction in the series' trademark difficulty. Similarly, it was promoted as mixing elements of strategy from the past games with traditional first-person shooter game-play but instead only hinted at them whilst being predominantly action-oriented. As a result, both critics and fans felt it did little to distance itself from the recent flood of similar games.
Following the discontinuation of the series by Pyro Studios, a couple of mods have been developed by fans. Commandos: Strike in Narrow Path is a stand-alone expansion for Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines containing 9 missions and was released initially in 2010.[2] Commandos 2: Destination Paris tweaks the gameplay of Commandos 2: Men Of Courage and adds over 100 missions to the base game.[3]
The series was acquired by Kalypso Media, which announced work on a new game in the series in April 2020.[20] In 2020 and 2022 respectively, they published remastered versions of Commandos 2: Men of Courage and Commandos 3: Destination Berlin for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with adapted controls for the consoles' gamepads.[21]
Right, turns out there was a leaked beta by a German group called Backlash in mid-late may 1998 (only shortly before actual release so not too many differences, for example the interface is like the final, not the screenshots posted here)
The differences are identical to the Chinese version, the reason being is that the Chinese release is this version, just with text translations to Chinese, all the mission differences are also present here, as well as the debug options, but the game is in English rather than Chinese.
Yes this was leaked only a few weeks before the game was finished maybe, there are quite a few differences from the final European and American versions, the Chinese release is this "beta" version but translated to Chinese, which kind of makes sense because in China there is no copyright laws so they could take a leaked game and release it for money without any problems, at least this beta is good in terms of debug options, i just hope we can figure a way to get the mission editor working eventually.
Those screenshots were obviously from earlier in the development, before that version was leaked, maybe from reviewers who got an early copy to review, I dont think any copy of those very early versions exist today, maybe only Pyro themselves still have it, I could be wrong though.
That secondary garrison originally had a door going inside the camp, also the alarm seems to be built onto the camp rather than being an exterior feature like in final, and the truck seems to be smaller.
Here there is a ju-87 stuka inside the camp, and some dogs, also the driver seems to have a weapon that isn't in the final, I think it's a machete but can't be sure. They should of kept a silent ability for the driver in my opinion.
The item in the driver's backpack is a wrench. I guess the driver was originally designed to repair (and maybe hot-wire) vehicles because some game files are named 'mecanico'. That would explain why the other guys of the team aren't able to drive a car or truck.
As i've said that version i uploaded to mediafire only has a few minor differences, it is still a beta version because it was leaked a few weeks before the game was released, it is just not a very early beta like on the screenshots.
If it's because you already have a copy of BEL installed, it will open that version still, to fix this, you need this registry fix which allows you to have multiple versions of bel (for XP and older, 8 and 10):
Ok, i understand my mistake, but still not the version youre showing in the images, so bad, that one is not avaliable to donwload. Was trying to find panzer 4 and the mechanic object to test, but there are same files than retail..
The crossbow and flamethrower pics are in the final version too if you activate them, although the flame thrower is not working properly, but the crossbow works, it acts similar to the divers harpoon, fires a little faster, but has limited ammo. It's also used in the Strike In Narrow Path mod.
Agent MB just sent me some more beta C1 pics, so thought i'd share these here. There are some BCD beta pics also. Some big differences it seems. Some are low resolution but better than nothing. I'm fairly certain that the bottom larger res pics are from the BCD demo previews if I remember correctly.
Having enjoyed the PC version of Commandos 2 so much last year, I've been eagerly awaiting the PlayStation 2 version, if only to see what Pyro could achieve within the limitations of the hardware. And with support for keyboard and mouse, this needn't be any less significant than its PC forefather, right? Right?
Commandos 2 is a terrifically complex game at the best of times. You control a pack of commandos, oddly enough, fighting with the resistance against the evil Nazis. The game is played from an isometric perspective, and you control each character individually, using them in tandem to solve problems, outwit guards and complete mission objectives. On the PC, it was a bloody difficult but ultimately very satisfying game. On the PS2, the learning curve is like that cliff Tom Cruise was climbing at the start of Mission: Impossible 2, and the satisfaction fails to displace the player's pent up frustration.
When I realised that there was no keyboard or mouse support in the PS2 version, I groaned. And I was right to groan, because relearning such an intricate control system on a totally different peripheral has cost me several long, arduous, profanity-packed hours of my life. Even the simplest of things, like switching between Look and Interaction modes, becomes a chore, and having utilised every imaginable combination of buttons on the pad, someone deserves a kicking for not simply allowing frustrated fans to plug in a keyboard and mouse.
Another area which has suffered in the transition between PC and console is the visuals. Of course the PC needed whopping great resolutions to provide enough detail to really get your head round Commandos 2, and the PS2 version is lumbered with about half the sufficient detail. This means that your characters are too small, and it's often quite possible to lose them in the scenery and only find them when they start drawing fire from sharp-eyed Nazi troopers. The camera doesn't help by behaving erratically, and given how much saving and reloading you'll be doing anyway due to trial-and-error, this only compounds your misery and frustration. I know how to complete most of the levels, and yet I found myself hurling the pad around in disgust on more than one occasion - what does that tell you?
It's a shame that Commandos 2 doesn't work as well on the PS2 as it does on the PC, but then it was never likely to. Graphical shortcomings and control issues aside, it's a good game, but I can't imagine anybody wanting to put themselves through the experience to siphon off the entertainment. As it is, tactical action fans should buy the PC version or buy something else - this is a courageous effort, but it doesn't really work on a console.
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