Released back in 2001, Commandos 2 is a classic real-time tactics game that is very near and dear to most of the PC gamers of the early 2000s. The Commandos franchise was one of the best tactical games of its time and everything about the game was just perfect. Fast forward from 2001 to 2020 and now we have a brand-new HD Remaster of the Commandos 2 that is ready to take us back to the WW2 era with modern, upscale visuals. The HD Remaster of Commandos 2 has been developed by Pyro Studios and Yippee Entertainment and published by Kalypso Media. This is our review of the PS4 version of Commandos 2 HD Remaster in which we try our best to sneak around Nazi-infested military installments and sabotage their plans.
Commandos 2 is a top-down RTS game set in the WW2 era where you command a small group of tactical commandoes dropped deep within enemy lines and carry out various stealth and espionage missions. You are heavily outnumbered, there are no reinforcements and your commandos will not survive a lot of fire damage. This makes each mission extremely dependent on stealth, careful use of your commandoes’ unique skills, and other items that you find in the maps. Each map is beautiful and big and offers multiple ways for you to execute your mission. It all depends on you on how you want to proceed and how long with you be able to remain stealthy in the mission.
The upgraded HD resolution is probably the most prominent feature of the new HD remaster. While the visuals are pretty much the same as that of the original title, the much higher resolution certainly adds to the fidelity and everything in the game looks a lot better naturally. The character faces have new, improved designs and the animations are much better as well. However, the enemies and other assets in the game look pretty much the same but in much higher resolution. Other notable visual improvements include somewhat higher foliage here and there and improved textures and reflections on the water. Apart from the outdoors, indoors have massively improved thanks to higher resolutions as the jagged lines outlining doors and walls are not pretty smooth making the game much more appealing.
As you fight with enemies, the gunshots and explosions have also gained some new textures and effects and look more natural now. Since this is simply an HD remaster, there are no new effects or details in the game and most of the assets have simply been enhanced to look better on modern consoles. These changes might not be obvious right away but if you put the remaster next to the original title in a direct to direct comparison, the remaster certainly looks much, must better, and more appealing to play than the original one in many ways. Under the shiny visuals, the game still packs the same level of difficulty and strategy-heavy gameplay that will put you through a tough challenge.
If you have been playing a lot of the original Commandos 2 game, one thing you will notice instantly is that the new release of Commandos 2 is a heavily censored game. All Nazi flags and symbols are now gone from the game. While it surely felt good spamming Nazis back on the original game, this lack of actual representation simply makes you believe that you are simply shooting some random military enemies in a generic shooter. The removal of major symbols from the game is a big surprise and something that I did not anticipate before jumping into the game because the game was indeed set against the Nazis during the WW2 era so removing the flags and symbols does not make any sense.
While the HD Remaster certainly serves its purpose or looking good, when it comes to gameplay and controls, the console release of Commandos 2 massively suffers. While consoles have always been a weaker platform for strategic titles due to lack of a proper mouse, Commandos 2 is unable to tackle this problem as well. While most of the controls such as items, weapons, and skills use a ‘wheel’ system, the camera and commando control remains the major gameplay breakers of the game.
Your weapons, skills, and items are all allocated to a button and pressing the button with allow you to use that item, skill, or weapon but if you want to change them, you can hold the same button to open a wheel and switch to the item, skill or weapon that you require. This is a pretty convenient mechanic and it quite easy to get used to. You move your commando around with the left joystick which again is pretty nifty as it provides more control than using arrow keys or WASD keys on the PC version. You also have your trusty notebook with you that details all of the mission objectives that you have to complete in order to finish each mission. Inventory management is pretty simple and you can access your inventory anytime by pressing up on the d-pad. The controls are pretty straightforward however you really have to learn them before you actually start focusing on the gameplay.
However, my main concern was using the camera and selecting and moving around the commandos with all of them selected at the same time. The camera is assigned to the right joystick and the R1 button. While pressing the R1 opens the mini-map, holding the key grants you access to different advanced camera features such as changing the camera angle, zooming in or out or simply viewing the battle from another angle. You can also set the camera to lock in on your commando by pressing the R3 which brings the camera back to the commando if you move around the entire map. Using these little buttons, you can work around the camera and find the perfect fit for you however with a game like Commandos, you are always moving the camera around, tilting it, zooming in and out, or changing the viewing angle all-together for a different view of the battlefield. This makes using the camera tedious in linger gameplay sessions and particularly hectic intense sections which are most of the game.
You can also highlight items or enemies during the advanced camera mode. While nearly all of the features have found their way into Commandos 2, using them is pretty complicated and for the first few missions, you will be messing up a lot as certain scenarios require quick decisions and movements which is extremely difficult while playing on a console with no mouse. The same goes for combat. While on PC, you have a separate key for everything in your inventory but due to key limitations, you cannot have that on a console and to remedy that, you have a wheel system in place in which you have to use the wheel to quickly switch to required items. While this mechanics is pretty smooth, it still adds time for each activity, and sometimes you end up messing things up just because an enemy has suddenly spotted you while you are still accessing the wheel for the required item or skill.
Apart from these major concerns, the game is still filled with plenty of small bugs and problems here and there that require some quick fixing. It took me plenty of tries to complete the latter missions in the game and my first playthrough was full of different errors and mistakes because I was still adjusting to the controls or the game specially the camera control. While the PC players take mouse and keyboard for granted, playing such games on a console is certainly a skill that very few players can actually master, and mastering the controls and mechanics of Commandos 2 HD Remaster is certainly nothing short of a great feat. Once you get past the clunky controls and camera control, Commandos 2 HD Remaster has all the juice to make it a great tactical strategy game that can keep you coming back for more.
Final Verdict:
Commandos 2 HD Remaster is a brilliant way to replay this brilliant strategic shooter on modern PCs and consoles however something doesn’t feel right playing it on consoles. While it still features the same level of strategy and brutal gameplay that we used to love playing back in the early days, sadly on consoles the gameplay lacks in many different ways. To top it all off, the controls are not that efficient despite having all of the buttons right at your fingertips. The visuals are a decent, upscale version of the original title so nothing much has changed in terms of visuals apart from a few new animations here and there. I would highly recommend that you play it on PC and since the game is not that demanding, you can easily play it on a normal laptop as well. If you do not have access to any sort of a PC and you really want to play the HD Remaster, only then opt for the console version because it is not the best way to experience this game.
Final Score: 6.0/10
