Ludography
64/100
Players35 ratings
69/100
Critics4 reviews

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Commandos: Strike Force cover

2006 · Pyro Studios · First-person shooter · Shooter

Commandos: Strike Force

Commandos: Strike Force is a first-person shooter video game and the fifth installment of the critically acclaimed Commandos series. It is developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive.

Released
2006
Platforms
PlayStation 2WindowsXbox
Genres
First-person shooterShooterWorld War II
Developers
Pyro Studios
Publishers
Eidos Interactive
Series
Commandos
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
First personThird person
Themes
ActionHistoricalStealthWarfare
Engine
RenderWare
Country
Spain
Age ratings
ESRB TPEGI 16

About

Commandos: Strike Force is a first-person tactical shooter video game and the fourth installment of the Commandos series. It is developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive.

Released during the first months of 2006, the game makes a departure from the first four games. Although the missions are set up in a similar fashion (several objectives, some to be achieved through stealth, others through use of force) and in most occasions the player is allowed to change between characters, this is the first game in the series to apply a first-person perspective, like many other World War II-inspired games, in contrast to the overhead view of the earlier games. Hence, the game is far more similar to the Medal of Honor or Call of Duty games than to earlier entries of the series.

Keywords

  • world war ii - ww2
  • steam
  • class-based
  • hostages
  • artificial intelligence
  • tank
  • airplane
  • explosion
  • digital distribution
  • bink video
  • polygonal 3d
  • escort mission

Media

Commandos: Strike Force screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player is required to complete a number of objectives in each mission. Throughout the missions, the player will make use of either one or two of the three members of the Strike Force. Each Strike Force member has particular weapons, tools and talents suited to their role. The Green Beret can wield Pistols akimbo and heavy weaponry.

The Sniper use scoped rifles and throwing knives and is the only one who can swim in freezing water. The Spy can use a silenced pistol and gas grenades (provided with a gas mask) and wear any uniforms acquired to fool lower ranked soldiers.

Story

The game is split between three campaigns in France, Norway and the Soviet Union during World War II. The first campaign takes place in occupied France in 1942. The Strike Force commandos consist of the British sniper: Lieutenant William Hawkins, London's Green Beret: Captain Francis O'Brien and the German (But not Nazi) spy and leader: Colonel George Brown. The commandos assist the French resistance to secure a village, but are forced to evacuate when their positions are compromised by a double agent (O'Brien suspecting that it is Brown). Brown aids the resistance in a town by taking out all targets of opportunity and liberating a medical doctor.

The next campaign takes the commandos to occupied Norway, as they find out that the Nazis are attempting to win the race for Nuclear fission, so they fight through a port town and several guard posts in the water, in order for them to move the explosives required to destroy the secret facilities. Under cover of darkness, the commandos launch a surprise attack on the Nazi-occupied town of Shundein, as it was also part of the route the explosives truck must follow. After a long battle, the enemy is repelled from the town.

Development

Pyro Studios was briefly considering a Commandos 4 game, but ultimately decided to introduce their franchise to console systems by creating a first-person shooter. Taking players' frustrations of the previous games into consideration, the company decided to balance the difficulty elements to their new game. They chose not to base the missions and levels on historically accurate events to make the game design flexible, while deriving some elements from the previous games in the series.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Fans of the earlier games in the series felt that Strike Force lacked the trademark difficulty of the previous games. Similarly, it was promoted as mixing elements of strategy from the past games with traditional first-person shooter gameplay, but instead only hinted them while 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. In Japan, where the PlayStation 2 version was ported and published by Spike on 21 September 2006, Famitsu gave it a score of two sevens and two sixes for a total of 26 out of 40.

The game sold poorly overall, but received an award for sales of at least 40,000 units in Spain.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Xbox17 March 2006Europe · North America 4 April 2006
Windows17 March 2006Europe · North America 4 April 2006 · Australia 21 April 2006 · Worldwide 15 March 2007
PlayStation 217 March 2006Europe · North America 4 April 2006 · Japan 21 September 2006

Editions and related releases

Included in
Commandos: Complete Collection
Follows
Commandos 3: Destination BerlinCommandos 3

In the same series

Games like this

Collections6 collections

Platform libraries

Genres

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.