Commandos: Strike Force -- first look

Logan Booker chats to Pyro Studios' Inigo Vinos on the developer's classic strategy title remade.

Pyro Studios, founded almost eight years ago, has a long history of producing awesome strategy titles. Its most famous, Commandos, has a massive fan base, a fan base made of some of the most hardcore strategy players the gaming community has.

With that sort of a fan base to placate, Pyro has no plans to let that legacy die. Using Criterion's RenderWare engine -- the same technology found in Rockstar's impressive Grand Theft Auto series -- Pyro has been hard at work developing Commandos: Strike Force, the next iteration in the Commandos series.

The game, which turned many casual gamers into strategy addicts, makes its return with a surprise difference: no longer is the title an isometric, turn-based squad game, but a first-person shooter, set right in the belly of World War II. According to Inigo Vinos, Marketing Manager for Pyro Studios, Strike Force has been in development for a year and a half, the team working hard to get the game ready for a simultaneous release on PC, PS2 and Xbox in June next year.

Vinos is currently in Australia promoting two of Pyro's upcoming titles: Imperial Glory; an epic strategy that looks to be a blend of Shogun: Total War and Civilization; and, of course, Strike Force.

We were able to get a short glimpse of gameplay from an early build of Strike Force -- and it looks terrific. Anyone who thought RenderWare was only good for GTA-style games will get a rude shock when they experience what Pyro has done with the technology. From what we saw, it was very capable of rendering sharp, coarse textures of road pavings, bricks and wood, to the pasty flesh of Allied troops and their German counterparts.

Strike Force allows the player to control three characters -- in some missions you play just one character, in others, you have to use two characters to complete a level, switching between them to take advantage of their unique skills.

So, what characters do you get? Vinos explains that the player will get to control a variety of character types, including: a soldier, capable of wielding dual weapons and taking heavy punishment; a spy, who can equip the clothes of officers to blend in with the enemy and, last but not least, a sniper, who can take out opposition from a distance using his rifle.

One especially gorgeous effect was a 'hold breath' feature that is available to the sniper. When activated, the game slows down to a crawl and the player's view becomes blurred. The effect lasts momentarily, but while in this mode, it's much easier to shoot accurately.

If the extensive single-player campaign wasn't enough, Vinos was quick to point out that PC users would have access to a 16-player online and LAN mode, while Xbox and PS2 users should be very happy with an 8-player online/link mode. All in all, Strike Force looks sure to please -- whether you're a fan of the series, or just first-person shooters.

Logan Booker
Senior Writer
Atomic Magazine

Want more? We'll be covering the incredible-looking Imperial Glory in an upcoming issue of Atomic. Keep an eye out for it...