Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty

Just about every good game gets an expansion pack or a sequel, not just
because it's profitable, but because it's easy. The good idea's already
there, and the existing technology can be recycled to make a game that
feels comfortably familiar but with new and exciting content. Recent
expansion packs like Starcraft: Brood War, as well as sequels like Myth
II and Fallout 2, all bettered their predecessors. But Commandos:
Beyond the Call of Duty, a standalone expansion to Behind Enemy Lines,
ends up feeling like a shadow of its former self, being both shorter
and more frustrating than the original.


The original Commandos was a surprise hit. It cleverly combined
strategy, puzzle, and action elements with great graphics and an
all-too-apt subject matter, and while there was some debate over just
what kind of game it was trying to be, most found its demand for
planning and precision to be both unusual and exciting.



At a glance, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty is more of the same,
with a few new bells and whistles. But the fact is, you can have too
much of a good thing. The original Commandos was a great game because
each member of the squad was highly specialized. A couple of them, the
Green Beret and the spy, ended up doing most of the work, but that was
OK, because the others like the marine and the sapper got their moments
in the spotlight. In Beyond the Call of Duty, though, each character
gains the ability to throw a stone or toss a pack of cigarettes as a
means of distracting the unassuming enemy. Likewise, every commando can
now force a captured nazi to do his bidding, so long as the hostage
remains within the range of the commando's sidearm. The hostage can be
used to distract his comrades, so that one of your squad can sneak past
or sneak in for the kill. These new abilities are fairly interesting,
but the fact that every commando has them clouds the sense that your
soldiers are working as unique and complementary components of some
perfectly tuned machine. The commandos' roles become less clear, and
with that, some of the game's appeal slips away.