Commandos 2 and Praetorians HD Remaster Bundle Review on Xbox

Commandos 2 and Praetorians HD Remaster Bundle are real-time strategy games that are almost 20 years old which have now been given the HD treatment and are making their way on console. All reviews (unless stated otherwise) are based on the Developer/Publisher providing myself with a review code, which i am grateful for, but does not influence my outcome.

For Commandos 2 the premise is that you are a small crack team of commandos taking on a series of ever harder missions, utilizing each characters unique abilities to their fullest effect. Praetorians is all about war-like missions with you controlling specialized army units, with an emphasis on tactical formations to crush the opposition.

Commandos 2 boasts 10 missions, 10 unlockable ones, 2 training missions, all across nine interactive locations based on Authentic WWII scenarios with 9 unique commandos, each with specialized skills. Praetorians boasts over 24 campaign missions set in Egypt, Gaul and Italy, three different armies and maps that utilize different terrains and landscapes, to tactically control the battlefield.

Gameplay

Being a fan or the original I’m lucky to have a memory of the how the game played on pc, and one of its many charms was the ability to tackle any maps missions how you choose, using the specialists available. The main aim of this game is take said commandos and using tactical timing, split second decision making and their unique skills to maneuverer your commandos into completing tasks, and I can tell you it is proper old school fun. Translating that over to console is never going to be an easy task, but here I feel as if developer was rushed into completing some areas.

The controls for instance do have a nice visual overlay if you want to understand what each element does, and there is a good selection of quick tips on how different characters work. It just that it doesn’t feel complete. For me, understanding the characters special abilities and how they work was more akin to trial and error rather than an explanation. That’s not too bad if you have history of the game, but those new will find this frustrating. Another issue is the clicking where you want your character to move too, or action to complete, is a bit buggy as well as it doesn’t always want to do what you ask. For instance on a training mission I wanted my thief to scale back down a telegraph pole, but he wouldn’t do it no matter how hard I tried, till I realized that the hit box was off and I had to back away for me to get the option to do said movement. In the middle of gameplay, this could have serious consequences as you may get spotted or loose your grip and fall. You see this game doesn’t have a pause function, its old school, so timing here is critical on ever thing you do.

For those that are new, the freedom to use these characters anyway you choose is the bulk of the fun of Commandos gameplay. The Green Beret can stealthily dispatch foes and hide under soft areas to get the drop on enemies. The Sapper is an explosives guru who can employ grenades to take out clusters of troops. The Sniper is of course good at taking out enemies from afar without seen. The thief can loot supply crates and pickpocket enemies, perfect for gain access to new areas of the map and the Seductress can keep enemies engaged. Then there is the Diver and the Driver which are pretty self explanatory, with the last being the Spy who can disguise himself as an enemy soldier to infiltrate locations or poison troops. There is something satisfying combining all these together and watching the enemies fall under your perfectly laid plans.

Now during my playtime I did come across bugs, that when researched are remnants of the original that still hasn’t been fixed. On mission two, I could get a cut-scene to pop and after a bit of searching found I had do a particular task with a specific character in order to make it work, thou I will admit these are rare. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy my time replaying this classic, I did, it was that the current bugs, some even new, did hamper the experience. Which for me, it is a shame as I feel this game needs new gamers to experience on how us old folk used to play with Real timed tactical games to understand but also allow them to enjoy current iterations. Another big hit to the game is the removal of co-op, which I do miss, as this was a great addition, that for me at least, was a core factor of the game.

Praetorians gameplay on the other hand feels a lot more polished and in turn for me was the better game in the bundle. The campaign focuses exclusively on the Romans narrative, with the two other factions, the Egyptians and the Barbarians, playable in the skirmish mode. Praetorians differs from your typical RTS formula of building your base, gathering various resources, as well as managing your army. The game solely focuses on unit tactics and strategies. Army units are trained in a garrison which you need to build in a town or village, with a commander unit required to be there to oversea this recruitment. Then you take said army units and use them to conquer the surrounding enemies using each units specialized formations to win the day.

Careful understanding of each units abilities is paramount. For instance the Spear units have two formations, one which is perfect at close combat units and one that is great for countering mounted units. Being over run by horse units from the front, set them to a mounted formation, with maybe another unit set to close combat should the enemy switch tactics. Factor in that you can also choose which direction to place your units and you can see how quickly in-depth things can become. This is only the tip of what you can do with there being about ten specialized units for you to play about with to ensure the perfect army combination of defense and aggression.

Another key element in the game is how terrain comes into play, as maps have been designed for you and your enemies to use specific locations in dominating the battlefield. For instance, high ground is perfect for archers, and if you build a tower on that, you can gain even more range on attacking enemies. Or why not keep a heavily armored squad hidden within trees to attack any unsuspecting force making it way towards you. Some terrain can’t be traversed by particular units, which could be very useful by either side, when setting out strategies. There are counters to all these elements like scouts for hidden units etc, and it will require you to slow down and plan carefully if you wish to succeed in your mission.

Skirmish is where you can really play with the in-depth tactical elements freely and with three different factions, that provides a lot of fun. All three factions have unique basic and specialized units with differing strengths and weaknesses. Romans don’t have the best cavalry, but have strong infantry and Legionaries. Gaul units are expensive to recruit with Berserkers and Warriors being strong offensive units but have little to no formations. Egyptians are cheaper to recruit and regenerate stamina faster, but lack in strength. They do have cavalry and chariots that can be churned out quickly, which compensate for their soldiers being weaker.

Overall, I found myself enjoying the gameplay of Praetorians more, due to all the features of the original being kept and a control system that was smooth and worked well on console.

Graphics

Commandos graphics are lovely to look at, and those that have played the original will see a visual improvement without a doubt. However, I must say for an authentic WWII game, there has been some heavy censorship, with a lot of the Nazi and Japanese iconography being removed from the game. This in turn make the game missions loose that authentic WWII look and in turn makes them look like they could be set in almost any time period after WW1. Map locations look crisp and gorgeous with the new visuals, however I did notice that some elements have been missed. On pc you could get multiple windows of your commandos, allowing you to monitor several areas at once, here they are also removed. And I did notice some heavy pop-ins here and there, plus the opening fmv scene stuttered more than car with a blocked exhaust, even on the Xbox X.

Praetorians visuals are also suitably upgraded and even though the maps themselves are a little bare early on, they do hold up extremely well. Here though, I found almost no pop-ins or graphical errors and general army movement was as smooth as butter. Overall textures are pretty good, despite the models being noticeably low-poly, and no new elements added. I would have liked to see a increase in foliage and surface detail, as this would have made the ground look like more effective, than a simple overlay on a flat surface. Even the FMV sequences show off the games age, but to be fair it doesn’t distract from game itself, and unlike Commandos was smooth.

Graphically both games have been only had a HD upgrade to ensure the history of the games visuals are retained, with focus on re-using a lot of assets, like models and sounds from the originals, while improving textures and lighting.

Sound

Commandos sound is pretty much spot on, thou again I did find the odd bug where sound went missing or just didn’t play. Overall though the authentic enemy voices and hearing your commandos banter each other brought back a nice nostalgia feeling that really helped with engagement.

Similarly Praetorians sound is exactly like the original which in terms of today, which means the music is a bit repetitive, though the voice acting is pretty good. Nothing as far as I can tell has been changed so don’t expect anything to wow you in the sounds department.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the bundle:-

Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Commandos 2 and Praetorians HD Remaster Bundle is "On Sale".

This really is a visual bundle with nothing new or elements added that will ensure its long term playability once completed. It will help some new gamers experience old school games, which paved the way for more the modern RTS and RTT found today. Are they fun still, yes, hard but still fun.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £34.99 or approx $40, and depending on skill and patience would give you about 60+ hours worth of gameplay to potentially clear the both games campaign missions. Combine this with a multiplayer element with 2 other factions on Praetorians, and you do have a good amount of hours.

For me though the clear winner is Praetorians, with Commandos bugs and heavy censorship, really bringing the package down. Id personally recommend buying Praetorians on its own or wait for the bundle to come down in price to about £25 or $30. That being said I am excited for Commandos 3 and what elements they have learnt from the remasters and how that will translate into the next generation.