Upon first glance, Capcom's newly released sequel to the classic arcade shooter Commando appears to be a rather progressive title. It flips the script by swapping the order of the title and its colon-accompanying subtitle, and even offers a female character to play with. Longtime fans should not get too worried, though. For all its forward thinking, Commando 3 is an unabashedly classic arcade shoot 'em up.
There is some semblance of a story involving a dictator bent on world domination, but it is really just a lame excuse to toss you into five levels of top-down shooter action. You begin the game by choosing from one of three characters, each with their own levels of health, speed, and number of grenades they can carry. From there, the game delivers exactly the kind of non-stop explosion-filled experience you remember from the original. It is essentially your basic two-stick shooter, similar to a vertically scrolling Robotron on steroids. The same easy-to-avoid enemy fire trickles through the screen toward you, and you have the same objective as before - kill them all and blow it all up.
The weapons and the look are about all that has changed. You start the game with your same trusty machine gun, a never-ending supply of bullets, and a handful of grenades. Crates found throughout the levels drop one of three different weapon upgrades, boosting your gun's abilities. Though there are only four main weapons, each plays differently enough to keep you interested in cycling through them at each passing crate for their own strengths and weaknesses. The other weapon improvement found here is the inclusion of the 'M-Crash', which is essentially an earthquake-like burst that kills all on-screen baddies. They are limited to a few per character, but reset if you die; making most boss battles much easier. Unfortunately, the grenade throwing mechanics have not gotten much of an upgrade on this outing; again forcing you to throw them only ahead of you for a predetermined distance.
Though the game does add vehicles to the mix, your enjoyment of them will largely depend on how you are playing the game. Those playing as a single-player experience will find the vehicles a complete disaster. The awkward steering, making it a chore to drive through the winding parts of the levels, turns out to be a small issue. The real problem is that you can only shoot in the direction the car is facing, which seems strange given the game's slick two-stick controls for the rest of the level. The clunky steering only exacerbates the issue, leading you to slam headfirst into many a wall while trying to mow down the opposition. Still, the vehicles are your best bet to max out the multiplier system, since enemy bullets hit the car rather than those in it.
The clunky use of vehicles in the single-player campaign really underscores the game's design as a multiplayer experience. Jump in that same vehicle with a friend, and one of you can manage the steering while the other operates the 360-degree firing weapon on top. Though the game is playable as a single-player offering, it is loads more fun when played with others. The game allows for up to three players, either over Live or on the same console. With three different characters to select from, smart players will jump on one of the two male characters quickly. The woman character may be faster, but has a much smaller health bar to compensate. It may seem like a small issue, but when the three players are sharing lives in an attempt to complete the game, it will lead to some cursing in your direction if you keep spending them.
Though the game does not balance the enemy difficulty or numbers for the three player experience, they make up for it with the shared lives concept; making it relatively tough to complete more than a level or two on the hardest setting. Having three players chewing up valuable screen space with characters and gunfire makes it much harder to keep track of enemies and their oncoming fire. It never gets too hectic to handle, but you will definitely want to keep a closer eye on the screen when tackling the game as a trio.
None of the game's five levels is extremely long, but the difficulty makes sure you remain challenged at all times. Those looking for replay value will find it in terms of the four, increasingly challenging, levels of difficulty. The handfuls of enemies on-screen at a time make up for some lackluster enemy A.I., which occasionally leads to a baddie following you along as if part of your team. The game's classic feel carries through to the game's lack of continues. If you die, you have to start the game all over. Thankfully, the game is good enough to make you want to try again repeatedly.
The title and menu presentations receive a chunky art style similar to that of Kevin Smith's Clerks Cartoon series, which gives the game an irreverent, silly feel. In game, the art style shifts to resemble a top-down view of Team Fortress. The far-off distance of the camera angle and the soft, washed-out color scheme makes for a mediocre visual experience. Thankfully, the fast pace of the game keeps you from caring too much. Unfortunately, though you will love the fast-paced action, the game does not quite feel the same, and suffers from occasional slow-down and frame-rate sputtering at least a couple of times per level. Fans that tried playing the game on their Commodore 64 will likely chalk it up to nostalgia and move on; as it is nowhere near as severe as with the original and never gets in the way of your enjoyment.
Wolf Of The Battlefield is the kind of title that feels right at home on XBLA. Though it is not a perfect experience, gamers looking for a solid two-stick shooter to blast through with a couple of friends could certainly do much worse; especially since the game's length makes it possible to blast through in one sitting, if you are good enough.
