I was a huge fan of the Commandos series from 1998. In fact, it was one of the first games I’ve played on my first computer. It’s one of the games that made me fall in love with video games.
The stealth gameplay, the ability to take control of characters with different abilities, and combining their strengths and weaknesses to complete a mission was quite exhilarating.
I felt the same way playing Desperados 3. Clearly, the Commandos series has inspired many of the best features in Desperados 3.
I even noticed that some of the dialogs in Desperados 3 was quite similar to the ones in Commandos. “Coming right up, sir” is a popular one.
Desperados came out just around the time when Commandos was released. Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive was released in 2001 on PC. And it was the beginning of the popular real-time tactics series.
Desperados 3 is the latest installment in the series. And it takes the gameplay to the next level. Desperados 3 acts as a prequel to the original game. And takes place in the wild west setting. Sort of like Red Dead Redemption 2.
The game lets you play as 5 different characters with different abilities. And it’s your job to combine their strengths to complete the missions. The best part is you get to go at it in your own style. You can go guns blazing or take the stealth route.
Of course, these are all the basics you already experienced in real-time tactics games. Desperados 3 also comes with a few other special features that make the game fun to play.
The game has a new feature called The Showdown mode. It allows you to hit pause on the game in tense situations to plan your next move. Which I found to be pretty awesome and useful.
There’s another interesting gameplay tactic that the game introduces that gives you the option to kill off enemies and make it look like an accident.
By using objects on the map, like mine carts and horses, you can make accidents happen. So that when enemies get killed, others don’t get suspicious. This was a unique aspect of the game that I really liked. It encourages the player to be more creative.
The game also has some amazing graphics and environments that make it even difficult to concentrate on the mission at hand. And I say that as a good thing.
Having said that, I should also mention that I played the game on PS4. I enjoyed the game a lot but didn’t get around to finishing it. Mainly because I didn’t get to enjoy it to its full potential with due to the struggle with the controller.
While you can also enjoy the game on console, I strongly believe Desperados 3 is better experienced on PC with mouse and keyboard. Just like how I used to play Commandos. It’s just how these games are meant to be played.