Commandos: Origins
{{Short description|2025 video game}}
{{Infobox video game
| title = Commandos: Origins
| image = Commandos_Origins_cover_art.jpg
| developer = Claymore Game Studios
| publisher = Kalypso Media
| platforms = {{ubl|PlayStation 5|Windows|Xbox Series X/S}}
| released = April 9, 2025
| genre = Real-time tactics
| series = Commandos
| modes = Single-player, multiplayer
}}
Commandos: Origins is a real-time tactics video game, developed by Claymore Game Studios and published by Kalypso Media for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows. Aimed as a revival of the Commandos series, acting as a prequel to Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998) by telling the story about the formation of the Commandos team, and their work during the war between 1940 and 1942.
The game was updated with better graphics, much larger maps, and new features, including one allowing players to plan and execute multiple actions simultaneously, with co-operative online play included for the game's campaign mode.
Commandos: Origins was released on April 9, 2025, where it received mixed reviews from critics, receiving praise for level design and multiple ways of completing objectives, but with questions over its gameplay mechanics.
Gameplay
Commmandos: Origins is a real-time tactics game played from a third person isometric perspective, in which players control an elite squad of specialists who are tasked in each mission to complete a set of objectives focused around sabotaging or eliminating key targets. The player controls an elite squad of specialists who are tasked with infiltrating military complexes to carry out their missions. Players must rely on using stealth tactics, avoiding enemy's cone of vision or eliminating them silently to progress.{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/commandos-origins-refreshingly-brings-back-the-stealth-tactics-marriage|title=Commandos: Origins Refreshingly Brings Back the Stealth-Tactics Marriage|first=Alessandro|last=Fillari|work=IGN|date=March 14, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=April 7, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250407030653/https://www.ign.com/articles/commandos-origins-refreshingly-brings-back-the-stealth-tactics-marriage|url-status=live}} The game features six different classes: the Green Beret, the Sapper, the Sniper, the Driver, the Marine and the Spy, each of whom has their own unique abilities and gadgets.{{cite web|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/commandos-origins-revives-the-real-time-stealth-tactics-classic-next-year|title=Commandos: Origins revives the WW2 real-time stealth-tactics classic next year|first=Matt|last=Wales|work=Eurogamer|date=October 10, 2023|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=April 6, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250406140714/https://www.eurogamer.net/commandos-origins-revives-the-real-time-stealth-tactics-classic-next-year|url-status=live}} Maps in the game are large and sprawling, and provide players with multiple entry points to approach their objectives.{{cite web|url=https://gamingbolt.com/commandos-origins-everything-you-need-to-know|title=Commandos: Origins – Everything You Need to Know|first=Stuart|last=Glover|work=Gaming Bolt|date=March 25, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025}} Players can briefly pause the game, plan out the moves of several squad characters, and executing them simultaneously. Each map has multiple optional objectives for players to complete. The game features a two-player cooperative multiplayer mode.{{cite web|url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/commandos-origins-looks-to-revive-the-classic-stealth-tactics-series-in-2024|title=Commandos: Origins looks to revive the classic stealth-tactics series in 2024|first=Gramham|last=Smith|work=Rock, Paper, Shotgun|date=October 7, 2023|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=April 6, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250406140134/https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/commandos-origins-looks-to-revive-the-classic-stealth-tactics-series-in-2024|url-status=live}}
Plot
In June, 1940, Thomas Hancock, a skilled sapper, is recruited to form a new unit called the Commandos, involving several talented individuals. Travelling to Egypt, he recruits Sergeant Jack O'Hara, an Irish strongman who is skeptical of his plans, but provides assistance to Hancock in sabotaging an Arctic weather station. Hancock later recruits Francis T. Woolridge, a skilled sniper, and assigns him and O'Hara to assist British forces recapture a fort on the Egyptian-Libyan border. The three men later prove the effectiveness of their unit by destroying a rail bridge on the German's Eastern Front in Poland.
In September, 1940, Hancock recruits Australian diver James Blackwood, and assigns him and Woolridge to travel to Norway and investigate the sudden loss of communication from a Norwegian resistance group. The pair learn the Germans captured its members and so rescue them, aided by French spy Rene Duchamp. Although he escapes with them, Duchamp refuses to leave the country, stating he is seeking a group of officers from a German unit known as Speerspitze. Hancock laters leads an assault on a German radar outpost in Guernsey, and recruits Samuel Brooklyn, an American specialist in vehicles and heavy weapons, who assists O'Hara and Woolridge in sabotaging German defenses at an African mine before an Allied assault to capture it.
In January, 1941, Hancock leads a team to Norway to sabotage German weapons manufacturing, aided by Duchamp who asks for their assistance in assassinating two officers from the Speerspitze. Duchamp joins the commandos on the hopes of finding other members of the unit, and assists a team in sabotaging defenses at the port of Saint-Nazaire, France, prior to an allied raid with the HMS Campbeltown. Hancock later leads a team to sabotage a hidden desert airstrip in Africa, later deciding on whether to call in the RAF to bomb the site or do the work for them. Despite the success of their mission, Hancock learns from headquarters that O'Hara was captured during a mission.
Against the orders of his superiors, Hancock takes his team to a German military base in Zeitz, Germany to rescue O'Hara. After providing a path for Blackwood, Woolridge and Brooklyn, Hancock agrees to an audacious plan by Duchamp to have the Germans prepare O'Hara for execution, rescuing him by ambushing his killers and causing confusion across the base. The team then help O'Hara kill the base's commander, before they later escape. The team later sabotage weapons projects in Norway and Germany, before finally uncovering the location of the Speerspitze leader. Travelling to their refuge in the Alps, the team eliminate him, leading to Duchamp to finally agree to join the commandos, after Hancock proudly calls him a friend.
Development
Commandos: Origins was developed by Claymore Game Studios, a studio founded by Kalypso Media's co-founder Simon Hellwig in 2020. The studio's primary goal was to revive the Commandos brand and modernize the franchise. The decision to avoid auto-saving in the game was intentional, as the team wanted to give the liberty for players to decide when they want to save and when to take risks. The game is a prequel, with its narrative focusing on how the six soldiers meet each other and become a team. The team was inspired by a number of films and documentaries, especially stories which involve an small but elite team turning the tide of an entire campaign or war. The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and Inglorious Basterds (2009) were cited by the team as sources of inspiration.{{cite web|url=https://store.epicgames.com/zh-Hant/news/commandos-origins-preview-jurgen-reusswig-interview|title=Commandos: Origins aims to bring back a long-dormant but legendary franchise|first=Jason|last=Rodrigeuz|work=Epic Games Store|date=March 26, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025}}
In July 2018, Kalypso Media revealed that they had acquired the rights to the Commandos franchise from Pyro Studios, which developed the first four games of the franchise.{{cite web|url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/15/17573412/kalypso-commandos-acquisition-pyro-games|title=Kalypso picks up the Commandos tactics series, promises to bring it back with new games|first=Owen|last=S. Good|work=Polygon|date=July 15, 2018|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=March 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240309135739/https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/15/17573412/kalypso-commandos-acquisition-pyro-games|url-status=live}} The game was announced in October 2023. It was released for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S on April 9, 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/stealth-tactics-game-commandos-origins-will-be-out-in-april/|title=Stealth tactics game Commandos: Origins will be out in April
|first=Jody|last=Macgregor|work=PC Gamer|date=February 10, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025}}
Reception
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The game received "mixed or average reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic.{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/commandos-origins/|title=Commandos: Origins review|work=Metacritic|accessdate=May 5, 2025}} In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 30 out of 40.{{cite web|last=Romano|first=Sal|date=May 14, 2025|url=https://www.gematsu.com/2025/05/famitsu-review-scores-issue-1898|title=Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1898|website=Gematsu|access-date=May 18, 2025}}
Luke Reilly from IGN felt that the game managed to strike "a great balance between the classic stealth tactics games and modern streamlined ideas", and added that maps and objectives in the game provided ample opportunities for creative eliminations, and players must plan their moves carefully in order to succeed.{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/commandos-origins-review|title=Commandos: Origins Review|first=Luke|last=Reilly|work=IGN|date=April 9, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025}} Sam Chandler from Shacknews called the game an "exceptional revival" of the franchise. He praised the levels in the game for their diversity and their sandbox-like design, adding that the game "does a tremendous job of never feeling tedious, despite how long it can take to finish a mission".{{cite web|url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/143819/commandos-origins-review-score|title=Commandos: Origins review: Courageous, dutiful, glorious basterds|first=Sam|last=Chandler|work=Shacknews|date=April 9, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=April 9, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409105348/https://www.shacknews.com/article/143819/commandos-origins-review-score|url-status=live}}
Ed Smith from PCGamesN wrote that the game was "meticulous, difficult, and demanding", calling it a "high-stakes, high-intensity RTS where even the smallest action can feel meaningful". However, he felt that the game was "overdesigned", and that the "abundance of mechanics squeezes out improvisation or raw energy" of the premise.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcgamesn.com/commandos-origins/review|title=Commandos Origins review - RTS gaming at its most intense|first=Ed|last=Smith|work=PCGamesN|date=April 9, 2025|accessdate=April 19, 2025|archive-date=April 9, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409150031/https://www.pcgamesn.com/commandos-origins/review|url-status=live}} Edge praised the game for reimagining the franchise with modern visuals, though they felt that the game failed to push the genre forward with any new or innovative gameplay mechanic.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{official website|https://www.commandos-game.com/}}
{{Pyro Studios Games}}
Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games
Category:Real-time tactics video games
Category:Video games developed in Germany