The Royal Marines Commando

Developed by City Interactive, The Royal Marines Commando was supposed to be another successful first person shooter, presenting an exciting event of World War II, when a small group of brave soldiers managed to accomplish a critical mission against all odds. Lacking a strong storyline and a solid idea to back it up, with second hand visual effects and a couple of bugs that hurt the entire gameplay, it's most unlikely that this title will become more then a mediocre FPS.

The Royal Marines Commando has a rather short and flat storyline involving some secret German tests for developing a new generation of U-Boats that could give the Nazis an overwhelming advantage, ultimately deciding the war in their favor. As a marine you are ordered to recover plans, rescue captives and interrogate German officers to prevent the enemy from completing the project, so you'll find yourself travelling to different locations in Europe and make a short expedition in Africa to destroy a certain mine.

Shifting from one country to another after each mission insures that there are a couple of interesting settings, who succeed in creating the proper ambiance to help the gamer getting immersed into the war atmosphere. In the opening act I've had the pleasure of discovering a hidden small home cinema where the German soldiers were projecting some air combat films, or in the more fancy apartments owned by the high officers of the Wehrmacht you can even hear Wagners' Ride of the Valkyries playing on the radio.

Enemies are clever enough to take cover behind a table but unable to keep all their body out of sight, so you'll frequently encounter foes that seem unaware that half of their body is exposed to enemy fire. The result is both funny and disturbing because you'll quickly get bored of shooting these sitting ducks and raising the difficulty of the game won't help either so those patient enough can easily take them down one by one, simply exploiting these flaws.

Furthermore, enemy soldiers don't have a very good memory either and will sometimes forget that you were shooting at them just a couple of seconds before, returning to their routine as soon as you retreat behind a corner. Unless one of your teammates sprints ahead into the enemy infested room you'll have the upper hand and clearing each area is merely a formality. Unfortunately your companions are not very helpful, because when they are not shooting at invisible targets, have a suicidal tendency of standing in front of you even if this brings them in the middle of a firefight.

Whenever a Nazi soldier succumbs under heavy fire he'll drop dead in a very entertaining way and the results can sometimes be downright hilarious. It appears that the corpse has suddenly transformed into a statue, resting in some of the most unlikely positions you'd expect from a dead body; another bullet might solve this issue returning him to a more familiar posture though. Bodies can be dragged or pushed around by simply shooting a round of bullets at them and they'll leave a trail of blood, but if we take a closer look to their faces there will be no scars, even after receiving a shotgun bullet.

The marines are using an impressive arsenal to deal with enemy troops and there are no less than four guns available for each mission, including a pistol which is virtually useless due to its lack of accuracy and firepower. This is in fact the most common problem for all the guns in Royal Marines Commando, with the bolt action rifle being definitely the best choice even if you are bound to use it inside buildings. Machine guns and shotguns lack accuracy and are not a good solution for clearing a fortified position but they compensate with a high rate of fire and the damage they inflict is good enough to stun a whole squad of hostiles.

Enemies also drop weapons and ammunition once they are killed so despite owning so many guns it's most likely that one will use just one weapon due to ammunition restrictions. Being equipped with the heavy machine guns, a pistol and a couple of grenades doesn't seem to have an impeding effect on your movement speed and sprint is a very helpful feature to use when running into a firefight. Speaking of grenades, I must state that except for the frag that has a limited effect, the smoke ones are useless and the only reason to use them is to make the game more interesting and dramatic.

Conclusion:

Without being a huge FPS fan I've always appreciated a shooter with a World War II flavor, so I was more than willing to give this title a chance and expected to have a pleasant and challenging experience while reviewing it. Unfortunately I couldn't help but feeling that this is nothing more than a low budget Call of Duty rip-off, with similar weapons that look and function badly, teammates that are more of a nuisance and enemies that can't offer a serious challenge because of the weak AI.

Gameplay:

If The Royal Marines Commando would have a compelling and cleverly designed story capable of preserving the player's interest, the fact that the entire game can be completed in just 3-4 hours, would probably upset the enthusiast gamer. Since it's obviously not the case and the entire adventure is boring and uninspiring, the short time needed to get the job done should be regarded as a bonus, which unfortunately can't help it get high scores.

Graphics:

Suffice to say that the characters both in game and during the cinematics are nothing more than walking advertisements for misery, looking more like zombies than actual people, with many sharp edges and unnatural moves. The irony is that the German soldiers look much better even after you shoot them in the head from less than a meter, too bad they all look alike, except maybe for the officers but since they are quite rare in the four hour campaign, it doesn't really matter.

Sounds:

Without being impressive in any way, the music is decent and creates an appropriate atmosphere but it fails to build any tension in crucial moments, being downright annoying when it tries to do it and fails. Sounds of guns being fired and the explosions, remotely resemble the real thing, while the German and Italian accent used by the enemy troops announcing the imminent danger is decent.

Multiplayer: N/A

Hardware:

For what it has to offer this game doesn't run very well and although there are no crashes, when you fire your gun the frame rate drops greatly and you even experience a form of lag and for a first person shooter this problem should be regarded as a pretty serious one.