View All (7)

Sadly, it’s attempts at being challenging only contribute to make the game less accessible to players.

Real-time strategy is dying. There, I said it. Maybe you agree. Maybe you don’t. It doesn’t matter. There hasn’t been anything significantly fresh in the genre in a long time (I am talking Age of Empires long time) and I don’t see anything coming down the pipeline that will change the situation.

I am not saying the genre will go away any time soon, but the amount of resources publishers put toward it will continue to dwindle, especially considering that RTS has not ported well over to the consoles, which without a doubt are the money makers for publishers.

With that out of the way, I can address Micro Commandos. Part of the game’s problems are the genre’s problems, so I will leave it up to you to hold final judgment.

In an arena that does not offer much in the way of growth and innovation, you cannot expect something revolutionary from a midlist publisher. Monte Cristo has made some decent games, but it is obvious from the start that this game intends to be a run-of-the-mill RTS game, and that’s exactly what it is.

The story goes like this: a group of aliens, some tiny little guys, have designs on taking over the world. Right here is the whole problem with this game in encapsulated form. It is cookie cutter.

I mean, what group of aliens do not want to take over the world? The good thing is that you get to control these guys, instead of trying to play hero and combat them. You have to help them find the ultimate weapon which will help them achieve their goal.

In standard RTS fashion, you gather resources to build little villages throughout several different areas. RTS fanatics may love this sort of resource management, but I really feel sometimes that resource gathering is nothing more than what you have to do to earn some fun. I’ll get to the whole fun thing later. There are some interesting elements to the resource management here, particularly how and what you have to gather. Nothing terribly innovative, but, like I said, it is interesting.

We have crossed the threshold into 3D RTS games. For a while, the logistics of a 3D RTS were debated, and some people thought they just wouldn’t work. Well, they do, and sometimes, they work pretty well. One of the strongest suits of this game is the graphics.

They are colorful and crisp, and certainly add a nice feel to a game that you might otherwise expect little of. They aren’t first rate, but they are close, and I offer kudos to Monte Cristo for paying attention to detail here. If graphics are important to you in an RTS, then you will be fairly satisfied here.

But, it is not graphics that make a good RTS. At the end of the day (or the beginning, depending on what your gaming schedule is like) what really matters is the gameplay. I think any of us that play these games look for the same skeleton underneath a different skin. We want that classic Command and Conquer gameplay transferred onto different environments.

We want to build our forces in preparation for a massive offensive assault to crush our enemy. Unfortunately, that build-up never really occurs here. There is just not a feel or sense of what the purpose of this game is. There is no cause to rally for, no big battle for which to be prepared. You do all of this resource management and never really get rewarded for doing so. It is quite interesting for a time, but there is no payoff. This is a major problem.

The other issue is the fact that you need the manual even after the tutorial missions. Nothing is clear enough for you to instinctively know what to do with which unit. You surely can’t dive into this game and succeed. Instead, you’ll be numbed into frustration by units that just don’t seem to do anything.

I usually dive into a game myself and learn on the job, so to speak. I usually do fairly well with this method. I failed miserably here, and, if I weren’t reviewing the game, I would have uninstalled it. That’s not to say that the game is that bad, it’s just that it is a bit more complicated than it has to be.

The fit and finish of this game is nice. There is an overall feeling of quality in the menus. The camera works well. The sound, though tinny at some times and absent at others, overall is fairly good. What I am saying here is that there is nothing glaringly bad about the game. As a matter of fact, there are several good things about the game.

Unfortunately, the things that are wrong are important. Like I said earlier, I don’t really blame the developer for this, but rather the genre. Micro Commandos might have a cookie cutter story, but it does have potential. Sadly, it’s attempts at being challenging only work to make the game inaccessible to players.

Reviewed by John Misak, PC Gameworld.