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It's 1943 and the battle of Stalingrad has turned the tide of the war against the Nazis. In an attempt to bully Turkey to join the Axis, the Germans have trapped 2,000 British troops on a Greek Island. Two high calibre German guns embedded in a massive cliff wall bunker control the area of sea around the Greek island and therefore the fate of any sea rescue. The British muster a 6 member squad of British Commandos to blow up the Guns of Navarone. Using help from the local resistance, the team work their way from the beach, up a 400ft cliff and into the bunker. The squad uses stealth to sneak up on the Germans so that they can knock them out and tie them up. One member has an excellent aim and snipes targets from afar. Another soldier rigs the starter explosive on the massive guns and lights the fuse.Using the classic war film The Guns of Navarone to represent Commandos Battle Pack gives a remarkably accurate depiction of the tactics that players will be able to use in Feral Interactive's latest game. Commandos Battle Pack captures the spirit of this film brilliantly; a small group of specialist soldiers manage to triumph over impossible odds. The game even has a recurring British theme throughout the game, enhancing the similarities with this classic war film. Of course, there is one important difference between Commandos and The Guns of Navarone. Instead of merely being able to watch Gregory Peck and David Niven infiltrate a Nazi stronghold, you get to do it yourself. Knock out the guard, snipe the officer, set the charges. All from the comfort of your Mac. Commandos Battle Pack is the first time any of the three Commandos games have seen the Mac. The last one, Commandos 3, was released on June 2003 for the PC and received acclaim within the press as the best of the series. To reward Mac gamers for waiting so patiently for this series, Feral decided to get the rights to the last two games in the series and sell them for the price of one game. Commandos 2: Men of Courage and Commandos 3: Destination Berlin are both included in the Battle Pack on one DVD. To make sure no space was wasted on the disk, there are five high quality desktop images included. In a nice touch, one of desktop images is concept art for a Commandos Movie with credits given to the Feral team. Surely it can only be a matter of time before a Hollywood studio snaps up the rights to make a blockbuster of this WW2 series. Whether or not the Feral team will play a starring role remains to be seen! The missions within Commandos 2 and 3 stand out as among the most challenging of any game on the Mac. A vast majority of the time you play as the thief or spy you'll spend watching the German guards and their patrol routes. You'll need to be patient in negotiating danger areas because guard patrol patterns can often change, scuppering all previous plans in the process. Checking their line of sight and crawling is often an effective way of avoiding detection. There is always a choice of options when encountering enemies and the game rewards players who are patient enough to try a variety of solutions to particular problems. The ability to play as different characters increases this freedom of choice. When multiple characters are available to you, it is possible to take different tactics that would not be possible in a traditional one-player one-character game. For example, you can use the Thief's excellent climbing ability to climb up onto a balcony to knock out a guard and tie him up. This allows the Spy to sneak up to another guard without being detected. Then the Spy can put him to sleep with an injection and take his uniform. This uniform gives the Spy access to an embassy where he can distract guards and allow the Thief to sneak in and steal important documents. Switching between characters is executed flawlessly which keeps you immersed in the game.
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