Commandos 3: Destination Berlin

It's really a shame, compared to the amount of work put into the others. This usually only gets historically right what the others did. Yes, it's cool to visit Stalingrad, but when the authenticity ends at the visual presentation of it(no Russian spoken, none of the real SMGs from that region, and an unrealistic plot), what's the point? It feels like they included it for no other reason than that Enemy at the Gates was popular. And so was Saving Private Ryan, so the storming of the beaches of Normandy is here, too. Did I miss something? Does this series not have enough of a solid fan-base to get by sans love letters to the American audiences? Other countries fought in WWII, you know. And if you couldn't care less about how true something like this stays to reality, this still has plenty to criticize. It frankly comes off as rushed and underdone. The graphics, now all 3D(they don't feel that much prettier), are one of the few exceptions. This does do a better(read: perfect) job of limiting your means than the second one(now, you can pick much less up, in fact the inventory system is almost useless, they should have done it the Deus Ex way, with you clicking to search, and you automatically gather what you can use, that would call less attention to it and be invaluable in certain places), and is more challenging. There is now one difficulty setting, no choosing in that department. This is so short, I'd question whether it ought to really be full price. Yes, there are a dozen levels. Meanwhile, they just about invariably take little time to beat. And design of them(in other areas also) is great; however, far too often, you cannot see what you *have to* be able to. Couldn't they have fixed that? Instead, it got worse. If they had taken a brief break from eliminating and screwing up excellent features that were in the previous, maybe they'd have thought of helpful stuff, because there's very little new of it here. The two tutorials tell you nowhere near enough, especially if this is where you start playing these. Apart from not being very long, this tries to speed things up in the game-play, seeming like an action flick. I'm not saying it's not fun, it tends to be(it should be noted that when it's not, it's frustrating, and it's tough in the wrong way, by it being unfair and you having to make up for that), I am asking why they didn't go further in making it that? Too many things continue to take excessive amounts of time. And why the seldom use for several of the bad-ass additions? Yes, it rocks that the Green Beret can now grab machine-guns(!) right off of their tripods, and walk around with it, firing it, Full Metal Jacket-style. The problem? He barely ever can. And the jumping from one roof of a train-car to the next, again, *sweet*. It only happens in one mission! Same for the awesome knife-throwing of the Diver, and it is the most entertaining implementation of that that I've played in any video-game. I pity the Driver. Here he loses what was left of his identity, and is booted off the Commandos team. It's cut down, in this, a couple of others are sacked. Each of the three campaigns is a story-line in itself, without them engaging you at any point, or really getting resolved in a satisfying manner. Instead, there are continuity errors and gaping holes. There are hardly any cut-scenes, and they're all either in-engine or pre-rendered to look like they are(they try to wow you before anything else, anyway). The objectives are varied enough, and it sure would be nice if it was clearer what the conditions were(what happened? Sounding like a broken record here, Men of Courage *nailed* that). This takes plenty of shortcuts in production, and the interface is quite poor and clumsy interface. Saving is an example. The screen-shot is tiny(...honestly, *everything* is, why is that?), there's no date/time next to them, and it doesn't highlight, so unless you write a descriptive name *every single time*, good luck figuring out where you last stored your game, unless you do so less than you ought to, for this. Weapon selection is crap, you can sacrifice navigation for using the mouse to choose, or you can switch(taking forever) with the back and forth keys, which, incidentally, arms you immediately, so if you're running, your man will stop where he is, and slowly ready the rifle or whatever, even if you didn't need that one at all(that you were switching past, to get to the one you do need), or if you didn't need to use it then, and did it because you knew it would take time to go to the one you *do* need. And of course the Nazis face no trouble like that. Shooting too often completely misses the target, why is it so impossible to have it respond to you clicking directly on who or what you're aiming at? You'd think they'd fix by now. Four titles! Seriously. There are no bonus achievements, no ratings, and yes, the freedom in how to solve assignments theoretically offers replay value, and no, I don't see myself really playing this anymore. This doesn't have way-points, and hot-keys are locked in place and can work against you. The opposition are inconsistent in their responses, and alarms are there or not back and forth. AI is as excellent as always. The weather effects are excellent. Enjoy it. It's completely superficial. The map is a front-runner(it's got my vote) for "worst thing in the VG". It's small to the point where you can't see enough, it doesn't distinguish between "knocked out and tied up" and "patrolling/guarding merrily", only "alive" and "dead", and it doesn't rotate view when you do. Bugs/glitches are worse than before. Dialog is terrible(cussing is extraneous). I recommend this to big fans. 7/10