It perfected the balance of fiendish gameplay and rewarding puzzles, sharpened up the visual presentation, and wove a beautifully detailed narrative through a series of variegated missions that never felt repetitive or stale. Pyro Studios already had a very good game on its hands with the original Commandos and the excellent Beyond the Call of Duty expansion, but 2001’s Men of Courage marked the pinnacle of the company’s output. Unlike legions of gung-ho WW2 shoot-em-ups, 'Commandos' rewards stealth, cunning, and guile

Those traits are both visually apparent and functionally important, and they make each protagonist feel organic and real. The explosives expert is slow and deliberate, the reformed thief is sprightly and agile, and the big muscly dude can take a lot of damage. Instead of a one-man army, you get a crack squad of artfully differentiated commandos whose strengths and weaknesses contribute real depth to the gameplay. Unlike the legions of gung-ho WW2 shoot-em-ups that have you blasting through waves of identikit baddies, the Commandos series rewards stealth, cunning, and guile. For a game with an almost cartoonish art style, Commandos 2: Men of Courage happens to be one of the most visceral and realistic recreations of the Second World War.

Commandos 2 men of courage