The RTS(real time strategy) genre has made it to Live Arcade with the release of Commanders: Attack of the Genos. For 800 points (roughly $10) you can download the full version. The question that I will try to answer in this review, is whether or not Commanders is worth the dough.
The game is set in a 1950's alternate past. The human genome has been cracked, and humans have created a race of uber-humans. This brings fear to everyday run of the mill people and soon war breaks out between the Humans and the Genos.
The gameplay is true to the genres roots. I was immediately reminded of Command & Conquer, which is a good thing. Like C&C, units in Commanders consist of infantry, armor, air, and so on (no naval units though). A couple things set Commanders apart though from the classic RTS. First units only attack when ordered to do so, unlike C&C's perimeter auto attack. Secondly, Commanders (as the name implies) is all about which commander you choose to use in each battle. Each commander has a unique look to their unit, and a unique special ability to use in battle.
Content wise, Commanders delivers on a level much greater than your average XBLA title. Commanders comes with two difficulties of a text story based campaign, as well as 10 open battle maps, and 4-player online PvP play. There are two endings to the campaign, and you will be hard pressed to get the good ending.
The graphics and art style of Commanders are also above average for a Live Arcade title. Metal objects look metallic, and explosions are well...explosive. It's obvious that a few "next-gen" graphic techniques were used in development. The art style is 1950's sci-fi. The command units will immediately bring to mind the softback cover of the 1950's H.G. Wells book "War of the World's".
If you are an RTS fan, and need a worthy fix, then you should give Commanders a look. For $10, this RTS will keep you playing for hours.
Note: I gave this review an extra .5 for being a full featured game at a third of the price.
Carlos writes "It’s been a great month so far for the backwards compatibility scheme on Xbox One, but this week may just be the busiest week of all since its introduction. 10 more Xbox 360 titles have made the generational jump and are now playable on Xbox One, so let’s take a look and see if they are worth returning to once more."
And its part of EA Access, hoping they put 2 and 3 in the Vault so I can replay those aswell, never beat 3 Co-Op
xbox is killing it with backwards compatibility. but they'll STILL find a way to downvote any xbox-positive comment into oblivion. N4G is completely infested with Sony fanboys lol smh
While I agree with your comment about BC being a great thing, I downvoted you because of your fanboy comments about Sony. I own both the XB1 and PS4 and enjoy both of them, and really appreciate that MS has worked so hard to bring 360 games to the XB1.
@ superchiller: my comment was about N4G not about Sony. so i'm going to give your reading comprehension a downvote.
Nice job turning an Xbox positive article into a whine about fanboys. You are as bad as the people you whine about, dude.
@ Razzer: i'll just say something like "phil spencer is doing a great job" & it'll have 50 downvotes for no reason... if somebody says "Phil Spencer, more like FAIL Spencer... amirite?" it will have 50+ upvotes & top comment. if you're pro-xbox, commenting on N4G gets annoying after awhile. you already know what people's opinion is going to be. PS4 = good. / XB1 = bad. no matter what good xbox does, its never good enough for them. it got so bad to the point where i had to address it. so i did.
same, that and resonance of fate, magna carta 2, eternal sonata, fable 1, maybe even star ocean 4.
Gamereactor caught up with Southend Interactive's CEO and co-founder Anders Jeppsson to talk about the first ten years of Southend's existence and how they transitioned from a small team making games like Deathrow (Xbox, 2002) and working on XIII (Xbox version) to their current projects Lode Runner and R-Type Dimensions for Xbox Live Arcade.
Gfx of Deathrow were very good back then. Unfortunately it had no online (just like Halo1) cause XBL didn't even exist back then.
A deathrow2 could be a success, but from the interview i get there won't be a dr2
'With a plethora of Xbox Live Arcade games available you would think that every genre would have been covered, well for those strategy fans among us there was still a gaping hole in the XBLA line-up, until now. Commanders: Attack of the Genos is a turn-based strategy game developed by SouthEnd Interactive and Published by Sierra Online.
Players familiar with this genre will be right at home with the setup of Commanders, you have a designated base which is used to build various units whilst collecting resources to fund the manufacture of more units. These units all have their strengths and weaknesses ect, infantry are strong against other infantry but susceptible to scouts, elements which must be taken into account when moving around the field. Movement is based on a grid system, the map is basically made up of little squares with each unit designated a set amount of points for either movement or attack (or both).
You will find the basic premise used by many turn based strategy games here but where Commanders differs is in its application of the commander unit (go figure). The commander unit has both an active and passive power, these powers are unique for each commander, with numerous commanders becoming available throughout the campaign. After the commanders battle gauge is filled they can unleash their specialized powers, selecting the right commander is paramount to a missions success..."
This looks like it could be a fun little game. I'm really pleasantly surprised at how many strategy games are making it to 360. I can't wait to buy Civilization Revolution after playing the demo.
