Capcom Digital Day 08: Hands-on with Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3[Update]

10:36 AM on 03.13.2008   |   Hamza CTZ Aziz

10 comments

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 is yet another revival of a classic old school franchise that will be coming out from Capcom later this year. Commando 3 plays out similarly to its predecessor as a top down arcade shooter game. The re-release brings with it a fresh art style and best of all, three player co-op.

Pew pew pew the jump to find out what I thought of Commando 3 and check out the gallery for some of the first screens for this game.

[Update: Added the above trailer.] 

The wonderful Flynn DeMarco from Kotaku joined me in our quest to stop the evil General Ratiev, leader of the Zalestad nation. The game is up to three players online or offline and you will have the choice between Roy "Wolf" McMurray, Fox and Antonio "Coyote" Carranza as your character. Each character has different stats to them, such as Fox being the fastest out of the group.

The gameplay reminds me of a cross between Contra and Gauntlet Legends. You start off with your weak ass weapon, and as you progress through, you'll be able to get upgrades such as shotguns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers and more. You'll have grenades, which you can actually aim exactly where you want to the grenade to be thrown at. The three characters also have a special attack which when activated, and after a brief cutscene takes down everyone in the vicinity. Other weapons include weapon emplacements such as stationary machine gun turrets scattered throughout the levels.

The levels will also have vehicles that all three players can jump into. One of the players will drive and mow down the enemies while the other two will shoot it up. Vehicles will include jeeps, tanks and a few other rides of destruction. 

The grunts that you face throughout the levels really reminded me of Gauntlet. The will keep coming at you if you stay at a spot for too long and you have to destroy their bases/barracks otherwise enemies will keep popping out to attack. This is usually a good spot though to rack up some score multipliers.

I did enjoy Commando 3, but I did have a few problems with it. For one, I found it difficult to get used the shooting system. Shooting is based off of the right analog stick and whichever direction you point the stick, the character will fire. It makes perfect sense to use this control scheme for this type of game, but I just really found it hard to get used the Xbox 360 joystick for this type of a game. 

I also have a love hate relationship for the art style. I did enjoy the cut scene art style as they were reminiscent of Elite Beat Agents, but the Team Fortress 2 style of art for all of the in game stuff just didn't work for me. With something like Commando 3, I would expect to see a realistic feel to the game like a normal war shooter.

Granted, the last part here is something I can get over. I keep saying there aren't enough co-op games in the market and I can overlook the small negatives just to be able to play with two friends. Plus, it helps that the Street Fighter II HD Remix Beta is coming along with this.

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will be out for the PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE this spring for $9.99/800 Microsoft Points.