Worth playing? Worth the $29 this week at Best Buy?

Absolutely. It's awesome. Some have complained that it's "too hard," but really, all you have to do is read through the manual and give it a good hour of practice and you'll start to get it. It's a challenging game--not an unfair one. It looks great, has an excellent soundtrack, and the missions and huge and interesting. I've wrote a long review for GameSpot which provides a lot more detail.

--Greg

I'll back Greg on this (though I haven't read his review... and won't until mine is finished) Commandos 2 is a fine game for anyone with a mind for strategy who also doesn't mind repeating vast missions to get it right.

It's unforgiving, frustrating, and hard as hell... but it's supposed to be. It's designed to be. And you do have the tools at hand (the manual) to get you through it. Thus far I've completed a couple missions and I almost burst with pride when I nailed that third one on the first try.

There's something to be said for extreme difficulty... when done well.

Anyway, after playing through the frustratingly dull Pool of Radiance and the frustratingly frustrating Throne of Darkness, the frustratingly fun Commandos 2 has been a tonic.

-Andrew

>And you do have the tools at hand (the manual) to get you through it.

I have to disagree. People who didn't play the first game are going to have a hard time figuring out what the hell they're supposed to do. The "training" missions are anything but; there is no on-screen help, no arrows telling you what to do, etc. There's the little notebook, but that's no substitute for a good tutorial, especially for a game as hard as Commandos 2.

I agree that it's a fun game, but it really needed a better tutorial.

Maybe so William. But the manual, coupled with the tutorial, brought me up to speed quickly enough.

Honestly, the tutorial is no worse than most tutorials out there (which is a "bad thing", I agree), but any players who bother to read the manual will probably be ok.

Case in point. Me. I never played Commandos prior to installing this game.

-Andrew

I enjoyed the first Commandos, but the truth is that it does require a good deal of patience. Some of the reviews questioned whether it was a strategy game or a puzzle game, and that's a good question to ask before you buy it.

It's true you will replay many mission over and over to get it just right, but you also have access to a save feature, which helps you keep your progress. In the first game there were a few opportunities to do missions in ways the designers probably didn't intend, it it was always a hoot finding short cuts, rare though they were. How's the second game on being more open ended?

Agreed with William, it's insane that the game calls them "tutorial missions." It's like tossing a baby into a pool and calling that a swimming lesson. A step-by-step, narrated tutorial would have really helped the game, to be sure. Its interface is actually pretty slick, and once you get the hang of it you can pull off some great moves. But it takes a while to get there. Still, it's well worth the effort.

You'll see two kinds of opinions about Commandos 2: One, that it's an excellent game (I'm in that camp). Two, that it's too hard. Those are the people who couldn't get passed the learning curve, which is too bad for Commandos 2, and too bad for them.