Commandos 2: Men of Courage

Did You Know?

• The remastered version removed all Nazi symbolism from the game.
• The game was bundled with Commandos 3: Destination Berlin in the Commandos Battle Pack by Feral Interactive in 2005.
• The remaster received mixed reviews due to poor controls, underwhelming up-res, and heavy censorship.

Gameplay

In Commandos 2, the player directs a squad of commandos, each with distinct skills, through twenty-one missions: two training stages, ten story missions, and nine bonus missions accessible after completing story missions if the player finds marked books. Missions have main and secondary objectives, including securing escape routes and locating supplies, with briefings outlining most goals while others emerge from completed objectives. The player controls a subset of commandos, sometimes gaining additional ones by contacting or rescuing them. The original six commandos return with improved abilities: the Green Beret can climb telephone poles, traverse cables, jump from windows, and carry containers; the Sniper can use poles as sniping positions; the Spy can direct soldiers as an officer and use a syringe to daze, knock out, or kill enemies; the Diver throws knives and uses a grappling hook for walls or tripwires; the Driver sets lethal and non-lethal traps; and the Sapper uses a mine detector to find and disarm land mines, and can set mines against infantry and vehicles.

Plot

In May 1941, commandos Paul Toledo and Natasha Nikochevski capture an Enigma machine and codebook at a German submarine base in La Rochelle, France. Toledo stays with the Enigma while Natasha leaves, and the other commandos arrive to rescue a Royal Navy submarine crew, destroy anti-aircraft guns and a torpedo warehouse, and escape via submarine. In the North Sea, the submarine is forced to surface after depth charges, the Enigma is confiscated, and the crew captured except for Blackwood and Hancock. After rescuing the crew, the commandos recover the Enigma and disable the destroyer's guns and fire room. O'Hara and Duchamp fly away in a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch while the rest escape by submarine. A year later, in the Pacific Theatre, the commandos rescue a spiritual leader in Burma and assassinate a Japanese tyrant with Gurkhas. On June 17, 1942, in northern Thailand, they rescue Colonel Guinness, who helps destroy the bridge over the River Kwai as a Japanese high command train crosses. In July 1942, on Savo Island, they disable artillery guns with help from a castaway named Wilson, rescue a downed pilot, and escape via a Kawanishi H8K after stealing a gold monkey statue.

Development and release

Commandos 2 was developed on a budget of roughly $7 million. It released for Microsoft Windows in North America on September 20, 2001, in the United Kingdom on September 28, and in Australia on October 5. PlayStation 2 versions followed in 2002 and 2004, and Xbox versions in 2002 and 2004. A Mac OS X port, developed by Zonic and published by Feral Interactive, was released on June 3, 2005, as part of the Commandos Battle Pack compilation. A remastered version, Commandos 2 – HD Remaster, developed by Yippee! Entertainment and published by Kalypso Media, released in 2020 for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Reception

Commandos 2: Men of Courage saw over half a million copies shipped at launch and landed in the top five of retail charts across major markets, yet Eidos reported it sold below expectations and contributed to an £11 million quarterly loss. By September 2002, sales had exceeded 500,000 units. The PC version earned a Silver sales award from ELSPA in the UK, a Gold certification from VUD in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and a Platinum prize in Spain for over 80,000 sales in its first year; the PlayStation 2 version sold 40,000 units in Spain. On Metacritic, the PC version scored 87, making it the highest-rated Spanish game on the site, with generally favorable reviews, while console versions received average scores. Critics praised the PC version’s advanced AI but noted its steep learning curve, and found console controls less intuitive and more difficult. GameLive PC named it the best strategy game of 2001–2002, and in 2021, GQ España called it one of the best Spanish-made games ever.