The Brueghelian spectacle is topped off with a Fieseler Storch ski plane parked to the North and an observation balloon tethered in the East. Guards are everywhere, watching, patrolling, pausing to chat besides doorways or watch as walruses frolic in frigid pools. A snowball's throw from the captured sub is a frost-rimed Kriegsmarine destroyer and a makeshift polar camp of huts and tents. Your lone starting character begins in the belly of a British submarine, that, damaged by depth charges, has been forced to punch its way to the surface through Arctic ice. Wherever you look, there's the promise of adventure. Like a diorama crafted by an endearingly over-enthusiastic military modeller, this pocket- handkerchief level is cluttered with the eye-catching and the extraordinary. 'White Death', C2's blizzard-blasted third map, is one of my very favourite game levels. While, on reflection, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive was, thanks to its more sophisticated orders system and sharper AI, probably a better game than Commandos 2: Men of Courage, the atmosphere and intricacy of Pyro Studios' 2001 hit still takes my breath away whenever I return.
Disaster was always one mistimed sprint or poorly concealed corpse away often you played with one finger hovering over the 'hurl dagger' key and another poised above the 'quickload' key. Using a small team of scurrying specialists you tiptoed your way across maps, creating diversions, eliminating guards, and rifling bodies. Tragically short-lived, fiendishly tricky and often improbably pretty, this close-knit family of games combined hand-painted isometric backdrops with stealth-orientated tactical thrills. In the midst of blacktop-softening summer heatwaves, I'm often to be found skimming Alpine glaciers, trudging behind snow-caked Tiger tanks, or - courtesy of brilliant Commandos 2 level 'White Death' - artfully strewing fag packets on achingly artistic Arctic pack ice.įor the benefit of those readers who don't have to trim nasal hair yet or scroll the 'year of birth' list in online forms, Commandos 2: Men of Courage was an example of a strategy sub-genre that slipped ashore by moonlight in 1998 and, after memorable visits to the Old West, Sherwood Forest and various far-flung corners of WW2, paddled back to a waiting submarine circa 2006. In the depths of winter, I like to thumb my dripping nose at rapacious energy companies by relying on digitized deserts and jungles for background warmth. I suspect I'm not alone in using games as climatic counterweights.