Reviewed: May 4, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
Sierra
Developer
Southend Interactive
Released: February 13, 2008
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-4
7
7
7
9
7.5
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Take a carton looking turn based strategy game and add in an alien warfare flavor with easy to use controls and you get Commanders: Attack of the Genos. Commanders gives some pretty good game play and great smooth action for a decent price on the Xbox Arcade for some fun strategy gaming.
Using a decided cartoon look with an art deco theme you pit your wits against the computer or others on Xbox live in a turn based strategy game. The game does the genre well and combines plenty of other game styles and types to create a well combined and good playing turn based strategy game.
Going through the tutorial gives you an idea of the game play and how the controls work as well as the background to the entire universe of Commanders. The alternate take on how the Genos and Human Armed Forces came about and the entire story is another science fiction standard of genetic manipulation and the warring of two mind sets.
The Genos are the bad guys from the standpoint of the campaign and you have to build your forces to fight them off. Each mission will have a main goal with a few other requirements, usually things like a certain unit has to survive. The main goals are a building block to the next campaign mission and make for an easy to understand game instead of a large tutorial and then a big mission.
Units are moved individually during your turn and once you have completed all the actions you want to perform your opponent can move with similar actions. Fighting is handled on a turn basis but the opponent will also get a chance to fire back at you during the fighting phase to keep the game moving along at a decent pace.
The entire game plays well and there really are no problems with any of the simple controls or handling of any of the game. The entire style is a bit piece meal and you can see a bit of influence from many other games in the entire set and graphics.
There are also ten standalone battles where you match wits against the computer in single player fighting but not in the campaign. The stand alone battles are a good variety of fights where the goal is to dominate the map over the AI opponent. The campaign also offers an advanced or more difficult setting with a different ending for even more replay value.
The multiplayer is much more interesting than the single player as you have real opponents that are going to do unexpected things instead of the main focus the AI usually has. The multiplayer was no problem playing and plenty of people are playing the game so finding another is probably not going to be a problem.
With the cartoon looking graphics and definite 1950’s era appeal the game looks pretty good, and for ten bucks no one could complain. The effects of explosions particularly are very nice even if they appear to be a repeat of themselves. The other graphics and effects are nice and overall the entire game looks very well done for such an inexpensive download.
There are the usual simple cartoon drawn figures in the boxes that pop up for giving you the story line with some nicely drawn scenes for the menus and other pages not in the actual gaming. The only real animations or movement is done during the actual game play but for a ten dollar title this is actually better than I thought it would be.
The main sound in the game is a general background music that sounds very appropriate to the 1950’s era appearance to many of the transport vehicles and the general feel of the game. The sound effects like explosions and laser fire also sound very appropriate and work out well. There were absolutely no problems with any of the sound or graphics and things kept going very well in all the departments for Commanders: Attack of the Genos.
You could not get me to recommend this game any higher if I could try for the price you pay, at ten dollars this is a steal. The game plays very well without any problems and there is a good lengthy campaign as well as a reason to play the game on a higher difficulty setting.
You also have a decent multiplayer gaming experience and there were no problems I could see in going online and playing against others. The ten missions in the standalone section just add even more to the game and you could not get more for a ten dollar bill.
Commander: Attack of the Genos is about as good as you can get for a game that costs ten dollars and comes as a download on your Xbox 360. There is plenty to do with the full single player campaign, a good ten standalone mission set and the multiplayer if you ever have some spare time and want to duke it out with a real person at a strategy turn based game.
Sierra has done a great job of keeping the turn based game going at a good clip and reduced the waiting times as much as humanly possible. You could not ask for more in a game from Xbox Arcade than Commanders: Attack of the Genos.