QJ Reviews: Field Commander

Reviewing videogames for a living is most certainly not a bad gig, I can think of plenty worse things to do, like being a stick of deodorant, or a toilet brush… or a Jack Thompson. It does suck however if the games are crappy, so it’s was a huge relief when I came to the realisation that Field Commander is most certainly not a crappy game, far from it, like a pipin’ hot glazed donut on a cold Boston winter day, there’s lots to love.

Read the full review of Field Commander and find out if this is one to add to your collection, after the jump!

Reviewing videogames for a living is most certainly not a bad gig, I can think of plenty worse things to do, like being a stick of deodorant, or a toilet brush… or a Jack Thompson. It does suck however if the games are crappy, so it’s was a huge relief when I came to the realisation that Field Commander is most certainly not a crappy game, far from it, like a pipin’ hot glazed donut on a cold Boston winter day, there’s lots to love.

In the game you play a newly promoted Field Commander (hence the title) for ATLAS (the Advanced Tactical Legion for Allied Security), a covert military organisation formed from the combined might of more than 50 allied nations to take on threats too big, or too sensitive for any conventional army.  So basically you’re like a covert ninja assassin type except you’ve got a whole army, and apparently some good financial backing too, because you’ll get to play with all kinds of cool tech from ghost snipers to helicopter gunships, to battleships and even tank busters. You’re charged with repelling attacks from a mysterious group of uber-terrorists known as  Shadow Nation (watch for the character named Whisper, I swear he’s related to Cobra Commander).

The beauty of Field Commander lies in its simplicity and the way it slowly draws you into the game. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive and somewhat worried that in no time flat I’d be in over my head, Thankfully this wasn’t the case, Field Commander opens with a series of simple training missions that introduce you to the main supporting cast and at the same time give you a quick run down on the basics of combat, movement and strategic warfare. These three tutorial missions, one for each mode of combat (air, sea and ground) are dead simple, starting you out with the most basic infantry, air, sea and ground vehicles, and they’re also just short enough that it doesn’t feel too much like a lesson.

Within no time you’re out on your first mission and you get to put all that schoolin’ to good use. The first couple of missions are relatively easy but entertaining all the same, new units and strategies are introduced in a manner that dovetails nicely with the games story, and the difficulty slowly begins to ramp up.

The units in Field Commander are all unique and highly purpose built, but therein lies the first tier of strategy. Using the wrong unit for the wrong attack at the wrong time will most certainly spell doom. Think of Field Commander as a game of chess played on a tiled board with land, water, sea and snow draped over it instead of just black and white squares. Each unit is capable of moving a certain number of tiles per turn, this varies depending on the type of terrain being covered, and each unit also has differing attack ranges and varying effectiveness against certain enemy types. You’ll also want to maintain a healthy balance of heavy slow moving tanks, half tracks and anti air machine guns and the faster, but weaker scouts and trucks to re-supply your units on the field with ammo and gas.

The second tier of strategy lies in the acquisition and utilisation of map resources. More often than not there’ll be a factory, an airport or a seaport on the map, as well as various scattered cities, all of these can offer a serious advantage during a battle. Factories are used to produce ground troops (grunts) and special operations units capable of laying mines and putting down mortar fire. They can also produce ground vehicles like scouts, half-tracks and tanks. Airports can be used to produce utility choppers to fly troops into an area, or helicopter gunships to take out tanks from high above. Seaports manufacture submarines, battleships and sea scouts for combat and recon on the high seas. All this manufacturing requires some serious moolah though, so be sure to capture as many cities as you can on the map as fast as possible, and if need be, take them from the enemy, as cities provide valuable income per turn.

The third and final tier of strategy lies in powerful understanding and knowledge of the terrain and the environment. Hiding in dense forests will offer premium protection for your troops and vehicles but also deter movement. Holding bridges and passes with heavy artillery will help choke the enemy and cut off supply lines, speaking of which, you’ll want to create a safe corridor of passage for your trucks, scouts and utility choppers that can carry troops in to capture the enemy headquarters and ensure your victory.

An important aspect of gameplay is the fact that each division has special maneuvers that can be performed whenever they’ve received and dealt enough damage (think of a Limit Break in Final Fantasy). With each attack dealt and received, the bar raises till you’re finally able to unleash your division power. These attacks vary depending on the division you’re commanding, from extra movement spaces per turn to increased damage dealt and everything in between, but be careful to use them at the right time as they can quickly turn the tide of battle.

If there’s one area in which Field Commander perhaps falls a little short, its in graphics and visual presentation. The menu’s are well laid out and easy enough to read, but they’re all a tad pixelated and seem taken from low resolution jpegs blown up to fit the PSP screen. The portrait avatars of the various characters in the game also suffer from the same problem and while this doesn’t affect gameplay in any way you have to wonder how that got through QA. Graphically the game looks decent but not great. There’s a lot of aliasing and shimmering going on, and the ground and unit textures often appear muddy and blurry. The units themselves are well designed and easily recognisable, with nifty little animations and some of the explosions are satisfyingly meaty, with chunks of debris thrown out of puffy dark clouds. It has to be noted however that the frame rate does seem to hitch occasionally, usually when there’s a particularly destructive explosion, or when the camera is shifting over to focus on a new set of tiles, it’s nothing major though, and never impacts gameplay.

Sound wise there’s not a lot to whoop and holler about, but not a lot to complain about either, explosions sound pretty nice, big, beefy and booming with the headphones on with a touch of rending metal, bullets bounce off metal convincingly and the engine sounds for the various units all sound adequate. It does get a little irritating when every time you highlight a foot soldier he yells “YES SIR!” and “READY SIR!” but hey, at least he’s enthusiastic!

Multiplayer is where Field Commander really shines. Consider the single player campaign practice, because once you get online you’ll soon discover added layers of depth and cunning that CPU opponents simply can’t touch. If there is one reason to get Field Commander it would be because of its robust multiplayer features and gameplay. Apart from the myriad of different modes of play allowing you to take the battle to the net in just about any manner you choose, from “Hot Swapping” the PSP between two players, to a chess like “mail a move” and wait option, to regular Ad-Hoc, you can really have it the way you want it. If there was one thing missing it would have to be some sort of camera attachment so you can see the look on your opponents face when your carefully planned strategic maneuver unfolds before him, laying waste to his defenses as you capture his HQ, check and mate indeed.

The coolest thing about Field Commander is that it’s a game built from the ground up, specifically for the PSP, now I know you’re thinking well aren’t all PSP games that way? Not so much, you see unlike the majority of games available for Sony’s sleek handheld, Field Commander takes full advantage of almost every facet that makes the machine unique, from the simple control setup, to the UMD media format for full voice acting and dialogue, to the systems WiFi abilities in both Ad-Hoc and Infrastructure mode. It’s an unfortunately rare occurrence, but a welcome one. Think of Field Commander as chess for the PSP, except with big guns and explosions, if you haven’t picked this one up and you’re an turn based stratefy fan, go get it now, if you’re not an TBS fan, you might be pleasantly surprised, I know I was. As always we’d like to hear from you in the comments section.

P.S. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “unit” more times in a written work.