Platform: Windows
Release Year: 1998
Developer: Pyro Studios
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Genre: Real-Time Tactics / Strategy / Stealth
Setting: World War II
GameSphere Rating: ★★★★½ — 9/10
Behind Enemy Lines
Released in 1998, Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines was one of those rare strategy games that did not merely refine an established formula — it helped define a new one. Developed by the Spanish studio Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive, Commandos replaced armies, resource management and base construction with something far more intimate: a handful of specialists, overwhelming enemy forces and a carefully prepared plan.
Set during the Second World War, the game places the player in command of a small Allied special-operations unit operating deep inside enemy territory. Across 20 missions, the Commandos travel through environments ranging from North Africa and France to Norway and other European battlefields.
The objectives sound straightforward: destroy installations, sabotage enemy operations, rescue prisoners, eliminate important targets or escape from hostile territory.
Actually accomplishing them is another matter entirely.
Commandos is a game in which one careless movement can destroy a plan that took twenty minutes to prepare.
Six Men, Six Specialties
At the centre of the game are six Commandos, each possessing abilities unavailable to the others.
The Green Beret is the team’s physical powerhouse, capable of silently eliminating guards, moving bodies and manipulating heavy objects.
The Sniper can eliminate distant targets with extraordinary precision, but his ammunition is extremely limited.
The Marine specialises in aquatic operations and can swim, dive and use his harpoon while providing access to areas that the rest of the squad cannot easily reach.
The Sapper handles explosives, grenades and other destructive equipment, making him indispensable whenever the mission involves demolition.
The Driver operates vehicles and can make effective use of captured enemy machinery and weapons.
Finally, the Spy can disguise himself as a German officer, allowing him to infiltrate guarded areas and distract enemy soldiers.
This division of abilities is the foundation of Commandos. You are not controlling six interchangeable soldiers. You are controlling six pieces of a tactical puzzle.
A guard standing beside a building may appear impossible to eliminate until the Spy distracts him, allowing the Green Beret to approach from behind. A patrol may have to be removed before the Sapper can reach an objective. The Sniper may possess the perfect solution to a troublesome sentry — but every bullet is precious.
Success therefore comes from understanding how the abilities of one Commando can create opportunities for another.
Observe Before You Act
Perhaps the most important weapon in Commandos is not the knife, pistol or sniper rifle.
It is information.
Enemy soldiers possess visible fields of vision that can be inspected by the player. Guards patrol predetermined routes, stop at particular positions and observe specific areas.
Learning these patterns is essential.
A typical encounter begins not with an attack but with observation. You watch a patrol. You study where the guards turn. You discover which areas are temporarily hidden from view. Then you construct a sequence of actions.
Distract one soldier.
Eliminate another.
Hide the body.
Move the next Commando forward.
Wait.
Repeat.
The result is something halfway between a real-time strategy game, a stealth game and an elaborate tactical puzzle.
When everything works, Commandos produces an enormously satisfying feeling: several carefully coordinated actions unfold one after another until an apparently impossible enemy position suddenly collapses.
Stealth Is Survival
Players accustomed to traditional real-time strategy games quickly discover that brute force rarely works.
Your Commandos are elite soldiers, but they are dramatically outnumbered. Raising the alarm can bring additional guards and transform a carefully controlled operation into chaos.
The safest solution is therefore usually the quietest.
Knives, distractions, disguises, carefully positioned snipers and hidden bodies become more useful than uncontrolled gunfire. Commandos constantly encourages the player to manipulate enemy behaviour rather than simply overpower the opposition.
This philosophy makes the game feel remarkably different from the large-scale RTS titles that dominated PC gaming during the late 1990s.
There is no base to construct.
There are no resources to harvest.
There is no army to mass-produce.
Every man matters.
If a Commando required for the mission is killed, the operation is effectively over.
Beautiful Battlefields
Commandos was also visually impressive for 1998.
Its detailed isometric environments depict military installations, villages, snow-covered landscapes, rivers, bridges, railway facilities and desert battlefields with remarkable clarity.
The environments are not merely decorative. Buildings, walls, water, vehicles and terrain form part of the tactical problem.
The ability to zoom the battlefield and divide the display into multiple views was particularly useful. Players could observe several locations simultaneously, keeping track of enemy patrols while preparing actions elsewhere on the map.
Even decades later, the pre-rendered artwork retains considerable charm. Modern games naturally offer vastly more technical sophistication, but the visual design of Commandos remains extremely readable — an essential quality for a game built around observation.
Difficulty Without Mercy
There is one characteristic of Commandos that no retrospective review should ignore:
this game is difficult.
Very difficult.
A guard looking in the wrong direction at the wrong moment can expose the entire team. Moving slightly too early can ruin an ambush. Forgetting about a distant patrol can destroy an otherwise perfect operation.
Expect to save frequently.
Expect to reload frequently.
And expect to spend substantial amounts of time simply watching enemy soldiers walk around.
For some players this deliberate trial-and-error structure will be frustrating. Commandos occasionally feels less like commanding soldiers in a dynamic battlefield and more like discovering the precise solution to an enormous mechanical puzzle.
But that difficulty is also responsible for many of the game’s greatest moments.
Completing a complicated mission after numerous failed attempts provides a level of satisfaction few strategy games can reproduce.
Sound and Atmosphere
The audio design reinforces the tension beautifully.
Ambient battlefield sounds, footsteps, weapons and enemy reactions provide important information as well as atmosphere. The Commandos themselves possess distinctive personalities, communicated through their appearances, roles and memorable acknowledgements.
Mission briefings and World War II imagery further strengthen the impression that each operation is part of a classic wartime adventure.
Commandos never attempts to simulate an entire war.
Instead, it creates the fantasy of a tiny elite unit quietly changing the course of events behind enemy lines.
A Different Kind of Strategy Game
The greatest achievement of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is its understanding that strategy does not require hundreds of units.
Sometimes six men are enough.
By combining stealth, real-time tactics, specialised characters and puzzle-like mission design, Pyro Studios created a distinctive formula that would influence later tactical and stealth-oriented games.
Its design can also be unforgiving. The reliance on precise timing, patrol memorisation and frequent saving means that modern players accustomed to more flexible stealth systems may find the experience demanding.
Yet beneath that difficulty remains an exceptionally clever tactical game.
More than twenty-five years after its original release, Commandos can still create that wonderful moment when you examine an enemy installation filled with guards and think:
“There is absolutely no way I can get through this.”
Half an hour later, the guards are gone, the explosives are planted and your surviving Commandos are heading toward the extraction point.
That transformation — from impossible situation to perfectly executed operation — is the essence of Commandos.
GameSphere Verdict
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines remains one of the defining tactical games of the late 1990s. Its combination of specialised characters, stealth, enemy observation and meticulously constructed missions created an experience unlike the conventional real-time strategy games of its era.
It demands patience and has little sympathy for mistakes, but players willing to study the battlefield and experiment with different solutions will discover an extraordinarily rewarding tactical experience.
This is not a game about building the largest army.
It is about making the right man perform the right action at exactly the right moment.
Pros:
✓ Excellent tactical and stealth gameplay
✓ Six Commandos with genuinely different abilities
✓ Detailed and atmospheric isometric graphics
✓ Large, carefully designed missions
✓ Excellent emphasis on observation and planning
✓ Extremely satisfying when a complicated plan succeeds
Cons:
✗ Very high difficulty
✗ Heavy reliance on trial and error
✗ Frequent saving and reloading is practically inevitable
✗ Some situations demand extremely precise timing
GameSphere Rating: 9/10
Verdict: A landmark of real-time tactical gaming and an essential Windows strategy classic. Difficult, methodical and sometimes merciless — but few games make a successful plan feel quite this good.
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