Before the review, I want to exclaim:
BUY COMMANDOS 2 IF YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYED ANY OF THE COMMANDOS GAMES.
Also, this game usually costs 1 $ or € throughout the Steam sales.

I remember when I was younger playing this game and how fun it was. Controlling commandos behind enemy lines. Stealth. Tactics. The experience was amazing and I am elated right now to play this game again.

The game's charm is in figuring out enemy's patterns, observing the environment, planning tactics and then carrying it all out. It is hard, but addicting and rewarding in the end. A simple act of throwing cigarette packs and then knocking out a soldier and tying him up, booby-trapping, throwing a bomb at a group of soldiers or disguising as an officer with a spy is satisfying.

The game is a little hard to get into at first, but after you really pass the two training levels, you are essentially ready to go.
VERY USEFUL TO KNOW: CTRL-S and CTRL-L for quicksave and quickload.

It was also released in 2002 so the game looks rough and doesn't support widescreen natively. To remedy this, you can pick up executables that fix this (https://sites.google.com/site/xbootx/home/commandos2), although very high resolutions might cause graphical glitches. There is also a mod called Destination Paris (http://commandoshq.net/c2dp_dloads.php) that makes the game even more challenging.

Commandos 2 is my favorite game in the whole series and I recommend it to Commandos newcomers; as Behind Enemy Lines and Beyond the Call of Duty are too unforgiving (I haven't played Commandos 3 yet, but it's apparently not as up to par). Alternatively, you can try Desperados if you're more into Wild West or Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood if you're into Middle Ages.

Before everyone starts insulting me i'll begin by saying Commandos 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I spent hours playing this game when I was a kid (back in the days when games gave you a real challenge !).
From where i'm sitting I can still see the CD on my shelf, so I already own it but when I saw you could buy it on Steam for 99 cents, here I thought : "Let's buy it, it's cheap, it'll be the occasion to play it again and since it's in my steam library it'll be more convenient than the CD" (I bought a lot of games I already owned that way and I know I'm not the only one).
Here comes the downfall : it's a pain in the *** to make it run on a W7 64Bits computer.
First, the game just wouldn't launch, opening and exiting immediately, then after some tweaks, new message : "problem checking steam application" and then "comm2.exe not responding".
I finally got it to work only to find you can't play on a wider resolution than 1024x768.
I know it's an old game but what's the point in making this game available on Steam if you can't play it on a modern configuration ?
I wouldn't want them to change the graphics at all but at least they could've make a HD resolution compatibility, that would have justified the buy for me.

So, do I recommend this game ? Hell yeah !
Do I recommend you buy it on Steam ? Hell no ! They didn't even bother to check if the game would run properly on a current PC. I work in computers for a living so I know my way around and it still took me 2 hours just to launch the game (and my time playing the game is not updated on my profile, I didn't play it just 6 minutes) !
My advice : buy it elsewhere like on Good Old Games, the pack Commandos 2 + 3 only costs 5$ and download a mod allowing 1920x1080 resolution.

Commandos 2 is the best of it's series. In the aspect of today gaming stand point. This game is brutaly hard and unforgiving for any small errors that you can messed up with.

It's a ww2 squad-based strategy that treat player like a man. No hand holding. No tutorial (actually it has, but they look more like exams before let you to the real mission). You have to learn how to survive by reading manual and tooltips. If you can't learn to use hotkeys at least. you will ended up pressing quick save and quick load the most.

If you are new to this series you will die a lot , but at the same time you will see that enemies will leave that small window of oppatunity open for you as a smart guideline to encourage you to try new approch tactics. As for the result , every guard you knockdown , every enemies you have killed , every thievery or sneaks you can pull off will feel so much rewarding.

One more thing i have to say is this game has exceptional fantastic soundtracks. some may say these tracks sound a little too hype to be in this kind of game that you have to take your time. But they did make you want to come back and kick more nazi's ♥♥♥.

If you are looking for a classic and a challenging experiance then buy it. this sums up all the meaning of good old classic pc games.

What other game can you command a squad of elite commandos, be in an 3D simulated isometric world, and explore the world, plus for it to actually be good? Well then, Commandos 2 is the answer you would be looking for.

This game is able to capture that epic feel of being an elite commando, not one, not two, but eight. In a variety of missions all around the world, taking on the Japanese Empire in Asia and the Nazi Forces in Europe. This wide variety of missions are all housed on massive maps, with plenty of ways to tactically go through. As well, each map has bonus content hidden in each one, which unlocks even more maps for the astute players. The level variety, and enemy variety are amazing, with tactics unlimited, as well the music is sublime, unique to each level, and keeps the tone and gravity of the high stakes game of warfightering.

The commandos themselves are a particularly interesting note to mention in the game. Out of all of them, there is only one American character, which is a nice deviance from the typical video game standard of making every character in WWII an American. The commonwealth is strongly recommended, france has their own few commandos, and even the USSR is represented. All together, the human interaction, and true comradery between these "Men of Courage" brings out their grin worthy character and qualities. Its that feeling that its more than just a game with pixels, that this is high stakes, that the world is there to be saved by you, and you alone.

This is why the game can be appropriately recommended, because it simply is excellent. It doesnt hold your hand, its not gonna treat you nicely sometimes, but it manages to not matter. You keep pushing, you keep trying, you keep reloading. You need to, do you know why? Because the world is at stake, and you are the only one to save it, now get out there soldier, and kill me some Schutzstaffel.

This game is the definition of how hard it would be to pull off stunts like this in an actual war, and stay alive. In general, it is pretty hard and unforgiving, but with trial and error, you will slowly get better at it.

The gameplay itself is pretty decent and intuitive (better read those ingame manuals) and you generally want to keep all your commandos alive to strive in the game. It actually has an option to set up multiple cameras at a time, how anyone can actively keep track of more than 2 cameras at once, I don't know. The game heavily relys on you memorizing at least some hotkeys, because a bunch of the time it requires fast thinking and acting, so if you rely on using the mouse for things like items and weapons too much, you'll find your characters full of lead.

One of the most notable things about the game is the soundtrack, it is just plain awesome and upbeat.

It's definitely the best of the series, if you want to try ANY of the Commandos games, you should try this one first.