Windows

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive

I've always been surprised at the lack of western-themed games available. Westerns have been a popular part of American culture in both literature and movies since before most of us were born. Movies like Young Guns and the more recent American Outlaws have tried to breathe fresh life into the vanishing genre, and Spellbound has tried to do the same on the PC with Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive.

Wie genoeg heeft van het lange wachten op Commandos 2, moet nu in galop naar de winkel om Desperados te scoren!

One game I really had the hots for in the last six months finally came to my possession: Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive. Even though this is a game that did not promise to bring many novelties, as it was only supposed to use the Pyro's Commandos, gameplay in a wild-west setting, it really made my mouth water. So, what we have here is a real-time strategy with very few units that cannot be used for cannon fodder. In order to complete a mission (which usually comes down to exterminating a huge number of enemies), you will have to cunningly use all the advantages of your characters.

een zeer boeiend, uitgebreid en onderhoudend spel. Commandos liefhebbers zullen aangenaam verrast zijn!

Com gráficos convincentes e ótima jogabilidade, Desperados é uma ótima opção para quem quer reviver o Velho Oeste, com cavalos, nuvens de poeira e tudo mais.

Overall, Desperados has excellent gameplay, varied locations and playing conditions, and top-notch production values. If it has a weakness at all, it’s that it doesn’t have any multiplayer support, and, since there aren’t any difficulty settings or character options, there is almost no replay value at all. So once you’ve spent the 30 or so hours required to play through the game’s campaign, that’s basically it. But while 30 hours isn’t very much in comparison with other games on the market, Desperados is a good ride while it lasts.

Auftritt John Cooper: Der ultracoole Kopfgeldjäger verdient sich seine Brötchen mit der Jagd nach steckbrieflich gesuchten Ganoven im US-Staat New Mexico. Auf der Suche nach einem neuen Auftrag gerät Cooper auf die Fährte einer mysteriösen Bande von Zugräubern, auf die die Eisenbahngesellschaft eine Belohnung von 15.000 Dollar ausgesetzt hat.

Die Bedienung ist komfortabel, die Grafik wunderhübsch, die Fähigkeiten der Helden originell. Besonders beeindruckt hat mich das vielseitige Verhalten der Gegner, die oft verdammt schwer auszutricksen sind. Gut so, denn umso größer ist das Erfolgserlebnis, wenn man die harten Burschen endlich im Sack hat. Eine wichtige Einschränkung muss aber sein: Desperados ist ein reinrassiges Trial-and-Error-Spiel. Sie müssen die gleiche Stelle im Extremfall dutzendfach wiederholen, bis Sie endlich Erfolg haben. Das wird zwar nicht langweilig, zehrt aber an den Nerven ungeduldiger Spieler. Zudem hat Spellbound mit leichter Hand wahre Gegnermassen auf den Karten verteilt, durch die Sie sich gegen Levelende oft nur noch mit Routineaktionen schießen – weniger wäre hier mehr gewesen. Desperados ist nicht leichter als Commandos, aber mindestens genauso spannend und deutlich schöner.

Desperados hat heute ausnahmsweise einmal nichts mit einem Bier-Tequila-Getränk zu tun. Glaube ich zumindest, sonst muss ich im örtlichen Fachhandel mal einen ausführlichen Nachtest ansetzen. Nein, Desperados ist: Ausprobieren, Sterben, Spielstand laden. Zwischendurch hat man eine Menge Spaß und mit einer Portion Geduld sitzen selbst Strategieeinsteiger bald nur noch mit Sombrero am PC. Bevor mir Cooper das Ding noch vom Kopf ballert, ziehe ich lieber freiwillig meinen Hut vor diesem Spiel. Alle Achtung! Wo habe ich jetzt nur den Beutel mit der Giftschlange wieder vergessen?

Le western, un thème de fascination pour tous les cinéastes, qui leur permet de présenter un monde où le mal se distingue du bien. Tous les films westerns (sauf les spaghettis)commencent ainsi... Et Desperados ?

Desperados ist wirklich das derzeit beste Echzeit-Taktik-Spiel überhaupt. Das knapp drei Jahre alte Commandos muss den Thron vorläufig räumen. Was Spellbound da gezaubert hat, macht nicht nur Taktik-Fans Spaß - allerdings sollte man schon etwas Geduld haben, da man ziemlich oft neu laden muss, um die eben vergeigte Aktion richtig hinzubekommen (frei nach dem Trial-and-Error-Motto). Was mir an Desperados wirklich sehr gut gefällt, ist das unverbrauchte Szenario: Western-Spiele gibts nicht viele und noch weniger solche, wie Spellbounds Taktik-Spektakel.

Wie Commandos fantastisch vond zal ook hiermee dagenlang zoet zijn

I’m one among many that considers The Good, the Bad and The Ugly to be the greatest Western movie ever made. Unforgiven isn’t without its charm and Shane certainly ranks high on the list, but Sergio Leone’s epic tops the heap. Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive (DWDA) is an amalgam of many Western-themed works produced in the last 50 years. (Minus Brules, a book of fiction where the protagonist sets about killing Indians off with his rifle.)

While there's a lot of hype and anticipation around Commandos 2, Desperados has definitely stolen some of its thunder by arriving five weeks earlier and fifteen dollars cheaper. We'll obviously have to wait until Commandos 2 is final before we can really compare the titles but the best thing about my job is that I get to play both of them anyway.

The Old West meets Commandos in this clever squad-based strategy game.

I’ve been waiting for a fun challenging strategy game that had the same feel as Commandos for quite some time. Desperados fills the order and then some. If you are looking for a game that will actually make you think instead of just shooting anything that moves then you better saddle up your horse and ride down to your local software store because Desperados is the game for you. Patience is a virtue when playing Desperados, so if you have very little of it you’ll probably want to look elsewhere for a game. On that note I’ll give Desperados a score of 80/100. The reason the score isn’t higher is because in the second mission of the game I found the subject matter of race not too politically correct for the times we live in. Other than that, this game is as pretty and fun as those vivacious saloon gals that I love so much.

Desperados’ flaws include some rather arbitrary obstacles (characters can’t climb over three-foot fences; some characters can’t punch) and a very high degree of difficulty. Other than that, this game is hotter’n a two-peckered billy goat.

Desperados is a bit of a mixed bag for deaf gamers. The cutscenes aren't subtitled and the comments that your characters make when you give them orders are not subtitled either. All important dialogue between characters is shown in text, as are the tutorial messages, so it's quite possible to enjoy the game. However it would have made the game more appealing to deaf gamers had the cutscenes, which carry the game's story, been subtitled.

Un jeu qui séduit par son atmosphère originale et l'efficacité de son gameplay. Les missions s'enchaînent dans une parfaite cohésion scénaristique qui met en avant le charisme des personnages. Une très bonne alternative à Commandos à condition d'avoir l'âme d'un joueur patient, davantage porté sur la réflexion que sur l'action.

Strategy gamers may not like Desperados, either. There is no building of a base, troops, etc. At the start of each mission you are given a team, and that's it. Deal with it and figure out how to meet your objectives. Basically, it is a game that adventure gamers should enjoy. It is slow-paced and requires much thought and planning to get through each mission. While not a blockbuster release by any means, it certainly deserves a solid thumb up.

A good sign of any game is when you really don't want to quit playing it to write the review. You keep rationalizing that you need to spend a *bit* more time with it to really be sure you can do a thorough job (As opposed to the games you must force oneself to finish even a level or two before you can be free of it). Game in point: Desperados. This squad-based realtime strategy game from European developer, Spellbound, has absolutely no regard for my need for free time. To make matters worse, the game actually logs total minutes played, so you can't even deny the amount of ones life spent maneuvering your heroes through the perils and adventures in this wild west themed time-suck.

Precis som italienska och spanska westernfilmer är lika bra som amerikanska, så är detta spanskproducerade lir definitivt det roligaste som producerats i denna genre, om man nu kan kalla det så. Spel med westerntema är inte vanligt förekommande, men om Desperados: Wanted Dead Or Alive blir en försäljningsframgång lär det ändras tämligen omgående.

That’s fine and dandy, but believe you me – you’ll become very familiar with the quick-save and quick-load hot keys. If you’re able to get though an entire mission without dying or committing some play-ending gaffe, then you’re probably the Gaming Messiah. This is a game for the patient and the obsessed. If you’re not typically susceptible to these traits, I would suggest saving your money, and your temper, for another game.

Commandos au Far-West : voilà ce qu'est Desperados. Le clonage est très réussi, quelques petites optimisations améliorant un gameplay intransigeant mais efficace, mais le concept a pris quelques rides. L'infiltration à la Commandos, même avec une ambiance western, ne plaira qu'aux plus patients, qu'à ceux capables de supporter le "zéro faute" imposé par des missions au déroulement diablement linéaires. Un jeu au gameplay efficace mais rigide comme un carcan, et pour tout dire, déjà un peu vieillot.

Desperados is still a very good game. It challenges you all the way through, makes you think a lot, and is completely different to 98% of the RTS games available for the PC at the moment. OK, so the game doesn’t quite get the difficulty curve right, the controls are a bit off, and the slightly aged graphics certainly aren’t the best around (tasty 2-D characters on 3-D backgrounds), but for a tenner this is the best in the West.

Even though this is the Wild West, gun battles usually aren't the best option for solving problems. The game encourages you to try other schemes and stratagems, though gameplay too often seems very scripted. Many times, you won't really feel in control of your adventures, but rather as if you're trying to jump through the game designers' hoops, puzzling out the one supposedly proper solution. Finding the right hoop to jump through is as much about repetitive and tedious trial and error as it is about your ability to concoct clever tactics. The game frequently crosses the fine line between enjoyably challenging and frustrating, and there's no difficulty selection to rectify that. Ideally, if you make a poor choice, it should result in a temporary and challenging setback, not instant death and a restart. Get ready for countless saves and restores.