Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive

The Good
The game is a story-based Commandos, that takes place in a western concept. You control John Cooper and his buddies, who are blamed of a crime not of their own. You both escape from the law and try to find who's beneath this crime.

The first thing that I was amazed about this game has been the atmosphere. The battle settings of every level, are quite puzzle-like but, the acting of enemy bandits, your friend and civilians; and other atmospheric graphics, make the game look like a theather scene. You not only solve the game, but also watch a cartoon movie in it. Every enemy behaves differently as they have their own personality. Some act cowardly, some are angry or curious.

The game almost never gets boring.

The Bad
Although the game has some original concepts, it still looks quite like Commandos.

The thing I personally disliked is, you can't control all six characters at once in any level.

The Bottom Line
The game has cute graphics and pretty good voice effects that captures you. The levels are not stories apart from each other but part of the main plot which makes you wonder what's coming after.

*For those who don't know commandos, this is a real time strategy game in which you try to solve some difficult situations by using different special talents of your characters. (eg. One of your characters can distract the enemies, while another can get them throwing a knife.)

The Good
First I have played Robin Hood Legend of Sherwood and Chicago 1930 before this game. Both were fair games if not true classics. And However I played Commandos series I never truely liked them.

The strongest point of this game is its story and atmosphere. The story is backed up with a movie cutscene after every mission. The musics and sounds are just correct for the setting. Each of your party members have unique skills and actions which certainly makes this game better than its successors.

The gameplay is also quite balanced. Mostly you have more than a few ways to overcome obstacles. Mission lengths are not too long and never short. The enemies are not colored in difficulty order(Robin Hood). The gun battles are never boring or unbalanced(Chicago 1930). Most character has different HPs and different reactions. Some of them would run away at the first sight of trouble, some would not care at all and some will investigate the disturbance. This makes the enemies quite interesting indeed.

With the good combination of atmosphere and gameplay the game never lets you to leave it until its finished.

The Bad
One noticeable thing was, you can only have one quick action per character which at times limited the strategic side of the game. Some AI errors are in the game also. For example after an alarm sometimes enemies just return to their buildings. However overall nothing great or too important...

The Bottom Line
This is certainly the best of Spellbound games. It is a must have for the Action Strategy players. It will also interest anyone that likes Westerns. Overall the game is good.