Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is a top-down isometric real-time tactics video game that takes place in a Wild West setting. The main protagonist is John Cooper, a lone rider skillful with his gun as much as his knife, who is hired as a bounty hunter to stop a series of train robberies perpetrated by a mysterious bandit known as El Diablo, but soon discovers his mission is far from being as simple as it seems.

During his journey across the Wild West and its 25 levels in pre-rendered 3D - from a Mexican village to gold mines and rocky canyons - John will gather a team of partners old and new to aid him in his mission, including Sam Williams the expert in explosives, Kate O'Hara the seductress, Doc McCoy the safecracker and sniper, or Sanchez the Mexican outlaw. While the gameplay is largely similar to titles from the Commandos series, even including similar features like the spyglass to see the enemies' field of vision, Desperados doesn't emphasize stealth as much, allowing shootouts to happen in many situations if planned carefully.

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Screenshots

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Windows A well guarded underground lake, just one step from El Diablo's lair.

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Windows Breaking into marshall's office.

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Windows Some gringos that are sleeping around, you can kick just in case they don't wake up. You can actually literally kick them to death.

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Windows When you arrive in town, it's good to see if you can find a friend or two, and not only enemies.

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Promo Images

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Screenshot

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Concept Art Scribble

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Trailer

Alternate Titles

"赏金奇兵：西部通缉令" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
"Desperados: Взять живым или мертвым" -- Russian spelling
"Desperados: The Shadow of El Diablo" -- Working title
"Desperados: Poszukiwany Żywy lub Martwy" -- Polish title
"Death Valley" -- Working title

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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

Still somewhat better than Commandos II	Windows	gecimen (48)
One step ahead of its successors	Windows	Zolansilverspear (559)

[review game]

Critic Reviews

Power Unlimited	Windows	Jun, 2001	89 out of 100	89
Game Over Online	Windows	Aug 27, 2001	87 out of 100	87
Gameplay (Benelux)	Windows	Apr 30, 2001	87 out of 100	87
PC Gamer Brasil	Windows	Dec, 2001	87 out of 100	87
Gamesmania.de	Windows	Apr 30, 2001	85 out of 100	85
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Windows	May 07, 2001	84 out of 100	84
IGN	Windows	Jul 24, 2001	8.1 out of 10	81
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Windows	Oct, 2001		80
GameZone	Windows	Sep 21, 2001	8 out of 10	80
Gamekult	Windows	Apr 20, 2001	7 out of 10	70

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
promo art for the game?	2	Somebody bring me Sisko! (8) Jul 16, 2011

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Trivia

Cancelled add-on

Spellbound worked on add-on levels (mostly leftover levels from development) which were supposed to be released periodically as so-called "Webisodes". However, those were never release because of Infrogrames' new guideline "PC is dead".

Demo

The demo version is an exclusive level which is not included in the full game. More information can be found in its game entry.

Development

The game was originally signed to the small German publisher Blackstar Interactive GmbH and had a completely different scenario inspired by the movie Wild Wild West (1999) with various supernatural elements like zombies.

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Related Web Sites

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive (official website)
Official Home Page (Infogrames official site containing english, german, french, american and international sites and all the info needed for this game.)

Contributed to by Cavalary (11242), Sciere (780063) and MAT (230299)