Sabotage the Nazi war machine, one stealth kill at a time

Grab your wire cutters, check your gear, and prep your silencer — it’s time to dive back into one of the most iconic tactical stealth franchises in gaming history. After nearly two decades of silence, Commandos is back with Commandos: Origins, a long-awaited revival of the series that once defined a genre.

Originally debuting in 1998 with Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, the franchise helped pioneer a unique style of isometric real-time tactics centered around infiltration and surgical precision. It spawned an entire subgenre — the “Commandos-like” — influencing games like Desperados and more recent titles such as Partisans 1941. Now, after 18 long years, Origins steps onto the battlefield, developed by Claymore Game Studios and published by Kalypso Media, who previously remastered the original trilogy. But does this new entry honor the legacy, or is it just another failed resurrection?

Back to the Beginning

As the name suggests, Commandos: Origins is a prequel, telling the story of how our elite squad of misfits came together. The game kicks off with a tutorial mission where Thomas Hancock, the team’s sapper, recruits Green Beret Jack O’Hara — a soldier sitting in a cell, awaiting court martial for punching a superior officer. Classic.

While the story is largely a backdrop — don’t expect deep character arcs or emotional cutscenes — it serves its purpose: to give players an excuse to sneak, stab, and sabotage their way across Nazi-occupied territories. The gameplay takes center stage, supported by a unique roster of specialists and a variety of mission types designed to test your strategic mettle.

An Elite Team of Specialists

In true Commandos fashion, each of your six operatives has a defined role and skillset, and using them effectively is the key to mission success. Here’s a quick rundown:

  • Green Beret (Jack O’Hara): The muscle of the group. Tough, durable, and capable of burying himself underground to avoid detection or lugging enemy corpses across the map.

  • Combat Diver: Your aquatic expert. He can swim silently, disarm underwater mines, pilot rubber boats, and throw knives with lethal precision.

  • Spy: Disguises himself as enemy officers or soldiers to slip behind enemy lines — but beware of high-ranking enemies who can see through the ruse.

  • Sniper: Self-explanatory, but crucial. Long-range eliminations keep the rest of the team safe.

The enemies are just as diverse — from patrols and stationary guards to mechanics who’ll bash you with tools if provoked. Some maps also include tanks and mounted machine guns that only certain team members, like Samuel “the Mechanic” Brooklyn, can operate or sabotage.

Plan, Fail, Retry — The Classic Commandos Loop

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, know this: Commandos doesn’t forgive mistakes. A single misstep — a noise, a discovered body, a wrong turn — can bring the Nazi war machine crashing down on your tiny squad. Enemies react to sound and sight, even noticing footprints in the snow or sand. Suspicion triggers a local alert. Two such alerts, and it becomes a full-blown base-wide lockdown. You’re not surviving that.

There’s no autosave here either. Miss your mark and you’ll be restarting from your last manual save — or worse, from scratch. But therein lies the charm. Meticulously plotting each move, saving after every success, and adjusting your strategy through trial and error is immensely rewarding. It’s a throwback to an era where planning, not reflexes, made the difference between success and failure.

To ease the challenge, the developers introduced the Command Mode, a “tactical pause” system that lets you queue up commands and execute them in perfect sync. Want your Diver to eliminate a sentry while your Beret drags a body and your Sniper clears a tower? Command Mode makes it possible.

The Environment is Your Playground

Commandos: Origins uses Unreal Engine 4 — an aging engine, but one that still delivers solid visuals. The maps are richly detailed and varied, taking you from the sands of North Africa to the icy wastes of the Arctic, with stops in places like Norway, Saint-Nazaire (yes, we heard the Brittany horns too), and the German heartland. Every level feels distinct, with plenty of environmental storytelling and interactable objects.

Many objects in the environment can be turned into deadly traps. Drop a crane’s cargo, tip over a lamppost, or blow up the classic red barrels — accidents are just another tool in your tactical arsenal.

That said, the game isn’t without technical hiccups. Minor bugs, occasional animation glitches, and a few crashes (especially in multiplayer) were present at launch. Fortunately, post-launch patches have addressed many of these issues. Most notably, the Steam version runs a patch ahead of the Game Pass version, which may cause sync issues in co-op — something to keep in mind.

Streamlined UI and Console-Friendly Controls

A big shift from previous entries is the simplified inventory system. Unlike Commandos 2 and 3, you can’t loot enemies for weapons, uniforms, or ammo anymore. Some fans may see this as a step backward, but others — especially newcomers — might appreciate the streamlined approach. It aligns well with the game’s focus on specialization and pace.

The interface has also been overhauled with console players in mind. The UI is minimal, intuitive, and fully customizable. Only the essentials are shown: action icons, character portraits, the mini-map, and alert status. Hardcore fans can tweak settings to recreate the old-school feel of early Commandos titles, including reassigning the HUD to suit muscle memory from two decades ago.

Final Verdict

Commandos: Origins isn’t just a reboot — it’s a heartfelt love letter to a genre that’s stayed niche but deeply beloved. With 14 challenging missions, solid stealth mechanics, and a healthy dose of nostalgic flair, it manages to respect its roots while making itself accessible to new players. It’s not here to reinvent the wheel, but rather to remind us why the wheel was so satisfying to spin in the first place.

If you’re into slow-burn tactics, trial-and-error gameplay, and the thrill of pulling off the perfect plan, Commandos: Origins delivers in spades. It’s a return to the glory days of beige PCs, CRT monitors, and long nights of saving, retrying, and saving again. Niche? Maybe. But for those who know — and love — this kind of game, it hits all the right notes.