Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is a game that looks like a real-time strategy title but plays like a demanding logic puzzle. The player commands a small squad of Allied commandos behind enemy lines during the Second World War, and each mission has a specific goal to accomplish, such as destroying a bridge, freeing a prisoner, stealing documents, or getting to a designated location in one piece. No base building, no unit production, just a handful of men against overwhelming numbers, where a single spotted movement usually means reloading a saved position.

The charm lies in the fact that each member of the team is skilled at something different, and a mission can only be pulled off through their combined efforts. The Green Beret handles silent takedowns and hiding bodies, the Sniper has a limited supply of ammunition and must use it carefully, the Sapper plants charges and traps, the Diver moves through water, and the Driver operates vehicles and heavy weapons. A key element is the guards' fields of view, shown as rotating, overlapping cones, so the player spends a long time observing patrol routes before planning who to move and when. The game allows pausing and issuing orders on the fly, which is essential since timing is often a matter of seconds. Technically it excelled with hand-painted two-dimensional maps packed with detail and smooth zooming that let you inspect every barrel and crate, complemented by restrained military music and soldier barks that quickly lodge themselves in the player's memory.

The game was very well received, especially in Europe, where it became one of the biggest successes of the Spanish games industry and kicked off an entire series as well as a standalone expansion with additional missions. Its reputation comes above all from its difficulty, missions are solved through trial and error, and a player can easily wrestle with a single one of them for an entire evening before finding the right sequence of steps. It's precisely this tightness, though, that keeps its charm alive today, and modern tactical games about small squads cite it as their model.