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So last night I downloaded and bought Commanders: Attack of the Genos on X-box live.

This is a turn based strategy game in the spirit of X-com, and even after just a little over an hour of play time, I feel in love. The 'flash Gordon/Rocketeer' art style is very cool, but more importantly the turn based strategy is great. There is no real time anything, pick a unit, it has a certain amount of movement action points. These points are spent on movement and attacking. Stay still for extra shooting, move farther for less. There is no over watch, but there is a neat mechanic that if your unit is attacked, and survives, it returns fire in your opponents turn. Terrain also plays a key roll in how fast you move and the kind of cover you get.

The game has all the unit types you'd hope for: Infantry, vehicles, transports, aircraft, tanks, etc. There is the classic paper-scissors-rocks meta game going on. Scout tanks are good against infantry, bad against vehicles. Hvy Infantry is good against vehicles, bad against scouts, etc. But the thing that really sets the game apart are the commanders.

While the game only has two factions (Humans and Genos) which commander you choose has a big impact on how your army will play. This mechanic reminds me very much of Warmachine. Each commander has two abilities: Active and passive. The passive ability augments nearby units. Some commanders increase the defense of nearby friendlies, other increase tank fire power etc. So like Warcasters in WM, the commander you choose may dictate the kind of units you rely on in battle.

The Active ability has to charge up. As your army deals damage to your foe, your Commander's "Active ability" meter builds up. When it reaches max, you can use it. Each commander's ability is unique. I've seen two so far: Mine allowed my commander to shoot every enemy in range without spending any action points. The other I saw was on an enemy commander that allowed him to instantly surround himself with fresh infantry. This very much feels like the 'feats' in Warmachine.

The interface is great and really lets you see what is happening. Little icons appear next to a unit if it is under special effects such as increased defense for cover, healing if in a structure, or how many units are being transports. It is also easy to see which units haven't moved yet, as well as get to them quickly with buttom presses.

The single player campaign is of decent length (2 campaigns, the first is 15 missions, no idea how long the second is). But the game really shines in multi-player. You can play 2-4 players over live, but also you can play 2-4 players locally with the "hot seat" mechanic and one controller. (i.e. You leave the room, I do my stuff, then I leave the room and you do your stuff). It uses the hot seat system because of "fog of war" and other such coolness. This will be great fun even when you have non-vid gamer but die hard war gamers over (I'm thinking Craig) at the house and want to play a quick fun game.


This game is a total no-brainer at $10.00 for anyone who is into strategy war games. While the game doesn't quite have the depth of Dai Sakurai it is easily as good as "Laser Squad Nemesis" and if it does well I would expect more expansions to be released with new units, commanders, and perhaps races.

Definitely at least check out the demo.

Here's a full review with nice screen shots:

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1467/Commanders-Attack-of-the-Genos/p1/

Ok. I am sold. I will definatley be downloading this tonight.

Gamertag is "two rox".. look out for me if you want a game.

Thanks Russ.

Definite download for me too.