So, who remembers the game Kick Ass Commandos from a previous article? For those of you who don't remember or weren't about, Kick Ass Commandos was one of the games I covered in my Kickstarter Gaming Round-Up article of November 1st 2016. It had a small target and the team hoped to use gamecodes to give their backers early access for Christmas. And now, we have one for review.
Kick Ass Commandos was published and developed by Anarchy Enterprises. The game is a top-down shooter where you can choose to play as any of the commandos in the pack (starting with just the one but the roster expands as you complete the 'rescue' missions) to complete missions with objectives such as rescuing commandos or hostages, taking out something or someone in particular or simply clearing the level of enemies.
There are a number of different level packs, and you will start with a few of those missions unlocked with you having to complete those before you can unlock further missions down the chain. Each pack ends with a 'boss' level which can take the form of one hard-to-kill opponent to three tough opponents at once backed up by an army of enemy players. Weapon-wise you often start off with your standard gun, although some levels will start you off with a knife/machete to hack at opponents instead. Most levels will have special temporary pick up weapons though which give you the use of a special weapon for a set period of time - such as flamethrowers or my personal favourite the rocket launcher.
Levels are also pretty damn destructible, if something's there you can probably shoot it. This just lends itself to the game's atmosphere of being a crazy, guns-blazing, rampaging game and it's true that you can play it like that if you wish to. It's a bit like a top-down Broforce in that way.
However, there's also a lot to be said for slowing down and planning. Sometimes when you shoot down an item or an enemy you get health packs, but they despawn if not picked up and used quickly enough. You can also find and rescue other commandos, mostly NPC ones but sometimes, especially during their rescue mission, you will find one of the other 'named' commandos. Keeping your assembled team alive is a good idea because more firepower equals better chance of winning, and your NPC allies can also make use of health packs. So a little strategy is a very good way to approach this game.
I enjoyed this game for having that openness, of being able to run and gun it if I felt like just destroying everything or being able to plan ahead if I needed to. I enjoy games like this and succeeding with either strategy made me feel like a badass, as games of this type should do.
Do I recommend it? Hell yeah, Kick Ass Commandos is amazing fun and it's nice to see one of the games I covered in my Kickstarter articles making it into our review box.
8.5/10