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Field Commander Review
Written by Brian Shields on Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Multitude of online & multiplayer options
Not much originality (Advance Wars on the PSP, basically)
By now, everybody has heard of the comparisons between Field Commander for the PSP and Advance Wars for the Nintendo DS. Enquiring minds want to know: are the games similar? The short answer is yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The long answer is still yes...but is that a bad thing? Field Commander is proof positive that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The story in Field Commander is quite good, if not a tad generic. Things start off a bit dull - rescue this person's son, escort this vehicle, capture this building, the usual. Thankfully, things come together later on and the storyline does heat up. The plot tends to remind me of the original Command and Conquer. Somebody important is captured, you find them, you're led to a secret group that wants to take over the world. Although, this time, it is Shadow Nation, not The Hand of NOD. Yes, the story is a little generic, but it is still engaging enough.
Field Commander's voicework is topnotch, especially for the PSP. It isn't Emmy-calibur, but it's still above average. The voice of your CO (Commanding Officer to you non-military folks) sounds suspiciously like Edward Hermann of Gilmore Girls and The Lost Boys fame. (Yes, I'm a huge fan of Gilmore Girls, but that's another story for another time). Unfortunately, I couldn't find the voice credits in the manual, and as of this writing, IMDB didn't have a listing for Field Commander. With some headphones plugged in, the overall sound design is top-notch. From the explosions to the gunfire to the miscellaneous effects, everything sounds good, although the soundtrack is somewhat grating. After playing through the first few missions, you will indeed turn off the music.
The graphics for Field Commander are among the best I've seen on the PSP. The art style isn't cartoony like in Nintendo's Advance Wars, and instead follows a grittier, more realistic approach. The detail to each vehicle, unit, and city is outstanding. The fun part is watching the camera swivel around to give you an up-close, 3D view of each battle. However, every time the game does this, there is some slight slowdown, presumably for the UMD to load the graphics. One thing that would have been nice is the ability to customize the colors for your units, and maybe add decals to identify your side and give your army some personality. Here's to hoping the feature makes it into Field Commander 2. The one thing that struck me as odd was whenever a Grunt, Spec Ops, or Sniper unit is killed - there is no blood. There is just a huge black scorch mark left on the ground. Maybe the people in the Field Commander universe are bloodless demons?
One major advantage Field Commander has over its inspiration is the tenacious AI. In Advance Wars, you could always take advantage of the poor AI. You could always, and I mean always, lure away a strong enemy unit with one of your unimportant transport units. They would fall for it every time. In Field Commander, the AI does occasionally follow weaker, unimportant units, but not that often. The AI is intelligent enough to use good strategy when mounting an attack. I just hate it when the enemy AI will sometimes surround their territory with snipers when I try and do an infantry rush. Damn you Shadow Nation!
The robust online options are the best part of the game. You can create maps of your own and upload them for other people to play and rate. I personally haven't created any maps because I've learned from the Command and Conquer, Advance Wars, and Warcraft games that I suck at map creation. But it's there for those that dig it, and it greatly enhances replay value. Virtually every multiplayer mode imaginable is included. Online play, local wireless play, a hot-swap mode allowing two gamers to compete by passing a single PSP back and forth, and a slow-paced "transmit" mode, which is essentially play-by-email. Trade moves one move at a time, for potentially days or weeks, for a single battle. Leaderboards and other goodies round out the excellent multiplayer functions.
The game's major foible is its units - they are almost exact copies of their Advance Wars counterparts. Everything is essentially the same. The movement range, the attack rating against other units, the weaknesses, everything. It is as if SOE took the units from Advance Wars and slapped new names on them. Shame on you Sony!
The ultimate question - is Field Commander worth a purchase? The answer is a loud and resounding yes. Even if you don't own a PSP, you should buy this game. Well, first, go out and actually buy a PSP, then buy Field Commander. You will not be disappointed. If you are a strategy game buff, like me, you will absolutely adore this game. It has everything you are looking for. Don't worry about what I said about Field Commander and it's unoriginality. Don't think of the game as being unoriginal. Instead, think of it as paying homage to the turn-based strategy games that came before. Considering the great storyline, the superb voice acting, the graphics, mission creation, and mission downloading, you will never grow old of Field Commander.
posted October 30, 2006