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SHADOW COMPANY - PC by Paul Rose 25/9/98 THERE was a time when war movies were about the glory of war, about gung-ho marine captains chomping on cigars and dreaming of back home while they bloodlessly shot a few more 'Ratzis' for killing little Private Johnny. Shadow Company is along the same lines of Commandos: a small crack squad of troops sent behind enemy lines to carry out covert missions, via the tried and tested point-and-click method. Where Shadow Company brings the genre bang up to date, however, is in its glorious 3D visuals. Think Myth set in WW2. Unlike Commandos, however, you have a lot more control over the mission parameters. You can choose whether to strike during the day or at night, and you get to choose from up to 12 troops, and equip them as you wish. The non-linear missions allow you to complete your goal any way you deem necessary. Either sneak in by cutting enemy radio communications and going under the fence, or go in all guns blazing for a frontal assault. However, the enemy AI is spot on and the latter option is likely to find your squad swamped by reinforcements. The game is due from Interactive Magic sometime next year. No, really.
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Nowadays it's all about ultra-realism and the horror of war, about how
atrocity changes even the innocent. Nowadays we get Tom Hanks instead of Telly
Savalas. Mercifully, computer war games have yet to be troubled by worthiness -
can you imagine how tedious Commandos from Eidos would've been had your troops
agonised every time a comrade was lost in battle?