Solid, atmospheric, Sound

I am not a patient person—that much is clear. In the past, I used to measure every car journey longer than 10 minutes in terms of episodes of the children's TV show “Sendung mit der Maus” ("The show with the mouse") to have a point of comparison. I used to cycle to school in seven minutes, even though according to traffic regulations it should have taken ten. And even today, I like to rent a bike to save myself boring and tedious walks. I just hate it when I feel like I'm wasting my time... and yet I love real-time tactical games.

Most recently, I was able to indulge this fascination in the titles from the German development studio Mimimi Games (Shadow Gambit, Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3) before it unfortunately closed down at the end of 2023. The Commandos series was probably what sparked this fascination. I got to see the first part, Behind Enemy Lines, at a young age at my older cousin's house, who impressively demonstrated his understanding of youth protection with further insights into Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Counter-Strike.

Other entries in the Commandos -series

Soundtrack

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998)

Soundtrack

Commandos 2: Men of Courage (2001)

I didn't get to play it myself until years later, after a friend gave me the second installment, Commandos 2: Men of Courage. He had given up in frustration because the lengthy levels and meticulous planning and tactics had robbed him of all the fun. For me, it was exactly the opposite: I was happy about every bit of progress I made and thought carefully about how to advance. My personal challenge was to take out every enemy, every guard, and everything that had a field of vision—without weapons.

But what's it all about? Well, the name gives it away: we control a group of special forces soldiers, the eponymous Commandos, who sabotage Nazi activities amid the turmoil of World War II. Each of the team members, from the neoprene-clad diver to the muscle-bound Green Beret who usually graces the cover of the series, has an arsenal of special abilities and items at their disposal. Due to my playing style, useful tools such as the sniper's rifle were naturally out of the question, which made some sections a real test of patience.

I can no longer judge how well the game has aged due to the lack of common comfort features found in modern representatives of the genre. A remaster of the first three games was recently released, but they are said to be of mediocre quality, which is why I didn't even bother to check them out. Checking them out is a good keyword here, because the original Commandos 2 still looks great today. The timeless isometric look with 2D backgrounds and 3D characters still works in 2026, although I would have liked to see a good remaster with better resolution. I'm already itching to play it.

The score

The change of composer, which was hinted at in the Beyond the Call of Duty expansion for the predecessor, has now been fully implemented in Men of Courage . Instead of David García-Morales Inés, who created the original theme, Mateo Pascual is once again responsible for the music. The Spanish composer, who according to his homepage has a manageable number of engagements under his belt, enchants me with a total of 29 tracks on the original soundtrack album.

Due to its MIDI sounds consisting of synth strings and beats, the style is somewhat reminiscent of the early Heroes of Might and Magic-games or The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. This discrepancy in theme, which from today's perspective could easily be interpreted as a clash between world war and fantasy, is likely due in large part to technical limitations. In the past, many things sounded similar – just look at Tomb Raider. Especially when considering even more significant limitations, such as the chip music of the Gameboy, the only differentiator between Pokémon and Mega Man is the quality of the melodies.

To quote Andreas from the German Show Frauentausch (Wives Swap): “It's quality in the home. Pascual achieves this through recurring instrumentation in the form of dominant brass and high strings, which appear in almost every track at one point or another – we are already familiar with similar sounds from Disciples: Sacred Lands by Sébastien Thifault. I never tire of mentioning how important this form of stringency and coherence is, and leitmotifs and recurring instruments are the key to a well-rounded experience. New approaches such as the siren-like female vocals (Road to War: On the RoadMateo Pascual4) also provide recurring highlights.

We hear this interplay particularly well in Road to War: DeploymentMateo Pascual5, which made it into the third edition of my Top 100 list list thanks to its versatile mix of beachside espionage, 1980s TV series, and World War II drama. The song reappears on the album, this time in a faster version called Sinking ShinanoMateo Pascual5, which I like just as much. In order to do justice to the various locations such as Thailand and the Solomon Islands, the composer occasionally incorporates stereotypical Oriental and Asian sounds (River KwaiMateo Pascual3,Danger AwaitsMateo Pascual4,Seeking the Peace of the SoulMateo Pascual4). This fits the setting and blends elegantly into the overall picture without becoming annoying.

Despite its uniformity, the soundtrack does not remain monotonous. The familiar instruments repeatedly appear in compositional experiments of varying quality. While White DeathMateo Pascual3 White Death sounds as if two tracks are playing simultaneously, Night GuardMateo Pascual4 has an almost tribal rhythm that invites you to groove along. Other exceptions include I Don’t Want to RememberMateo Pascual4 , with its fantasy-like harp, and the conspiratorial, tuba-heavy See You Soon?Mateo Pascual3. My favorites include A Storm Is ComingMateo Pascual5, which once again reveals strong parallels to Disciples with its trumpet, and Silent KillersMateo Pascual5, whose escalating drama has something satisfying about it.

The composition manages to strike a balance between being an unobtrusive background player and a striking leading actor. At its core, however, it remains music for a stealth game, sounding brilliant in some places and like 80s TV in others. With my nostalgia, I have no choice but to praise it, even if the album is not a musical revolution. But it doesn't have to be; sometimes a small, targeted operation is enough for resounding success.