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- Games Operators
- Games Operators
- Games Operators
- Games Operators
Radio Commander
Released On: Oct 10, 2019
65
5.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
65
17% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
83% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
65
17% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
83% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
I think this is a game that for those liking the overall concept and ideas will be very enjoyable. For anyone not interested in mentally keeping track of things and simply moving counters around on a map, not so much.
While listening to panicked screams of our soldiers, profanities, demands for support and evacuation or reports about casualties, we can really get the feeling of sitting right in the middle of the war chaos. And also – the crushing feeling of being unable to help. [12/2019, p.82]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
5.5
30% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
30% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
40% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
5.5
30% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
30% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
40% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
The developers of Radio Commander should be commended for trying something new in the RTS genre by actually employing a "less is more" approach: making the player blind to what is happening on the battlefield and totally dependent on reports from your troops helps immerse you into the hellhole that was the Vietnam War.
It's just a pity the game is lacking a bit of polish: voice recognition may or may not work for you (it didn't in my case), there were still some bugs when I last played the game and you're sometimes provided with misleading cues.
Report
PC
Refreshing idea: you are asked to take control over your troops, but you have no direct control; developers want you to feel in the middle of the action, but they remove you from it. Brilliant on paper, but players remain prisoners of the limitation the game designers set for themselves, leaving us with shallow combat and unnecessarily too little feedback from what's going on in the battlefield.
A brilliant, almost revolutionary idea that got lost amidst Vietnamese rice fields. The roleplay is excellent and you will feel like a real general… But the strategic simulation is bland and, frankly, quite boring.
Radio Commander is brought down heavily by an identity crisis in its core game design and inherent tedium and repetition.
Radio Commander is a solid novelty, but it's unlikely to be a truly memorable experience for those who pick it up.
Tl;dr: Cool idea, bad execution.
This is too bad, as I was really looking forward to this one.
Pros: Decent visuals. Map and menus are nice. Panning around the base is cool. Mission intro videos are nice. I enjoyed the non-important banter with your units.
Cons: There's a ton, but let's skip to the important one: gameplay is boring. Ask where a guy is. Make sure they're still fighting. Fast-forward. Repeat. Super boring and repetitive. The radio aspect just masks an inherently shallow strategy game where nothing matters more than just constantly sending all of your guys to overwhelm the single enemy. Also just repeatedly call in artillery and helos. There's just no heart to this; it feels brain-dead and boring.
The voice-acting is super stilted. You can obviously tell when they're playing the next audio clip, and this is SUPER apparent when they report status (which is what you're doing 70% of the time).
Summary: They put no thought or effort into the gameplay. Yup you talk to your guys over the radio, but this just masks an incredibly shallow experience. Look elsewhere for your realism itch.
Report
PC
Summary Use the radio to give commands to the soldiers on the battlefield. Keep track of the situation based on their voice reports only. Lead US platoons to clash with Vietcong in a realistic, innovative approach to the RTS genre. Make hard choices in a narrative driven experience, and face the outcome.
Platforms:
- PC
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
- Xbox One
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Oct 10, 2019
Developer:
- Serious Sim
Publisher: Games Operators
Genres:
