Разработчик: Spellbound
Описание
In this western-style title, discover a game of strategy and tactics played out in exceptional real time. You're in charge of a team of 6 mercenaries and must find a way to complete your missions, be it infiltrating an enemy fortress, saving a team member or escaping an ambush... Combine the different skills of your 6 heroes to lead them to victory.
The Story
El Paso, a typical Wild West town in the southwestern United States near the Mexican border. It is the year 1881. For the last few months, the trains belonging to the famous railroad company, Twinnings & Co have been the target of a whole series of hold-ups and ambushes. The management of the company has decided enough is enough and they have to put an end to the raids. It has offered a reward of $15,000 for anyone who captures the leader of the gang responsible.But no one in and around El Paso has the courage to take on the might of the bandidos, so the outlaws just keep on robbing train after train. Even the local Marshal is keeping well out of it.
It’s only when a stranger rides into town that things start to change. Bounty hunter John Cooper pays a visit to the local Twinnings & Co manager offering to end the railroad company’s problems once and for all. He gathers together a gang of his old partners and declares war on the bandidos. But during his pursuit, which will take him through half of the southwestern United States, Cooper soon discovers that on this mission nothing is quite what it seems...
Key Features
- More than 20 enemies with different profiles, from the lazy and cowardly bandit, to the fearsome mercenary.
- A team of 6 characters, each with their own very distinct characteristics, to manage in real time.
- 25 different levels provide nail-biting intrigue, with cinematic transition scenes and landscapes that will take your breath away. Amazing artificial intelligence!
- Each enemy is ranked on 10 different criteria, including intelligence, courage, marksmanship, resistance to alcohol, etc.
- An array of different settings: day-time, night-time, storms, dusk, villages, ghost towns, fortresses, gold mines, saloons, prisons, boats 6 training levels to allow the player to really get into the story
Поддерживаемые языки: english, french, italian, german, spanish - spain, russian
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP/7/8/10 (32 or 64 bit)
- Processor: 1 GHz Processor
- Memory: 256 MB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with OpenGL 3.1
- OS *: Windows XP/7/8/10 (32 or 64 bit)
- Processor: 1.4 GHz recommended
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with OpenGL 3.1
Mac
- OS: OSX: 10.7 Lion
- Processor: CPU 1 GHz
- Memory: 256 MB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 2.0 compatible
- Storage: 2 GB available space
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu and SteamOS
- Processor: Intel 1.4 GHz
- Memory: 256 MB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with OpenGL 3.1
- Storage: 2 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Requires: 32 bit architecture, SDL 2.0 32 bit
Отзывы пользователей
A treasure trove of childhood memories! I got Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive from my neighbor and played it endlessly. I almost always used the “Hollowman” cheat, which made me invisible, turning the game into a sandbox-like experience most of the time. On those rare occasions when I played without the invisibility cheat, my heart would be pounding in my chest—it was a whole different level of intensity.
The game itself is genuinely entertaining. It features 25 levels, including six tutorial missions and a single demo mission. Unfortunately, there’s no co-op or multiplayer mode, which could have been a fantastic addition. There’s also no built-in way to adjust the difficulty (aside from using cheat codes). Some players might find it too easy, while others might find certain parts frustratingly hard. However, the early 2000s AI has its quirks and flaws, which you can exploit if you’re clever.
Personally, I’ve always struggled to coordinate multiple characters effectively in the heat of battle. Instead, I end up tackling challenges one character at a time, breaking missions down into smaller “mini-missions.” For example, I’d punch a guard over there, hide behind something nearby, sneak up to knife another enemy, set a snake trap, and eliminate foes one by one in a strategic chain of actions.
That said, the lack of a sandbox mode or additional missions limits the game’s replay value to around 50-80 hours. Still, those hours are some of the most enjoyable ones I’ve spent gaming. I’ve always wished for a thriving community to create new levels and keep the experience alive. With its creative potential and charm, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive could have been even more legendary with expanded content and modern updates.
TL;DR
A throwback to my childhood that's still enjoyable today, although it does have some hiccups due to its age.
Story
A gang of bandits have been raiding trains and no one dares go after them. Bounty hunter John Cooper is only one interested in apprehending the leader of the train robbers and he sets out to assemble a team for the job. Add some misdirection, framing for a murder, robbing the robbers and so on for some cliche drama and you'll have a serviceable plot to hold the game together. The story isn't really anything to write home about and the game doesn't overexert itself with more than just the bare minimum of a couple of so-so cutscenes in-between levels for some plot, but it's enough to have an overarching plot at least. You're probably here for some good ol' western shootouts rather than some groundbreaking-level plot anyway. Honestly, this was one of my favourite childhood games and I didn't even understand what the story was back then, since I was playing a version of the game that was in Russian... not one iota of which I could actually comprehend back then.
Gameplay
Desperados is an isometric real-time tactical game, where you control a team of bounty hunters against a map full of bandidos. The idea is that while you can just shoot everyone you see to get your mission objectives over with, you are by far outnumbered by the baddies and your guns overheat with use, so you have to be smart with how you eliminate the henchmen in-between you and your mission objectives. You can go with a stealthy approach and kill off enemies one-by-one (or in small groups) without alerting the entire map to your presence, but you can just as well go loud if you find a way to limit how many of them can get to you at a time. For example, you could place a snake at the top of a ladder so that the bandidos die from venomous bites each time they clamber up. Or you could draw them to an area with some noise and throw a bottle of sleeping gas at them. Or bait them into climbing to the second floor of a building and knifing/shooting them each time they come through the door. There's plenty of ways to go through each level, both for those who love pure stealth, and those who just want to go on a murder rampage.
Each character is equipped with an arsenal of five weapons/items/actions. The first slot of every character is taken up by a firearm (except for one having a blowpipe) - each different in its ammo count, firing speed, range, damage output and so on - but all the other slots are unique. One character can throw a knife for a silent kill, another can draw attention with her thick thighs and then kick them in the balls when the poor fools get close enough, while a different character can solve a lot of problems with a good ol' rock throw to the face (turns out the humble rock is the sure-fire method to put people out of commission with the biggest range in the game). On the one hand, all of the characters are unique in what they can do; on the other hand, the characters can be horribly overspecialised for certain tasks. Only one specific character can saddle a horse (and he's the only character who can carry bodies for half of the game), only one other character can tie up unconscious NPCs so they don't get up again, you need another character to patch up injuries or unlock doors and so on.
The game is rather clunky, as could be expected from its age. The controls could be more intuitive, and you can't run-and-shoot or do other concurrent actions with the same character. There is a feature that allows setting up actions for multiple characters to carry out at the same time, which is a nice way to set up a team strat for a specific situation, but it does have its hiccups... since closing in on a target and using an item are considered two separate actions, so you have to manually order the character to close in and then use this feature to quickly trigger the character's ability.
Level Design
There are 25 levels in this game. Most take place at new locations, through a couple of levels reuse the setting of old levels. Some levels take place during the night, some in rainy weather, but weather conditions don't change over time. The levels are all 2D with no camera rotation, which can make it horribly hard to notice enemies hiding behind corners, since most of the levels have tons of buildings scattered about.
Overview
The Good
+Holds up well for a 2001 game;
+Most levels allow both stealth and brute force tactics;
+Nostalgia;
+Quite a lot of different levels;
+Cheap
The Neutral
*Enemies are frequently unpredictable
*Soundtrack
The Bad
-A bit clunky;
-No camera rotation;
-Enemies deal far too much damage from long distance compared to you
-A lot of character actions are useless or highly situational;
-Characters are a bit overspecialised for certain actions (e.g. only one character can saddle a horse or tie up a guy)
-Tutorials don't explain some basic features;
-Transitions between levels are lacklustre;
-Final character gets introduced so late into the game that you barely have time to use her;
it crash the second i launched it
Amazing game
good game for unlimited hours of playing
This is a game that looks interesting until you play it. One of the things that make this game really show its age is that the user interface and controls are just stupid and vague. It's the first thing I noticed going in. That combined with just a sense of "what the hell am I supposed to do" makes it unplayable for me. The earliest mission involves trying to trick/distract someone using a dropped pocket watch. Then, apparently you're supposed to sneak up and punch them? I tried a dozen times and then just gave up. I couldn't even make it past the first mission. The positive reviews on this must be pure nostalgia, because it's not worth the $3 that I paid on Black Friday.
Very cool that they updated it so it runs on big screens and Linux, BUT they removed the cheats with that and now it is just too frustrating to play. Every little error in a mission means that you loose
oUTSTANDING!
This game so awesome! It was my all time favorite 2D RTS game, still is now. Cause I'am a big fan of westerns. I had so much fun playing with it back then.
that's a good game
After playing Commandos I looked for a similar game and found this one. Same gameplay but slower. I like it anyway.
It's a classic gem of the genre.
However the steam version is bugged and/or unplayable for some users/systems.
Check the steam discussion for workarounds, they exist.
Classic
Overall: D ***Mid campaign, final grade pending***
Enjoyable? Somewhat
Recommendable? Only if you’re really interested in the genre
Replayable? TBD
+Isometric, stealth, p&c western
+quick save
+/- rewards stealth—I can’t see any other viable approach atm
-feels too “rinse and repeat”
Steam Deck compatibility: ✅
Runs smoothly, no crashes or bugs encountered yet
Over 8+hrs on a full battery
Button reconfiguration not needed if you’re okay with clicking directly on screen prompts but I put my hotkeys on a radial menu and left most of the rest as is (no control manual, spent some time deciphering button system 👎🏽), either way, controls feel a bit clumsy
I like the story-rich but it's super difficult to control, and often goofy behaviors. Too difficult to control the characters,
simply the best game i ever played
Back in the days, you could only buy phisical games.
Miss this one because it was not available.
Brilliant game, difficult.
The true Commandos 2
Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive shows that great gameplay stands the test of time.
Over 20 years later, its tactical stealth mechanics are still engaging, akin to the Commandos series. With strategic planning, well-crafted missions, and a gripping story, this classic is a must-play for fans of isometric tactical games.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Spellbound |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 15.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 78 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 86% положительных (710) |