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Guess we all know that transferring a 2D game intro 3D may result in a complete disaster. Sure, it may put the series on the whole new level of epicness (like it did with Nintendo's titles from Nintendo 64 era), but still, there are always games like Bubsy 3D, Earthworm Jim 3D, Castlevania 64 and many, many others to ruin both your day and your mental health. Let's just admit it, if you weren't born yesterday, something like that happened to you at least once. You love a 2D game series with all of your heart, then boom! 3D title comes out and it turns out to be the same exact thing with what Johnny Depp found in his bed – a bunch of stinky doo-doo. Happened with the very best of them, really. Happened with Contra, happened with Altered Beast, happened with Golden Axe, happened with Final Fight... Even the third installment of the original Prince of Persia series sucked pretty hard. So... yeah. You know where this is going. What we have here is failed 3D transfer.
See, the original Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive was awesome. Up to this day I consider it to be the very best Commandos-like game ever made. It took everything that was good about Commandos and improved it. It was way more balanced than Commandos, the characters were very likeable, while tactical freedom? It was a pure joy. The tools, the maps... Awesome, awesome stuff. Can talk about the first Desperados for days and can't even count the times I've finished it. In other words, the game was absolutely brilliant and if you haven't played it yet, you should totally do so. Especially since Steam offers the updated version of it now that works perfectly fine on modern systems and even offers higher resolution. Naturally, it was hard not to expect quite a lot from the sequel. It was clear that Spellbound Entertainment loved PYRO Studios' games and that they knew what they were doing. The problem was... they actually didn't.
That's it. They didn't really know what they were doing. Even though Jean‑Marc Haessig was still there as a creative director, the rest of the team was new (partially because quite a lot of people were fired after Chicago 1930, another Commandos clone from Spellbound failed to sell) and, well, it shows. Because... let's just say that the guys... ended up being a bit too ambitious here. Even though Plastic Reality already proved with their KOREA: Forgotten Conflict that turning Commandos into 3D can be extremely challenging , Spellbound decided that something as basic as that is not enough for them. With big publisher like ATARI behind them, they felt like they can move the mountains. They looked at Dungeon Keeper with its option to control any creature from the first person view and thought “Dang! We want that in our game!” So... yeah. Not only Desperados 2 turned the old formula into full 3D, it also offered a third-person view mode, which was supposed to feel a lot like third-person action game. Note that I said “supposed to”. Because, as you can easily guess, nothing went right here. Literally. Nothing.
The only thing about Desperados 2 you should really know is that it feels extremely cheap and overall unfinished. Remember all those cheap tactical games made by small and poor teams? Stuff like Paradise Cracked, Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge and so on? That's pretty much what we have here. In other words, Desperados 2 is not much better than KOREA. Just because it comes with the same exact cheap aftertaste that ruins most of the fun. And guess what? There's more. First – the game became way more action-oriented. Remember how the original Desperados fixed Commandos' biggest issue by making the guns overheat? By how it tried to make you think instead of shooting? Well, you can forget that. Desperados 2 actually forces action on you quite often. Very cheap action too, both in RTS and third-person mode (anyone remembers Virtuoso? That's pretty much how third-person mode here feels).
Heck, the game can't even explain your goals properly. Most of the time, it just wastes your time describing the current story events without providing you with the proper goals. So, good luck guessing. Even the story this time feels painfully cheap and ugly. I won't bother asking why good ol' Sanchez looks like Ukrainian Cossack in this game, but seriously, the entire charm of the original Desperados disappeared. Desperados 2 looks cheap, feels cheap and, well, it is cheap. It also ends with the cliffhanger. Because why freakin' not, right? But I'll return to cliffhanger a bit later.
I can't say that this game is completely unplayable, though. If you've played second-rate games before and desperately need something like this, you may as well finish this one once. I've sure played worse than this. Like... a lot worse. But still, I can only say that what PYRO did in their Commandos 2 was way more smarter than this. The guys knew their limits and didn't want to risk it with a full 3D. Spellbound were way more ambitious. And paid the price. With way bigger budget and way more time, Desperados 2 had all chances to become something brilliant. The problem was – there was no bigger budget, there was no time and, well, let's just admit it, the new team didn't even feel the Commandos' soul. They just tried to make bigger and more impressive Desperados. In 3D. And failed. Hard.
Up to the point when, after seeing the result, ATARI quickly pulled the plug on the expansion. Yes, that cliffhanger here wasn't for nothing and Spellbound did plan the expansion. Since very beginning. Only after seeing Desperados 2, ATARI didn't want it anymore. Eventually, Spellbound were able to release it in a form of a stand-alone game called Helldorado, but that's the story for another day. And so is the question who in the right mind asked the guys to work on fourth GOTHIC game. And as for today, I just want you to know that Desperados 2 is just a bunch of failed ideas and broken dreams. Cheap, unpleasant and overall ugly, it is not the game you're looking for. Dixi.