Field Commander

Field Commander is nothing more Advance Wars with a fresh coat of paint. But while Nintendo players will hark that Sony stole their coveted stragety game, you can’t ignore the fact Sony’s multiplayer mode one-ups the GBA and DS versions.

But in the process of making Field Commander appeal to a more hardcore audience, Sony Online Entertainment also made the game far blander than it should be. Unit design is purely uninspired and the story and accompanying dialogue are as trite as the next game.

There's nothing wrong with the fundamentals, and the online play is sweetness, but a couple more weeks in the situation room would have helped this war sail smoother.

What it lacks in personality it makes up for in solid mechanics and slick execution, and should do any tactical fanatic proud. [July 2006, p.90]

Field Commander is a polished, well-presented game with loads of options, but it's let down by weak AI. Best enjoyed via multiplayer.

Whilst the Campaign offers a slice of the action away when you're away from a Wi-Fi access point, the fact remains that Field Commander's strength is in its online functionality. More specifically it's the fact that by implementing an Infrastructure mode, players don't have to scour the locality for a second player in order to enjoy some Human vs. Human warfare.

Field Commander has chosen a good series to emulate, and it emulates it with panache. [Sept 2006, p.130]

If you do have a DS but don’t own Advance Wars, skip Field Commander and pick up the true turn based strategy king. If you do already have Advance Wars, just play through it again and save your money for something truly new on the PSP.

It's ultimately disappointing that the best Sony could do with their advanced hardware is a poor man's version of a Game Boy game ["Advance Wars"]. But, hey, at least you can play it online.

Yet another area where Field Commander falls short - other games grade your performance, so you can go back and improve your strategy, but here it is simply win or lose, no matter how well you plan and execute your campaign.

Although Field Commander has plenty of options, it's doubtful hardcore strategy heads will find enough to get lost in.

A soulless clone of a good game. It puts almost all of the pieces together, but the two that it misses, intelligence and personality, are what make a game likable and engaging.

Just taking the best points of a fine gaming series does not a good game make. As a huge Advance Wars fan, I’m appalled that another developer could take such liberties, but they do say that imitation is the best form of flattery.

There are glitches upon glitches in the online version of this game, infesting the very area of the game that would have made it the finest in its class. Sometimes you cannot access the online mode. Sometimes, upon accessing it, you find your transmission games (games via email) frozen forever. You can play around the glitches until your FC becomes unplayable.