Time Commando, on paper, sounds like a fun game. A time travelling beat-em up, as you go through numerous eras to stop a virus from corrupting a time machine.

The game falls apart immediately when you wrestle with the controls to attack opponents. I never got the feel for it properly. Dodging and blocking was a challenging thing, and closing the gap can feel impossible when the enemy has a weapon with greater range.

Muddle this in with tank controls, fixed camera angles, obnoxiously tight combat areas and not being able to backtrack to more favourable angles or terrain.

The game is hard as well. Encounters feel like a puzzle of where do I stand, what weapon do I use and knowledge of spawn triggers and locations. It's a Commando crawl through broken glass, where each attempt may see you get a little further as you refine your approach, or you might get unlucky and stun locked to death. There is no middle ground.

#PS1 #PlayStation #VideoGames