Field Commander (PlayStation Portable, 2006)

In this strategy game, you command a fictional allied army. Your enemy is a group who promotes terrorism, illegal gun sales, etc. So far, typical to other strategy games such as Military Madness and Advance Wars.
Unlike Advance Wars, you don't choose commanders with special abilities. You choose divisions with special abilities.
Although you do somewhat converse with other friendly (and unfriendly) commanders, you are the one in charge of the show.
No flashy movie when executing a special ability. Just a message that pops up and small text telling you what your units are capable of doing.
I would say I'm about 20% complete with the game right now. So far I would say it is worth the price, especially by purchasing from a seller on Ebay. It does match Advance Wars in a more mature way. The movie animations are little more violent. Nothing gory bad or anything.
The attacking system basically rewards the initiating attacker. After the initiating attacker attacks a unit, that unit will counter attack with its remaining force strength. I do like this feature because it adds a bit of realistic approach to the game.
The downside I have felt about this game is it feels a bit too easy. The computer AI doesn't exactly make the appropriate move that would hinder you the most, rather, give you a chance to move a damaged unit away or allow you to place one more land mine to disrupt it's movement.
Thats it for my review of the game so far. Thanks for reading.

Field Commander is a great wartime strategy game on PSP that is similar to Advanced Wars: great for anyone to play, and a fun, challenging game that makes you think while playing!

Story: ATLAS, an advanced organization built to fight covert groups that incite wars and promote trade in the black market, has recruited you. You missions vary from destroying all enemies to capturing the enemy's headquarters. You can fight in the air, in the sea or on land, and there are many different types of units to control, including tanks, half-tracks, infantry, snipers, tank busters, utility copters, Spec-Ops, trucks, anti-aircrafts, and more. I give this an A-.

Graphics: When moving, the view is an eagle eye's view, but once you attack or get attacked you move to a spectator's view. The graphics are pretty good, but do have room for improvement. The eagle eye's view doesn't give much detail at all, and though the units look somewhat realistic, they're not mind-boggling detailed. This might be the worst thing about the game, and considering the graphics are not that bad, that's a good sign! Despite the lack of detail, the animations look great and the environments are polished and look beautiful. I give this a B.

Sound: The background music that plays during the game fits perfectly, as it's typical war music. Sort of like the music that plays in Halo or a game like that. The voice-overs are great, with each of the game's 30-plus characters having their own unique voice! There is about 40 minutes of dialogue in this game, ranging from briefings to overviews. This is a great part of the game, so I give it an A.

Gameplay: Field Commander is a game where you can pick up and play, and when you need to go, you can simply save anytime to play whenever you want! In other words, you can save in between missions. The controls are easy to use and to get used to. Maybe 20 minutes at the most is needed to get comfortable. It's not confusing at all, and once you get the hang of it, you don't feel like stopping! During missions, you are assigned a particular objective, like some stages where you destroy all enemy units, or others that require capturing the enemy headquarters, which takes several turns of waiting on the base and clicking capture. And other objectives include surviving a certain amount of turns.
Also, the loading times in this game are great, except for in the beginning where it takes around 30 seconds to load up. After that, while starting a mission, the loading times are a mere 15 seconds at the most! For these reasons, I gave it an A-.

Difficulty: This game can get somewhat frustrating, as well as difficult, and at times you're going to get stuck. There's no way to change the difficulty, so you just have to keep on trying until you finally win. It usually took me three or four attempts on every level to win. It's a little harder than the normal PSP game, but still manageable, earning itself a B.

Overall: Field Commander is a great addition to your PSP collection and one of the best games out there. As I said above, everything you could want in a great game is here: great multiplayer options, eternal replayability for its great online and ability to make maps, easy, simple controls and more.

Get this game... I know you'll enjoy it!!!!!

A very fun game featuring a big improvement over previous strategy games, Sony made the controlling the game play very easy. The player can maneuver and manipulate the action effortless mainly using the x button. The learning curve isn't steep either; one quickly becomes engrossed with smashing the enemy. The graphics are solid and the game allows you to zoom in to watch a specific battle with 3d efforts or by pass the action sequence by hitting X. The only drawback is your enemy's artificial intelligence isn't very smart and once you get about halfway through the campaign you will know how to crush it. It is generally easy to beat this game except on like 3 missions. Still the game is good for hours of entertainment and the load times are much better than on other psp games.
My Tips:
1. Complete the campaign, you will unlock all of the divisions and learn the ropes. Do not skip this step and go straight for the quick battle mode, you can modify maps and do that later.
2. You can create your own missions and stack the deck in favor of your enemy. Like making it so that you are out numbered and that the enemy has a really strong team make up loaded with powerful tanks and helicopters.
3. You can disallow the enemy from creating stupid units like trucks. It likes to build harmless trucks at crucial times of the game.
4. Never under estimate the power of the grunts.
5. Try to prolong the games and like capture all of the buildings on the map before winning it.
6. Remember it is just a PSP game, but this one has advantages over the pc and console games like it.
I'd give it an 8 or 9 for fun

Field Commander is a turn-based strategy game using a square grid (versus hexagonal). The near-future setting works well and allows for a variety of land, sea, and air units. As is typical for these types of games, the greatest unit variety is among the land units while the navy and air force each have only three combat units. At least all the units feel balanced, and a combined force is always the best bet.

Field Commander can be viewed as the PSP's answer to the GameBoy Advance's excellent Advance Wars. From a game design perspective, the two titles are nearly identical. At a glance, the most obvious distictions between the two is Field Commander's 3D game engine and more realistic art style. Dig deeper into both games, and you'll start to discern the important differences between the two titles.

Let me get this out of the way: I think Advance Wars is the better game, at least for single player. The AI in Advance Wars is better at planning ahead and taking advantage of weak points. Latter levels in Field Commander are a challenge primarily due to the overwhelming odds. There have been a number of maps where the only challenge has been surviving an initial assault, and then the rest of the level consists of steadily wiping out the enemy units. On many of these maps, the enemy also has a clear strategic/economic advantage - the AI doesn't utilize the various units effeciently. This was most apparent on a water map: I had one heavily damaged unit obstructing a choke point. The AI had a number of top-condition ships nearby yet chose to repeatedly attack my crippled ship with its own heavily damaged unit. Round after round, the two ships ineffectively fired on one another. Looking at the big picture, the AI should have pulled its weakened ship away and attacked with a healthy one.

The story of Field Commander doesn't flow as well as Advance Wars's story. There are a few places where you can choose from a few different battlefields. Unfortunately, this causes some story elements to play out of order. It was initially confusing as the out-of-order mission briefings told me to "destroy the secret weapon", then "learn more about the secret weapon", and finally "investigate rumors about a new secret weapon".

These shortcomings are mitigated my the multiplayer, however. Playing against a skilled opponent can be a wonderfully nail-biting experience.

Field Commander's play sessions are ideal for the portable format. The turn-based structure allows you to either play just a few moves or complete a few rounds, your choice. The graphics are clean and units are easily discernable on the PSP's screen.

Keeping in mind that I've become a videogame cheapskate, I'm glad I picked up Field Commander on sale. $40 feels a little steep for the gaming experience it has provided, but not by much. On my subjective experience/dollar scale, Field Commander is second behind Lumines for PSP games. (Third place is a $15 Every Extend Extra, while other games include Namco Classic Collection, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade, Darkstalkers, Exit, and Wipeout Pure.)

This game is perfect for anyone who is a fan of military strategy games. If you are fans of Advance Wars then this is the perfect game. It takes all the elements of Advance Wars and add in new features like mines and stealth ground and air units. Alot more divisions than Advance wars but the campaign mode feels like it is on a string. Online play is cool too. A must buy for PSP owners.