While it has fewer missions than Behind Enemy Lines each of Beyond the Call's missions is as big as the largest-size missions from BEL. Altogether I liked this game just as much as the first BUT the addition of several new abilities counteracts the added complexity of the longer missions. In fact, I feel they went too far and made the game too easy.

These abilities have been granted to all characters:

• Puppet - Basically, the character holds an enemy soldier at gunpoint, allowing you to control the soldier. The soldier has one ability: Distract. This single ability allows any character to have a Spy-lite in their pocket at all times.
  
• Stone - When thrown it causes all soldiers in earshot to look in the direction of the impact for a few seconds. If you instead use it to pelt a soldier several times directly he'll leave his post to investigate. Again, it just made things too easy.
  
• Cigarettes - Usually has to be salvaged from a dead soldier. When dropped within view of most enemy soldiers they'll leave their patrols/posts to pick up the pack and smoke them in a corner somewhere.

All three of these abilities are usable by any character and it really takes away from the puzzle aspect of Commandos that I really loved. The Green Beret's Decoy's thunder has been stolen and split 3 ways and the Spy... while he's not rendered obsolete he's definitely not as indispensable as he used to be.


In conclusion, I liked Beyond but not as much as Behind. The mission designs are somewhat more complex but this is watered down too far by the new, shared abilities.

While it has fewer missions than Behind Enemy Lines each of Beyond the Call's missions is as big as the largest-size missions from BEL. Altogether I liked this game just as much as the first BUT the addition of several new abilities counteracts the added complexity of the longer missions. In fact, I feel they went too far and made the game too easy. These abilities have been granted to all characters: [list] [*]Puppet - Basically, the character holds an enemy soldier at gunpoint, allowing you to control the soldier. The soldier has one ability: Distract. This single ability allows any character to have a Spy-lite in their pocket at all times. [*]Stone - When thrown it causes all soldiers in earshot to look in the direction of the impact for a few seconds. If you instead use it to pelt a soldier several times directly he'll leave his post to investigate. Again, it just made things too easy. [*]Cigarettes - Usually has to be salvaged from a dead soldier. When dropped within view of most enemy soldiers they'll leave their patrols/posts to pick up the pack and smoke them in a corner somewhere. [/list] All three of these abilities are usable by any character and it really takes away from the puzzle aspect of Commandos that I really loved. The Green Beret's Decoy's thunder has been stolen and split 3 ways and the Spy... while he's not rendered obsolete he's definitely not as indispensable as he used to be. [table] [tr] [th]Character[/th] [th]Ability[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Green Beret[/td] [td]Handcuffs - Pre-requisite to Puppeteering Fist - Pre-requisite to handcuffing[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Driver[/td] [td]Rifle - Basically, the pistol with 30% more range. It's unsilenced and therefore not very useful for most situations but it doesn't have limited ammo like the Sniper's rifle. Club - Same as the fist, but the Driver doesn't carry handcuffs so it's really only useful for a two-pronged attack when you want to quickly knock-out two soldiers in rapid succession.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Spy[/td] [td]Hanger - Unlike BEL, the Spy's disguise duties are no longer super simple. Previously, he just had to worry about getting ahold of the officer's uniform and after that he was untouchable. In Beyond he can/must usually steal his uniform from handcuffed enemies. The easiest to obtain is the common soldier but officers are not fooled by this disguise. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that officers usually patrol with several machinegunners in tow and are therefore impossible to knockout and handcuff. (You can't steal uniforms from dead enemies.) Ether - Same as the fist, but again, only the Green Beret carries the handcuffs so you'll need him to finish up otherwise the enemy will wake up and sound the alarm shortly. [/td] [/tr] [/table] In conclusion, I liked Beyond but not as much as Behind. The mission designs are somewhat more complex but this is watered down too far by the new, shared abilities.