A good sign of any game is when you really don't want to quit playing it to write the review. You keep rationalizing that you need to spend a *bit* more time with it to really be sure you can do a thorough job (As opposed to the games you must force oneself to finish even a level or two before you can be free of it). Game in point: Desperados. This squad-based realtime strategy game from European developer, Spellbound, has absolutely no regard for my need for free time. To make matters worse, the game actually logs total minutes played, so you can't even deny the amount of ones life spent maneuvering your heroes through the perils and adventures in this wild west themed time-suck.

Ok. What's the deal? Think Commandos meets Hang'em High. You are in control of a crew of "Desperados" or bounty hunters, specifically, who are after a bunch of gold stolen from a train outside of ol' El Paso. On the way you run into plenty of trouble with the law, henchmen, crooked sheriffs, and eventually El Diablo himself, the evil bandit leader. There are about 20 missions made up of really nice prerendered isometric maps, with environments ranging from towns, forests, mountains, abandoned mines, and other authentic and happily cliched settings. In fact, there is everything you would want from the time honored western: dancing girls, double crosses, of course gun fights, and the occasional jump-from-the-roof-onto-the-horse and ride off into the sunset.

You control John Cooper, bounty hunter, as you help him rescue, conscript, or otherwise acquire his five teammates, in order to go after a huge bounty on El Diablo, and get your hands on his loot. The characters join your team as the missions unfold, which provides for a natural and integrated story line. Each character has a distinct personality to go along with the abilities, and it makes them all the more fun to play. Aside from their guns, Spellbound has done an excellent job of equipping the characters with unique and complementary skills. Between all the characters there are well over 20 unique abilities; everything from Doc's sniper scope and knock-out gas vials, to Sanchez's "fake siesta" skill to Sam's "Bag with snake in it". There is tons of variety with the team and you can usually find several different ways to complete a mission.

Desperados is an easy install and takes up about a 1/2 gig on the hard drive. This is pretty standard these days. One of the primary things I look for is the ability to play in higher resolutions, and Depserados delivers with options from 640x480 to 1024x768. The game has run flawlessly on my system and seems to be bug free.

The sound for Desperados is well done, too. Each character and all dialogue is professionally voiced in unabashed stereotypes of the genre. sound effects are solid, and the music, though not really memorable, is definitely "westernesque" and fits the mood.

As I mentioned the graphics are good - not stunning - but very nice. The look is very saturated with vivid colors and sharp contrasts. The different settings are well rendered, and there is a definite enjoyment just in making it to a new mission just to see the artwork. Unlike the forthcoming Commandos 2, the scene can only be viewed from one angle. Character behind buildings can be highlighted, and major buildings "cut away" when a character enters them.

Though Desperados has proved very addictive, and alot of fun, it has a few short comings. Actually, shortcomings may not be fair. Basically they are "design decisions," and it may be up to you to decide if it was the right one or not. Though you can set up very useful "quick actions" to coordinate teammates movements or actions at the same time (for instance, set up lady Jane to distract a guard while Cooper knifes him) There is no in-game pause, such as in Baldur's Gate. Maybe that is getting out of the spirit of "real time," but with 6 players, when things get hot it is too much to control them all intelligently, and one will end up getting shot when he could have easily defended himself, but you were busy (your characters are completely dependant on your controls and have no AI). Subsequently, I find myself hiding most of the team while I work with one or two characters.

Another issue is the AI. The enemy guards have that familiar field of vision cone, and a certain range of hearing. Once one is alerted to something he checks it out, and usually gets a knife to the noggin for his trouble. Then slowly by slowly you lure all the guards into your trap until there is one left where there use to be a dozen, but in many cases he seems oblivious to the fact that all his compadres are taking a bathroom break. Sometime guards notice and look around a bit, but even if they find the bodies of there fellow guards, they will only go "red alert" for a minute or so before going back to their base guard duty. This is a little unrealistic. At some point you definitely have to just treat the action like a puzzle game and forget what real life would be like. Its no less fun because of this. In fact, in real life, you probably can't sneak and fight your way through a western town, so who's worried about real life.

My final complaint is that it seems like to get through 90% of the missions, the easiest or preferred method is simply to methodically kill ALL the enemy guards. This bugs me for several reasons. 1) By the end of some missions, I have about 100 dead bodies stashed in houses throughout the city. This is just a blood bath! Sure you can finish some missions by being sneaky, but it is so much more of a pain, and you will be reloading enough as it is.  2) I can't quite figure out if I am a good guy or not. This isn't so much a gameplay issue as a moral or "role playing" one. I know I am some sketchy vigilante, but along with the bandito gangs I am taking out, I also seem to be killing my fair share of sheriffs, prison guards, and deputies. I guess you can assume they are all corrupt, but in most case you are forced to kill at least some of them to realistically have chance to finish a mission. To that end, I would say this game is "morally ambiguous" enough to warrant parents being aware of their kids playing it. No lessons to be learned here, though ultimately, the game is a fun adventure that no one will take too seriously.

If you enjoy squad-based action or the western genre, you are sure to enjoy this game, and at its reasonable price (around $30-$35 at many retailers) it is a great bargain while you hold out for Commandos 2.

Install: Easy
Basic install. You should be up in running in minutes. No worries about 3D card support.

Gameplay: 7
Good variety. The basics of the game are fun, and each mission provides neat twists. I would have like an in-game pause.

Graphics: 8
Very well done classic western motifs.

Sound: 8
Again, very well done. All that's missing is Hugo Montenegro

Difficulty: 9
Be prepared to reload as you try strategies over and over again.

Concept: 8
Arguably the best Western genre game ever made.

Multiplayer: 
None.

Overall: 8
A very polished and well developed game. If its description at all interests you, I doubt you will be disappointed.