Field Commander for the PSP is very similar to Advance Wars on the DS side of things. You use turn based commands to negotiate your troops around a map to win a number of scenarios.



The key to this game is getting familiar with the different units under your command and coming to know the strengths and weaknesses of each one. You send the fast scouts zipping in to get the lay of the land, to spot where your enemies are hiding. Then you call in the heavy guns to blast them to oblivion.

The graphics are nicely done to immerse you into the chess match. The graphics are not ultra-realistic, but are more along the lines of a well drawn cartoon. The units move with a good amount of realism. As a "watcher in the sky" you zoom in and circle around the fighting to see it from all sides. Sometimes it is just "eye candy" but sometimes it does help to get a new angle on things and come up with an ideal strategy.

There's a number of missions here so you can play through each one several times, looking for the ideal solution, trying different combinations of troops. That being said, at some point you run out of interest for a given map. It would have been nice if that had some sort of randomizing factor.

People who are used to real time gaming, where you race around at top speed and madly try to keep track of everything that is going on, the slower pace here might take some getting used to. It is about strategizing and plotting. You look over the map, figure out how to best deploy your troops, and carefully get them into place. It is a game of chess, not paintball.

So that being said, some gamers who need the high paced adrenaline of button mashing might not appreciate this game. You need a different mentality, one that seeks out weaknesses and carefully layers on attacks until victory is achieved.

Well recommended for any fan of turn based gaming!

Buy Field Commander from Amazon.com