Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive Demo

Toward the end of the 19th century, America's “Wild West” was populated by bandits, gunslingers and bounty hunters, if movies are to be trusted on the subject. Because everyone had a gun and the law was not that strictly enforced in most cases, murder and robberies were pretty common, but so were those who pursued the criminals in order to receive the reward placed on their heads.

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is a real-time tactics game that takes place in a western setting and features the usual ingredients of the genre, including fast guns, bounties and bandits. The goal of the game, however, is for your team to sneak around the maps and take out the enemies without attracting too much attention and without putting themselves too in much danger while doing so.

Thus, the main storyline tells the tale of John Cooper, a professional bounty hunter who takes on the case of El Diablo, a bandit suspected to have robbed a couple of trains over the course of a few months. Naturally, in order to tackle him and his crew, Cooper decides to gather a worthy team to assist him and take advantage of their unique talents and abilities.

The gameplay features a classic top-down isometric view, which allows you to be aware of a large portion of the map at any given time. Since you get to control each character individually, the action is pretty much similar to the Commandos series, especially since a lot of the mechanics are the same. Hence, every character has unique traits and abilities that makes them indispensable in the mission, such as carrying bodies, saddling horses or luring the guards away.

In essence, the entire purpose is to stay as hidden as possible and strike only when you are entirely certain that you do not risk attracting any more attention. As far as the graphic quality is concerned, while there are no 3D models to speak of, the isometric buildings and characters are superbly drawn and animated, especially since a lot of work went into creating a unique western atmosphere.

In the end, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is quite capable of offering you a few good hours of fun and strategy, as well as an interesting storyline to keep you interested. The AI proves to be quite the challenge most of the time, since it actively tries to ruin your tactics with every chance it gets.