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Field Commander for PlayStation Portable
Field Commander for PlayStation Portable is a military strategy game in which you take turns directing an army. As an ATLAS commander, you fight the organisation Shadow Nation in thirty story missions. Infantry, tanks, aircraft and ships move across a map divided into squares. You check how much ground a unit can cover and which enemies are within range. Then you decide the order of your movements and attacks, without quick button reactions determining the outcome.
Buildings provide income with which you produce new troops. Infantry can capture enemy buildings, while transport vehicles carry soldiers to another position. Fuel, ammunition, repairs and terrain properties also need attention. A powerful tank can achieve little if it ends up unsupported in the wrong place. Different divisions have their own advantages and special powers. Alongside the campaign, you can set up individual battles and use Mission Creator to put together your own maps, units and victory conditions.
With Hot Swap, two people play on one PSP with one game: after each turn, you pass the system across. A local Ad Hoc duel with two PSP systems is also included. With your own game copies on two PSP systems with wireless networking, you can face each other this way. The original internet matches, rankings and online mission exchange are not offered here as working services. The solo campaign and local play are separate components.
Region and language
Our PlayStation Portable games are European editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
You receive the physical UMD edition. You need a PSP with a UMD drive to play it; a PSP Go cannot play this disc.
Manual
Field Commander for PlayStation Portable includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Field Commander
Sony Online Entertainment announced Field Commander in September 2005 and brought the game to PSP in 2006. The studio was mainly known for large online worlds such as EverQuest, but also developed standalone games for Sony's handheld. Field Commander was intended to become a complete military strategy game on a portable system. At the announcement, producer Clint Worley emphasised that thinking ahead and reading your opponent mattered more than complicated calculations or a large number of manual actions.
Its structure follows the turn-based battles of Advance Wars, which appeared on Nintendo handhelds. Sony Online Entertainment chose three-dimensional landscapes, vehicles and short combat sequences when two units attack each other. Beneath that presentation, the map remained divided into squares. The distinction between ground, air and naval forces, income from buildings and the advantages of different divisions give you several decisions each turn. The PSP release was therefore built around a map and an army, rather than directly controlling one soldier.
Mission Creator and the different ways to play against another person were important parts of the original design. Alongside local duels, you could once play over the internet and send turns to a server without both players being present simultaneously. Those network features belong to the release's history and are not a current service promise. Hot Swap kept things simpler: two commanders could complete an entire battle using the same handheld. That combination of campaign, map building and local opposition defined the original UMD's offering.
Similar games for PlayStation Portable
Worms: Open Warfare 2 for PSP also gives you time to plan a turn, but has small worm teams fight across destructible side-view landscapes. A grenade's trajectory, wind and where a worm lands matter greatly there. Field Commander divides entire armies across squares and lets you capture buildings for extra income. You plan ahead in both games; Worms demands precise shots, whereas Field Commander mainly calls for a coordinated advance by different units.
Metal Gear Acid on PSP also transforms military action into considered choices. You build a card deck that makes movements, weapons and abilities available during infiltration missions. Field Commander uses army units, buildings and an economy instead of a hand of playing cards. Both make a careless step have later consequences. In Acid, you prepare the options available to a few infiltrators; in Field Commander, you maintain mutual support across an entire army.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for PSP also has you weigh up positions and attack range on a grid map. There, individual characters develop through jobs and abilities within a fantasy story. Field Commander focuses on military divisions, building new vehicles and capturing buildings. Both reward a carefully arranged group, but the long-term development of a band of heroes gives way in Field Commander to the resources and units you manage during a battle.
Killzone Liberation on PSP also shows combat from an elevated angle and asks you to read cover and enemy positions. However, you directly control Jan Templar there, roll away from grenades and fire while the action continues. Field Commander pauses combat between turns and gives you command of multiple units. The military setting connects them; in Killzone, execution during a fight matters, whereas Field Commander first lets you think through an entire sequence of orders.
Phantasy Star Portable for PSP lets you assemble a group and match weapons to enemies, but conducts those battles in real time. You develop your own adventurer in a science-fiction world and collect equipment during missions. Field Commander uses the group as an army of individually movable vehicles and soldiers. Composition and role allocation help in both games, but experience points and loot give way in Field Commander to terrain, income and the right order at the right moment.
