- "Wer ist da" means... what?
I have a vivid memory of my friend's mom peeking into his room as we played Commandos (he was the first of our bunch to own a PC). She'd overhear a shout in German and quickly shuffle from the kitchen. She taught German language at our primary school, and couldn't miss the occasion to teach a thing or two. While I didn't have a knack for German, I did have a knack for Commandos and tactical games.
I liked Behind Enemy Lines, but truly loved Beyond The Call Of Duty. I found Commanos 2 too easy with all the ammo lying around begging you to cheese your way through, and wrestling with the camera and the few time limited missions of Commandos 3 felt like the challenge lied in the wrong place.
And even though apparently Commandos 2 outsold C:BEL, I always felt that the series took the wrong turn at that point, losing its puzzle-solving niche. At Artificer, we believe this genre is more puzzle than resource management or real time action. We also took fistful of inspirations from all the amazing Mimimi games - Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3 and Shadow Gambit - which we believe to be the best spiritual successors of the genre.
I believe a genre remains a niche as long as it remains nameless; seems to be called Commandos-like, like the FPS games were called Doom-likes in the 90s before that genre really took-off. The most fitting term for Commandos-likes, I believe, is "murder sudoku".
And so - I present to you SUMERIAN SIX, our murder sudoku about stabbin' nazis and blowing their shit up. Inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's law of "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", it follows a team of super-scientists using their wacky gizmos to rain pain on demon-unleashing nazis. I'm also particularly proud of the gallows humor frequent in the writing - along with the playfulness and combined power of toys at the player's disposal, it all accumulates to a fun, challenging and rewarding experience. Enjoy <3
Oh, and "Wer ist da" means "Who's there". I own this tiny speck of German language that I do remember to the Commandos (づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ♡