Allied Death Squad was the happiest game I ever played as a child.
I can slaughter German Nazis almost arbitrarily in the game, including but not limited to bursting through with small pistols of unlimited firepower; washing the ground with engineered grenades; and stripping everyone on the map with spies. Or beat down a certain level of German soldiers and throw them into the lion herd of the zoo.
Gonza's 1982 actually has another deep meaning: Gonzale is the nickname of Gonzalo Suarez, the producer of "Allied Death Squads".
Pyro Studios, the developer of allied death squads, is a manufacturer from Spain.
You may have heard of game developers from Poland, Ukraine and Belgium, but Spain seems isolated from the Pyrenees as well as Europe. So, 20 years ago, this ultra-hardcore niche tactical game became the national game in the hearts of spaniards.
The game's original Allied Strike Force: Deep Behind the Enemy was released in 1998, an extremely glorious year in the history of the game. 《星际争霸》、《辐射2》、《半条命》、《生化危机2》，再加上皇冠上的宝石《塞尔达传说：时代之笛》、《盟军敢死队：深入敌后》在这个星光熠熠的年份看起来就像一只丑小鸭。
Not to mention that it was an era of RTS real-time strategy, and everyone seemed to prefer to direct the steel torrent. But in "Allied Death Squads", there are no resource collections, no army production, no big scenes, only 6 skilled death squads under your command.
Let's take a look at these death squads who have been dead at our hands all their lives, but have never been able to know their names:
The Green Beret, whose real name was Jack O'Hara (Jerry McHale in the second generation), nicknamed the Butcher, was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor for assaulting a senior officer. He's the leader of the whole team, and not just because he can punch a little brother. During the battle on Wagso Island, he was shot in the shoulder, lost contact with the troops, and single-handedly killed 16 Germans back into the army. The beret with a pistol on the cover of the game almost became the symbol of the "Allied Death Squad".
The sniper, whose real name was Francis Ulrich, came from an Aristocratic Family of England and was nicknamed "The Duke". He won the 1936 Berlin Olympic Shooting Championship and was armed with a silenced sniper rifle. Although the ammunition is limited, some fixed sentries located at high places can only rely on him.
Sailor, real name James Blackwood, nicknamed "Fin". He was a member of the Oxford University rowing team and successfully crossed the English Channel. His hovercraft is an essential prop for death squads to cross rivers, and his weapon, the harpoon gun, is also a weapon for silently destroying enemies.
The engineer, whose real name was Thomas Hancock, was an explosives expert from the United Kingdom, nicknamed "Sea of Fire". He majored in chemistry in college, has a wealth of explosives knowledge, and can use anything around him as a raw material to make explosives at will. He and his explosives are at the heart of the blasting mission.
The driver's real name was Samuel Brooklyn and he was nicknamed "The Wheel." He was convicted of theft in 1937 and later managed to escape from the United States to Britain. The driver is also the only character in a generation of games who can drive a car. When there are armored vehicles or tanks at checkpoints, that's when drivers show their skills. At the same time, the driver also plays the role of a military doctor.
The spy, whose real name was René Duchamp, nicknamed "Ghost," had served as director of the French Secret Service and head of security at the embassy in Berlin. The spy was fluent in five languages, and the skills he learned in the Secret Service gave him a great deal of experience in camouflage and chatting with German soldiers. The spy also had a syringe filled with poison. As long as there is a spy on the level, then he must be the core person.
Okay, here's all the characters players can manipulate in the Allied Death Squad: deep behind the enemy. You can find that these players are not only officers and soldiers, but also thieves and soldiers who violate discipline.
This is somewhat similar to the American drama "Garrison Death Squad" imported from China, and the translation of the game's name Commando as the Allied Death Squad may also be influenced by Garrison Death Squad.
There are only six small tutorial levels in the game that introduce the character, so for the player, the game goes like this: it's a dagger. You can run behind the enemy and stab him to death. Well, it seems that you have mastered how to play the game. Now let's destroy the German devils!
Later, many members of the team remembered the German "alarm" shout when it was found, so that the symptoms of "alarm PTSD" appeared. If you don't choose to cheat, saving a file step by step is the best way.
If the representative of modern high-difficulty games, the Black Blood Kernel, can pass the level through continuous practice, then "Allied Death Squad" may be the kind of game that can pass the level for a lifetime without reading the raiders. So, when the game went on sale, designer Gonzalo Suarez didn't expect much from the game's sales.
He knew the game was really tough and there was no publicity. So the initial sales target was only 15,000 copies, but I didn't expect that Allied Death Squads would be the number one PC game sales in Germany and the UK for a long time.
Founder of Allied Strike Squad: Gonzalo Suarez As of May 2000, Allied Strike Squad: Behind Enemy Lines has sold 1.5 million copies, and GameSpot Spain calls it the biggest success in Spanish gaming history.
《盟军敢死队：使命召唤》全球销量已达35万套，与前作《深入敌后》一起由国内公司新天地发行，正式进入中国市场。 Now you can also find the success of the first generation of these physical versions on the second-hand market is no accident.
The Allied Death Squad reached its peak in 2001 when the second generation was released. Allied Strike Force 2: Advance with a new engine allows players to rotate large maps in four directions and adds full 3D indoor scenes. In addition, the death squad is no longer as clear as it used to be. Everyone can drive and put on enemy clothes to disguise. Of course, only spies can communicate with the enemy without being discovered.
The addition of interactive elements makes the game world more free, players have their own backpack, you can search the map cabinets and chests, and you can also grab enemy weapons. The overall evolution of the second generation has transformed Allied Death Squad from a stealth game similar to "puzzle solving" into an open game with multiple means of playthrough.
"Allied Strike Force 2" continues to sell well, with global sales exceeding 1 million. Because the Asian battlefields added to the game made it more attractive to domestic players, it is said that the Chinese version eventually sold 180,000 units.
Today, Allied Strike Force 2 is also a favorite of Allied fans, with patches, difficulty modifications, maps and levels added. So far, the number of homemade missions integrated by players has reached 313 levels, including the remake of the first and third generation levels.
For the study of gameplay, players have never stopped, including quick pass gameplay, full-map full-beam gameplay, full-kill gameplay and so on.
But after the peak, it must be a decline. Core producer Gonzalo Suarez left the company more than a year after the release of the second generation. The reason for the departure is likely related to publisher Eidos seeing the success of the Allied Death Squad and then starting to step in for development.
It is not difficult to understand why the second generation has only 10 ontological levels. Released in 2003, "Allied Strike Squad 3: Target Berlin" is definitely a big slippery slope compared to the second generation. Natasha, Puppy and Driver were eliminated, shortcuts were simplified, level design was not as good as before, and inexplicable battle modes were even added. The game is even limited to 800x600 resolution, while even one generation supports 1024x768 resolution.
As a result, even under the name of "National Game," Allied Strike Force 3 sells only 40,000 copies a year in Spain. The "Allied death squads" that had lost their backbones were half buried. But there's also a consolation that the ALLI's IP is now in the hands of Island Tycoon publisher Kalypso Media, and a high-definition reset of Allied Strike Force 2 will be released in the fourth quarter of this year.