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Civil Zones are neutral areas where your characters can freely walk around so long as they don’t perform any suspicious actions. The real shining examples of fantastic level design in Desperados III, however, are the levels featuring Civil Zones. On paper, these are small additions and tweaks, but in practice, they help to give each of Desperados III’s levels a unique sense of identity. In a nighttime level early in the game, for example, you can pick up torches to kill enemies standing in oil puddles, but the character carrying the torch cannot hide in bushes without snuffing out the torch and is visible from much further away than normal. These new mechanics also introduce new choices into the fray. Something as simple as the cover of nightfall or the presence of prominent footsteps in mud force you to find creative solutions to brand-new problems. Also, just when you think you’ve seen everything Desperados III has to offer, it drops a new mechanic on you that can drastically alter your strategies and playstyles. Each mission features numerous hiding places and things to interact with in the environment, and as such, there never feels like there’s only one set method to complete an objective. The most surprising aspect of Desperados III, however, is its excellent level design. This makes dual takedowns, synchronized shots, and other fancy techniques a breeze, and combining each character’s unique abilities to pull off a well thought out plan is always immensely satisfying. While the game typically takes place in real-time, you can enter Showdown Mode to pause everything and queue up actions for each of your characters to perform at the same time. You’ll often have control of multiple characters at once in Desperados III, and there will be times where you’ll need to orchestrate a perfect plan where each character carries out actions simultaneously in order to get through an area.

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Each level ends up acting as a series of self-contained puzzles that all string together to form one large mission. Dealing with advanced enemy types is tough on its own, but when Desperados III combines several enemy types in a single area, you’re forced to use each and every aspect of your arsenal to get by. A disguised character can easily sneak past enemy lines, but a select few enemy archetypes can see right through your character’s ruse. Some enemies refuse to leave their posts to investigate distractions, while others can only be stealth killed by certain characters.

Luring and distracting guards for isolated takedowns is a common occurrence in Desperados III, but varied enemy types throw all sorts of wrenches into the mix. Each enemy is deadly in their own right, and groups of patrolling foes require you to think ahead and plan out your actions in order to quietly take them down. This is the main reason why Desperados III works, and why it’s a breath of fresh air for the tactics genre.ĭesperados III is as much a puzzle game as it is a tactics game. You’re never punished for trying things out because you can always have a save state to revert back to if everything goes wrong.

However, there’s no penalty for saving as often as you want, so you never really lose too much progress as long as you make liberal use of the quick save button. A single mistake can mean death for any of your characters, and all it takes is one view cone unaccounted for or one gunshot that was a tad too loud to bring a plan crashing down. The game is incredibly brutal, but I wouldn’t call it punishing. While it might seem unnecessary at first to make as many saves as the game tells you, you’ll quickly learn that you need to incorporate the save system into your strategies to succeed in Desperados III. In fact, if you go too long without saving your game, a giant save reminder will appear on screen with a timer counting the seconds since your last save. The game flat out tells you to make several frequent saves and to reload if anything goes wrong. In other strategy/tactics games, save-scumming is always an option, but it’s almost never the intended way to play. Experimentation is not just encouraged, but straight up required to successfully get through the game’s lengthy levels. Everything on the screen at any given time in Desperados III is important, and using the environment to your advantage is the key to victory. The game is played from an isometric perspective, giving you an overhead view of your characters, the enemies, and environmental objects.

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