Developing a video game isn't much like grilling a steak. In order to retain good flavor you want to dash in some spice, keep the flame low and watch your time, keeping in mind that pulling a slab of steak a little early isn't always a bad thing. Throw in a baked potato and some corn on the cob and you're set like Suzy Q. A good game, on the other hand, requires as much time in the oven as possible. It needs a while to properly rise, for the edges to brown and the flavor to be baked through. With that being said, I'm a guy who likes my steaks medium-rare and my games well done, so, being a fan of the Warhammer universe, I was a quite disappointed when I had to send Squad Commander back to the kitchen.

The best way to think of Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command is as a strategy RPG without the restrictions of grid-based movement. On each mission you've got the entire map to roam with your troops, minus that feeling of an overdressed Chess match. This sense of freedom is a welcome addition to the genre and hopefully more developers will explore the concept as well as advance it, because, as it is, Squad Command has a little trouble with the fundamentals.

The core gameplay is all in the title: command your squad, which consists of six units, and smite the enemy. In the first few missions you're limited to Marine Scouts, but as you progress you'll gain access to Space Marines and vehicles such as the iconic Predator tank or Land Speeder hovercraft, not to mention new weapons straight from the Warhammer 40k tabletop game. Before each mission you have access to the limited Wargear menu, where your only option, though sometimes a pivotal one, is to choose each unit's secondary weapon and their ammo count. The idea is that the heavier the weapon or the more ammo, the lower a unit's Action Points are, which dictate a soldier's overall capacity for combat.

Once you're all set, you start each mission with your squad already deployed in preset positions. This inability to choose where you want your units to start is extremely frustrating; I can't recollect any strategy game that prohibits a player from deploying troops how they see fit, except in scenarios that call for it. Even the Warhammer 40k parent game lets you position your troops, even if this is in set deployment zones. Though it sounds like a minor quibble, this steals away one of the important aspects of a strategy game and makes you feel like you're at a disadvantage right out of the gate.

Anyway, once you begin the mission, each unit has number of Action Points, which allow your soldier or vehicle to move, fire a weapon and/or initiate the Overwatch feature, a defensive stance that has them firing on enemy units that cross their cone-shaped path during your opponent's turn. Neither Action Points nor Overwatch are new to gaming - Fallout's combat is based on a similar point system and the excellent GBA game, Rebelstar: Tactical Command, has a superior Overwatch feature. Unfortunately, Squad Command failed to take note, as its Action Points system feels like there are never enough points to carry out simple combat maneuvers. The enemy, however, always seem to have plenty. It's a common sight for one of your Marines to be stranded in the open like a fish in a barrel, ready to be harpooned, because you spent more points to hit the enemy (and missed) and have none to spend on a retreat.

And speaking of missing, let's talk about Squad Command's shooting. By hitting the B button you bring up an aiming line that gradients from green to yellow to red. Once aligned with a target, green means your chances of hitting the enemy at that range are good, whereas red means your chances are slim. Here's where a good idea is poorly executed. Each weapon has a minimum number of points required to fire it. The standard Bolter rifle requires the least amount, but its range is poor. If you want to fire at an enemy that falls in the range of red then you can allocate more of your Action Points toward the attack to increase the accuracy of the shot. The problem is that for some reason you'll almost always have to spend more points on an attack to hit your target (though you miss too often), which is why you're often left without enough points to get back to safety. Which is why your Marines often end up KIA. It's not always as bad as all that, since you do have six units at your disposal, but when you have to use three of them to hit, let alone kill, a single enemy, it calls into question the game design, rather than your skill.

One of the biggest snags in the game lies in the undependable cover system. Actually, there's not much of a system to speak of. With the tap of the Y button your soldier goes into a crouch, which, in theory, lowers his chance of getting hit. Position a crouched soldier behind a wall and this increases your defense tenfold. This is the Rule of Thumb in almost any game of any format, so it's to the dismay of my dentist when teeth-grinding frustration is induced as my enemy's gunfire finds its mark nearly every time, crouch or no crouch. Consequently, instead of having your soldiers advance rapidly using cover like a tactical strategy game should, your best option is to get off a single shot and leave enough points to retreat safely out of range of your opponent's next turn. With decimated buildings and debris dominating the battlefield, a simple wall-hug cover system, or anything that left you assured of your units' safety, could've made this game a handheld delight.

Though comparative to a strategy RPG, Squad Command lacks any depth in troop customization. This is an odd choice, since Warhammer is all about customizing your troops, but in this game your units don't level up, their stats never change and you can only define their secondary weapon. Any units that die during a mission are simply replaced by a clone to use in the next level. The limited troop count and scale has the feel of an SRPG, but the game's Fog of War and impersonal units make it more akin to an RTS. It's too bad, then, that the Warhammer brand already has an RTS on PC that makes this one feel like shareware.

As Squad Command isn't exclusive to the DS (it's also available on PSP), the touch features are nil. It's much easier to use the d-pad to plot unit paths and line up your shots than using the cumbersome stylus or a pudgy finger. In a game like this it's inevitable that the second screen features a map, but it actually does lend itself to the gameplay to keep in mind off-screen enemies. The biggest problem with the DS version of Squad Command however is that it's ugly. Space Marines and Marine Scouts are barley distinguishable from one another except for a profile icon on the side of the screen. The short cut scenes before each mission aren't bad, but they fail to make a noteworthy impression. The game's sound is in the same boat simply because there's very little of it. No music plays during the levels and, aside from gunfire, footsteps and some weak sound bytes of Warhammer catchphrases, there's an odd silence present throughout the experience.

Even with all the problems of the limited action points, sketchy cover system and wishy-washy shooting, Squad Command is still playable to a large degree. This is mostly to the credit of rocket launchers and destructible environments. Once you acquire rockets for your troops and a Predator tank, cover and accuracy don't make a damn bit of difference. And it's virtually unfair. Realistic, but unfair, as you simply fire a massive shell into the side of a building where a group of Chaos troops are hiding. This method of bombardment is, in the end, a much easier way to progress through the game than to meticulously move your troops around the map and sparingly use your Action Points in a boredom-inducing display of defense.

Despite the laundry list of problems that plague Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command and pervade this review, the game can be fun at times. That is if you're willing to fight through the frustration of playing through missions multiple times, either to cheat to find enemy positions or because you got smoked by an enemy tank off-screen. Overall it's not as much of a strategy game as it is a game of chance, as you sail rockets back and forth across the map and pray that the cover you're hiding behind will provide you with sufficient protection. This is unfortunate, because the game should be a great tactical shooter with the groundwork it has provided. Hopefully there'll be a sequel to Squad Command that addresses the issues in its first outing, but as it stands it's a game that's underwhelming and undercooked. Check please.

Reviewed by Scott Schmidt for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).