I know Advance Wars. I've played Advance Wars. Advance Wars is one of my favourite DS games. And you, sir, are no Advance Wars. Comparisons between Field Commander and Advance Wars: Dual Strike are inevitable and appropriate. That is because Field Commander is essentially a clone of Advance Wars, with a few things changed to make it more appealing to an older audience. The game revolves around a series of missions involving land, sea and air combat battles between opposing forces, tied into a secret plot, with you as the freshly graduated commander placed at the centre of the action. You are given a set of success and failure criteria and set up on a map with various units at your disposal. How you proceed is up to you. What sounds like a compelling start for a game falls flat, however, and you are left with a decent game that pales in comparison to the 'original' upon which it is based.

The initial presentation of Field Commander is impressive - you have a top-down view of the battlefield and everything is realistically represented; from the vehicles' trailing exhaust fumes to the helicopters with rotating blades, this looks pretty good at first glance, and the explosions and battles add even more realism. However, that initial impression is short-lived, because none of it works very well in battle. The graphics for the different vehicles are not very distinct and it is very easy to lose units against some types of terrain. As you play, what looked nice initially becomes bland and frustrating. Indeed, it is very telling that planning is best done in the overview map, which closely resembles the view provided in Advance Wars. The battle animations attempt realism, but suffer from the same unimpressive qualities, with only the satisfying explosions standing out. The sounds are fairly well done, with good sound effects, and the voiced dialogue is generally very well done, while the soundtrack is decent, but nothing memorable.

More problematic than the blandness of the graphics is how this impacts the gameplay. While, at its core, Field Commander is a satisfying turn-based strategy game, while playing it you feel you are constantly waiting for something to happen. There are occasional slowdowns and freezes as the game loads something from disk and the battle animations are slow to start and slower to finish, while lacking the drama of battles from Advance Wars. Graphics and animation issues aside, the strategy elements are solid and the battles are fun to plan and execute. You can check enemy units for strength and range before making a move and spend any amount of time assessing the battlefield from any angle. It is clear what units are strong in which situations and you need to use solid tactics to achieve your goals. The game is somewhat forgiving of minor errors, but you will get pummelled if you make major gaffes, which is fine, because you can simply replay the mission.

The most interesting feature of Field Commander is the wireless multiplayer. While there are local multiplayer modes available - Hot Swap allows two people to battle on the same PSP and Ad-Hoc uses the local wireless to allow live battles between players within range - the real thrill is the ability to play over the Internet. There are two major game modes - live play and transmission mode. Live play is the same as playing locally, but transmission mode is similar to the older play by email mode of some strategy games. Unfortunately, while the potential is great, there are a number of minor annoyances that plague both modes. Live mode does nothing to punish those who drop the connection at the first sign of possible defeat, destroying an hour or more of intense battle just to avoid the loss, and while transmission mode should be the picture of quick turns, the number of steps required to connect and log into a game each time makes it inconvenient, and the fact that you cannot see what your opponent did on their turn - only the aftermath - diminishes the learning process that usually goes along with this type of game. There are also the problems from the single player campaign, including bland graphics that make it hard to differentiate units, slow and weak animations, and an overall lack of flair and style.

Strategy games like Field Commander are excellent for teaching critical thinking, planning and analytical skills. In each scenario you need to consider the relative strength of the units, the potential terrain advantages and obstacles, the movement ranges and long-term required approach for victory. But this is yet another area where Field Commander falls short - other games grade your performance, so you can go back and improve your strategy, but here it is simply win or lose, no matter how well you plan and execute your campaign. You can still work at better strategic planning, but the game gives little feedback on whether a campaign that took longer and used more resources but suffered fewer casualties is better than a fast attack with higher casualties. For all of the attempts to copy the excellent Advance Wars, the game fails to capture what has made that series great. In the end, Field Commander is merely an adequate turn-based strategy game for PSP users without access to the far superior Advance Wars on DS or GBA.

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).