Field Commander begins with several options: Tutorial, Campaign, Quick Battle, Versus, Mission Creator, Extras and Settings. After choosing tutorial mode, there are four more options; Land Training, Sea Training, Air Training and the option to load a saved game. You are soon greeted by Shellcase – the Quartermaster and trainer for the Land Training. The basic troop movements and game mechanics are then explained to you. The voice overs used in the game are fine although Shellcase's voice reminded us a little of a siren going off after a while.

Once you have selected one of your units, you can then use the directional pad to move. Since the game is turn based, you really need to think a little about what you want your next move to be. Whatever move you decide to make will be automatically countered by your opponent once your turn is over. We found the turn based game play in Field Commander an integral part of what makes the game appealing.

It really all comes down to strategy in the end. The level of involvement in this game can seem a little overwhelming at first, even when you're learning the basics. If you have to command several areas at once on the battlefield, be prepared to be thinking on your toes. If you can grasp the basic unit movements and deploy strategies that will work on the battlefield, you're likely to find Field Commander challenging and engaging, as we did.

It takes a whole lot of cold, hard cash to run an army and Field Commander doesn't overlook this point. During your missions, you will get an opportunity to make money so you can buy new units. The money is not easily awarded so everything depends on your ability to out-smart your opponent. There are different units for different missions depending on whether your mission is land-based, sea-based or air-based. If you decide to play the campaign mode, you will be required to meet certain objectives to win and progress through to the next stage. If you're after a quick battle and you don't want to muck around with objectives, you can always start off with the Quick Battle mode which is created for this exact purpose.

Graphically, Field Commander is nice and fluid looking on screen. The level of detail in the game is great but not overly obvious. When you're buying units, you can definitely see a lot more of the detail that has gone into the game. The maps and terrain don't look as good as they do when you zoom in. When your units are taking turns attacking each other, you can really notice the graphical definition in such things as the water and the opposing units fading into the background.

Learning to move your units around will probably be the easiest thing to pick up. There are intricacies of the game that might take more time than others to master, but once you're into a game, it's really hard to stop and take note of what you're doing. The flow of the game may seem a little slower than what you might be used to but the end result is worth it when you win. The turn based gameplay is really like watching the game unfold in slow motion before you. All the while you should be thinking about your opponent's next move. It's really just like a game of chess and uses some of the same principles.

Field Commander also boasts multiplayer capability and with the PSP's wireless multiplayer functionality, the sky really is the limit. There are around 30 different missions you can play with close to 15 hours' game play in total.

Turn based strategy never looked as good and Field Commander is certainly going to be a title that will be making waves on the PSP. The first of its kind for the handheld, Field Commander has everything you could want in a strategy game and then some.