Republic Commando has its enjoyable, great moments, but they are spread out thin between the repetitive smaller battles.
User Rating: 8.1 | Star Wars: Republic Commando XBOX
I have little doubt that if Star Wars were reality, and there was a "Clone Wars," and we did happen to clone us up some hardcore, butt-kicking commandos, "Star Wars: Republic Commando" would be the simulator of choice for training. Unfortunatly, life isn't Star Wars, and what we do have with this game is one that is particularily fun for while, but slowly degrades into slow, repetative "hallway" crawls. But let's get the basics out of the way first. This is a squad based FPS. You are the leader of an elite troop of four cloned warriors, blah blah blah blah. The story takes place from the very beginning of the Clone wars to day 700-something, I believe. The story doesn't really play a big big factor, what your doing at the moment is more of the bigger concern. It is spread across three campaigns of the war, each is one if pretty much you and your squad, and a whole crap-load of bad guys in the way to the objective. The graphics in this game are pretty good. They aren't spectacular, but they also aren't that bad either. The character models for your team are quite detailed. However, the enemies are boring generic bug / bots. Your surroundings are quite nice. The music is also quite unremarkable, but not necessarily bad. It has the Star Wars hallmark music you've come to expect from every Star Wars game, so you won't be surprised when you pop in the disc and give it a play. It's more or less backround noise during the game and you won't notice it much to really care for it. The sounds in Republic Commando are actually quite good. With explosions and zaps of (what should be) EMP grenades knocking down seperatist droids, rocket turret fire and blaster shots, the sound effects are great. Of particular note are the squad chatter over your com line. Get this: It's GOOD! It's not annoying, it's actually implemented and handled amazingly well. It will repeat phrases every once in a while, but few and far between. It's good. Believe me. I'd also like to give a nod to the atmosphere the game presents, it's quite well done. The first campaign is particularily good, as it really sets you down in a warzone and you don't get that "you're the only man for the job" feeling a lot of FPS give you. So it's pretty unique after a long Halo or Half Life 2 session. All the chatter from your teammates really adds to the depth of this game. It’s also interesting to note that each character has his own personality and you’ll really get to “know” them as the game goes on. Okay, GAMEPLAY. This is the games big up and it's big down at the same time. Let's get this out of the way: Controlling your squad: Easy. Unless your brain dead. It's ridiculously easy. And your squadmates AI is very good. They will go for cover, lob grenades when told to do so, and kill what you tell them to kill. Nothing more is needed of them. So what's wrong? Well, the game is pretty much one "hallway" battle after another, meaning you have to hold your position, set your men up, and kill a few waves of troops. Move on to the next hallway and repeat. This is broken up every once in a while by more exciting points, like one in the second campaign where you have to defend 3 hangers from seemingly endless incoming droid ships. This is ridiculously fun. I mean really fun. But it only lasts for so long, and then it's on to the next hallway. So that's pretty much where the game really disapoints. I wish they had included more of those fun moments, but as it is, it really isn't that bad. There aren't that many choices for weaponry in this game, but that's not really the big deal. What's there is good enough. And the reloading animations, to make something of nothing, are pretty sweet and realistic. Assuming that they were real guns and that's how you reload them. One last thing, it's too short. About 4 - 5 hours if your good. 6 - 7 if your not. Too short. Other than that, it's a game with loads of potential that just comes short, to use the old cliche. Worth a rental.
