Customer Reviews

Star Wars Republic Commando

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Republic Commando is a fun, albeit short, game. When I heard it was being developed, I really wasn't interested -- the premise didn't enthuse me. But after trying the demo, I was very impressed. The squad-based play is simple, but effective, and the AI is very well done. Aside from a few instances where I thought the AI should be behaving differently, your computer-controlled squadmates are very capable and realistic for non-human players. In fact, during the few sequences in the game in which you are seperated from them, I felt...alone. The lack of their presence was really felt in the flow of the game. Very well done. The gameplay is fast paced and exciting (though a bit short), the voice acting is superb, and I was surprised by how long into the game I was before dialog from the squadmates repeated -- there's enough of it that you'll play awhile before hearing a line repeated. There's also a fair amount of humor in the game. And the characters of your squadmates are also well done -- they each have a distinct personallity, which makes the game more enjoyable. I finished the game tonight and am ready to start playing through it again. A lot of fun.

Given Lucasarts' hit-and-miss record with the Star Wars games and this game's positioning as a tie-in for Episode III, I was prepared to be disappointed with another rushed throwaway like Star Wars: Battlefront.

I was pleasantly surprised!

The graphics are not fall-down-and-die-oh-my-god, Half Life 2 "great" but the visuals and animation are excellent. There is a problem early in the game where they are trying to simulate the ground shaking and it ends up looking like a graphics glitch. But, the problem is only in the first part of the first mission and is mostly just annoying.

The sound is among the best I've heard in a game. It completely immerses you in the battle. Some of the effects (like footsteps) are subtle but lend great atmosphere. The voice acting is good and the dialogue is very witty. The game had me laughing out loud at some points. The music perfectly sets the tone of each area, ranging from known symphonic pieces from previous Star Wars titles to haunting choral-and-strings songs reminiscent of Duel of the Fates.

The weapons are well-rounded and the placement of ammo and health keeps the game moving without making the game too easy.

The system for giving orders to your squad is simple -- in a few cases it's too simple -- but it works pretty well. The squad AI is pretty good. They use cover intelligently and move with you (and each other) as if you were a group of trained commandos. They will follow your orders but will not do so to the exclusion of all other threats. For instance, if you order a squaddie to snipe from behind a wall and an enemy unit gets behind him, he won't just continue to snipe. He will turn, deal with the immediate threat and then resume his task. There are a few more commands I would like to have seen, especially one to specify cover fire for a squad member (while he plants a bomb or hacks a computer).

The game does have a few shortcomings. First, the single player game is very short. You get three multi-objective missions totaling about 10 hours of play time. I finished wanting more and I hope there will be an expansion pack at some point. The game is enough fun that you will want to replay it.

The multiplayer is nothing to cheer about. It has the basic game modes you usually expect (Deathmatch, CTF, etc.) but if you want to play these multiplayer games you'd have more fun playing them in Unreal Tournament 2004. A glaring omission from multiplayer is the squad play from the single player. It would have been great, instead of simple deathmatch or CTF, to give each player a squad of 4 to compete against other players squads.

Even with its few faults, Republic Commando is a wild and exciting ride through the Clone Wars. If you're a Star Wars fan, you shouldn't miss this game.

This game produced the most enjoyable experience since Half Life 2.

I generally play first-person-shooter once or twice, then never play again; not this game. I only bought it becase it seemed similar to "Brothers in Arms" with its squad-leader element. I was not expecting much as I normally enjoy WWII-style games (I also loathed the latest three Star Wars films) but was very suprised how good it really was.

From the beginning, I could sense the high production values. The story line, dialogue, and voice acting were excellent, especially for a video game. I felt I got to know my squadmates in Republic Commando much better than in Brothers in Arms. There were lots of little touches and polish that made it enjoyable to play through many times. Music, top-notch. I don't know if the music is from the films, but it shares the same epic quality. Graphics and effects were well done and ran very well with no stutters, crashes, or lag, even on the highest graphics settings.

Gameplay also excellent. The action is consistent and challenging, but there are few if any frustrating spots that require saving and reloading every couple of seconds that is so common with many FPS games. The maps were playtested well so storyline triggers work when they should and there are no places where you can get stuck clipping into a wall. The weapons are balenced well in that there is always at least two effective ways to deal with any target.

The squad commands were easy to learn and worked well with the environment. Your squaddies do not just walk into enemy fire. They move tacticly as a squad, taking cover and suppressing while other squaddies advance. Usually it is you that get killed before they do. With effective use of the squad commands, you can direct your squad to eliminate targets without you having to fire a shot. (although thats part of the fun)

The AI of your squaddies seem to be written well. They deal with immediate threats first, switch weapons when necessary, revive squadmates (including you), and heal themselves all on their own for the most part.

My only gripe is that the game is too short, which is a common complaint of most recent FPS games. There seems to be no modding community as of yet, so you are stuck with all the elements of a superb game and only a few levels to actually play. It is built on the Unreal engine, so modding should not be too difficult.

By the time video games started coming out more and more often, Star Wars was always included. You could probably make an entire genre off of all the Star Wars games that have been released. I do not mind all the Star Wars games, but what I do mind is that so many games of Star Wars out there are all games that focus more on the force, and it gets kind of annoying after several years. Do not take me wrong, almost every single one of those games that you play as a Jedi, or Sith, are good, very good to be exact. But there is so few games that let you grab a sniper rifle, or repeating blaster and shoot your enemies, and in first person there is a HUGE lack. I bet the first thing that you could respond about the previous sentance is that you can play Battlefront or Battlefront 2 in first person, and that is true, but Lucasarts and Pandemenic do not really try to focus on the game in first person, they just put it in there, they do not really work on it. And you can easily tell that the game is made for third person. Once again do not get me wrong I like the Battlefront series too.

What I have been talking about for the past paragraph is only one, only one, of the reasons I would like to thank Tim Longo for creating one of the best Star Wars games available: Star Wars Republic Commando.

The game is a First Person Shooter that shows you the darker side of the clone wars, through the view of the best clones in the galaxy, the darkest and deadliest four clones: Delta Squad. You go through three campaigns playing as the knuckle grinding squad leader Delta R.C. 01/138, in number his nickname is "BOSS". You and your three squadmates: Delta R.C. 01/140 or "FIXER", Delta R.C. 01/1207, my favorite, "SEV", and the last one Delta R.C. 01/1262, "SCORCH", the four of you sabatoge, blow up, assisinate, hunt, rescue, and go through other covert op missions one by one, killing off lots of droids and trandos (I'll tell you about them later).

The farther into the game the more you will learn about the brotherhood of Republic Commandos, and how important you are to each other. You and your squad mates will talk together, bleed together, fight together, and kill together.

Okay, now that you have a basic idea of what you do in the game let us go on with the advanced stuff of the game.

I'll start with the thing that really brings a large part of this game together: Tactics- This is a Tactical First Person Shooter, which means you are going to be leading men, to be exact: Delta Squad. The way you lead your men is actually quite simple, but you can use it in advanced ways. A cool thing that makes this tacticalness real is you H.U.D. or Heads up Display. Normally I do not go that much into the H.U.D. of a game but this game is unique. If you choose to you can view the entire game through your hemet which I would recommend because it is pretty fun, but if you do not want to you can turn it off but the H.U.D. will be there. So the H.U.D. I am explaining is with the helmet. In the very bottom of the helmet there will be colored bars, they will start out at green and the more you are injured the more the number of bars will decrease and the color will go from green to yellow to red, these are your health bars. At the top of your health bars on both sides of your helmet are two blue bars, one on each side. These are your shields and they recharge automatically. In the bottom right hand side of your helmet you will start out seeing a red sphere, this is a Thermal Detonator, or grenade. That grenade will be thrown if you press the button to throw the grenade. Above the grenade will be a number telling you how many grenades of that type you have left. In the bottom left hand side of the screen you will have three boxes, or circles that start out at green. Above each of them will be the numbers 07, 40, and 62. These are the short numbered names of your squadmates and the boxes below them represent where they are, by the arrow around the circle inside the boxes, their health status, by the color of the circle, and what they are doing, by the symbol on the circle. At the top of your H.U.D. is your mission objective and if you have Subtitles on, they will appear there. Now that you know what the H.U.D. should look like the tactics. Lucasarts uses a one touch command system which allows you to give commands to your squadmates with the touch of one button: The "USE" button. On areas where you could take cover from fire there will be little icons mainly sniper and anti-armor. If you press the "USE" button while looking at the object with that icon a squad mate will go over and obey that command. You can also do this with computers for slicing and demolitions to blow up objects, and alike. Overall squad commands will determine what your squad is doing when they are not fulfulling a maneuver such as "snipe". There are three of these: Search and Destroy, Form Up, and Secure Position. Search and Destroy is best used when in hallways and door to door combat is taking place, it is NOT good in open areas. When this command is given, the squad will proceed to the next area on their own as long as you are not far away. Form Up: This is best used when outdoors, so your squad will not wander away from you, and they will follow you where ever you go, you will take lead. Secure Position: This is best used when you are either defending a position or if you are trying to set up a good base of fire. When this command is issued any squadmate not doing a maneuver will stay around the area you have pointed to and a large circle will appear on the ground to know where your men are supposed to be.

Gameplay- The overall gameplay is quite intense, especially when you get S.P.D. (Supre Battle Droid) dispensers thrown at you. But this intensity is very fun because you are constantly changing orders making your men leave their areas and go do something else while you get another man replace the empty spot and alike. So instead of loud, gunfire intensity, you get crazy tactic giving intensity, which is a very cool feeling. The variety of missions in this game are pretty good, you go from assaulting positions to saving wookies to blowing up Trando camps, to defending your area, and stuff like that keeps you going. One whole campaign takes place on an abandoned Republic Starship that has been taken over by Trandoshans, or Trandos, a nasty, wet, lizzard like species that are really fun to kill, especially with their shotgun. Most games allow you to bash an enemies face with the stock, or butt, end of your gun. But not in Republic Commando, you are a Clone Commando, and inside the top part of your gauntlet (glove) is an ejectable vibroblade (a very deadly knife). When you press the mele button you will most likely stab your enemy which most of the time results in a cool blood splatter onto your visor and this really cool electronic window wiper built into your helmet wipes the blood off. Some weapons you will not use your vibroblade but most of the time you do.

Weapons, or Tools of Trade- I very, very, rarely do an entire section on the weapons of a game, but this game really has a cool twist to the weapons. Sadly, as cool as all these weapons look they are not all that powerfull, especially the very weak Trando Repeater. But there is the vibroblade which I mentioned just earlier, the pistol, which is fun but nothing that special, the D.C.-17 Blaster Rifle system (I will tell you most about that one), Trando Shotgun, grenades, (I will name them in a second) Wookie Weapons, and some more. There is not that many but I will first name the four grenade types. They all work best against certain enemies, Thermal Detonator, a standerd grenade, Sonic Grenades, E.C.D. (Electro-Static Charge Detonator or Electrical grenade), and the flashbangs. Now for the D.C.-17, it is the standard Republic Commando blaster rifle which is three guns in one, a repeating plasma blaster, best used against battle droids, the sniper rifle with two times zoom, and my favorite, the anti-armor attachment. You will be using these three attachments the most in this game because you can only carry one other weapon besides your pistol.

Music- Normally I do not go far into music either just because I can not describe it that good. But in this game it is easier to describe: Very Good. The main menu music is probably my favorite any song in the game that has people singing WILL contain the native clone language of Mandalorian and it is very fun to listen too, in fact I am listening to the main menu music right now as I type this review and it is helping me give you a good review, I hope.

Character- I have given you the names of the four main characters to this game and a game like this would normally have overlooked characters, but they are so fun to listen to what they say to each other, this goes especially for Sev and Scorch. Even though they are all clones, Republic Commandos actually have personallities because the only differance between being a clone and a human for them is that they all look the same. Fixer and Boss are more by the book, but Scorch is actually funny, and deep voiced Sev is a funny hunter like clone. Some of the jokes in this game are really funny. And the characters will mention Republic Commando rules like Sev's favorite, "Rule #17: Always Make Sure They're Dead." And sometimes Scorch would reply, "This one looks dead to me," and Sev says, "It is now." These jokes give the game some very funny comedy in the battles.

Sound- The game uses Lucasart's own sound, and they got a lot of help from the Foley sound recording facility. Foley uses everyday objects to create lots of the sounds in games and movies. For the sound of Trandoshan footsteps, a squash was cut in half and used as feet. You may not notice this sound that often but if you turn down the music, and if you want to the voices, and leave sound on it is pretty fun to find the greatness in this sound.

Graphics- The game has pretty cool graphics, even though this review is a year older than when I should have written it, the graphics were pretty good for the time of March 2005. And a cool thing is that the requirements are not too high, I have an ATI Radeon 9600 and I can run this game with almost everything on high, and I'm still getting something around 40 to 50 frames per second. So if you want EVERYTHING running perfect on this game when it comes to graphics you probably just need an ATI Radeon 9800. Overall, when it comes this game with graphics they are, interesting. They have excellantly done bloom effects, which just look gorgeous, and the graphics in the dark are splendid too. The shadowing of figures is done nicely and well just like almost the entire game, interesting.

Complaints- Most of the complaints said about this game are most likely reasonable. There has been problems where your squad mates would get stuck on objects and you could not use them until the end of the level. Most would complain about the length of the game being too short, which is VERY reasonable, the game does not take very long at all. Some include it being too easy, and more. One final complaint of mine is the fact that the problems have not been fixed by any patches abailable. One patch was released but did not FIX any bugs, it just gave you another multiplayer map, and there has not been any fixes since then. These complaints bring the rating down to four and half instead of five stars.

I left the possibly most amazing part of this game for last: A.I. Gameinformer Online said that Star Wars Republic Commando has "Impressive visuals and perhaps the smartest squad A.I. ever seen!" Characters in this game, both good and bad but mainly good, have just extroardinary A.I. They will enter rooms tactically, they shoot tactically, and they move tactically. If they are trying to go from one place during combat to another safe spot they will even move under your gunshots so you do not acidentilly shoot them. They lean out of walls a different way than normal, the game has just amazing A.I.

So in the end Tim Longo and all the people at Lucasarts have created one of the best First Person Star Wars Shooter ever. And the game truly is worth five stars, but because of unfixed bugs, and lack of patches that will fix the minor problems in the game, I bring the game down to four and half stars.

Rule#1: Kill em' before they kill you.

I know what most people will probably think, does realistic style commando combat work with Star Wars? The answer is yes my friends, a big three letter word YES. For those who have wanted to play in the shoes of a commando trooper instead of a jedi knight, now is your chance.

Set after Episode 2, but before Episode 3, Republic Commando follows the adventures of Delta Squad, and elite commando unit of the republic. You are 38, with Sev, Scorch, and Fixer as your teammates. They'll work with you, setting up sniper positions, setting up traps, and aid you in combat. The commandos themselves are great to listen to, as you can't help but laugh at many of the one liners they deliver. You'll fight on Geonosis, on a Republic Assault Ship (Early star destroyer), and on the wookie homeworld as well. The game is very replayable, as I found myself playing it again and again. The story is fairly short though, if you've played games like this before, you can beat it in 2 to 3 days. However, it's still a great game. Plus everytime you complete a campaign, you get extras to boot. You'll see the making of Republic Commando, production art, voice actors, sound effects specials, and so forth.

The game isn't completely perfect, being a store release. It has a few bugs (As noted by PCGamer), but this doesn't stop the game from being entertaining. As with most store released games, they'll eventually be patched over time. It's also important to note that, from the story, a possible sequal may be coming up. But that's all I'll say.

If you love Star Wars, but also love commando style combat where tactical combat is your partake, along with lots of shooting, action, and some great one liner comedy, Star Wars: Republic Commando is for you!

The game plays great, scenery and enemies are very well done so if you're into the star wars genre you'll love it. The game is very balanced too, not boringly easy or unplayably hard. The only real problem with the game is you'll wish there were more single player levels. After playing Far Cry which takes some serious time to conquer, it's not brief but it does seem short.

Among all the genres of computer games, military shooters (First-Person shooters, FPS) are the most difficult to like, for me. There are so many - and so many HORRIBLE ones. Only a few manage to make a gripping gameplay come alive with bone-rattling and nerve-pinching action. Star Wars: Republic Commando does a superb job on all fronts.

I won't review it all, just some key points that help veterans of shooter games get an idea of the differences and tweaks:

- You cannot accomplish anything in this game alone: your main character (you, the boss) must use the other squad members to succeed. They can do some things better and just they're presence is essential.

- Controlling the squad is VERY simple - one button issues very complex orders and the squad AI executes the orders very well. There are some small glitches but all-in-all nothing that hinders the mission success.

- The enviroments and enemies are much different than many of the shooters I've played. Cover, rubble, explosions, doors, etc all play a strong role in carrying out tactics. Enemies can fly, jump, bounce, roll, dodge, and take cover just like your troopers can.

- The controls are similiar to most shooting games - nothing new except the squad controls which are all mapped to one or more hotkey buttons. For instance, press one key when facing a sealed door to activate a "door breach" and have the whole squad position themselves to blast the door and deal with any threats on the other side.

- There is much more: those points are highlights!

Performance Notes:

- Make sure your PC EXCEEDS the minimum requirements. This game, with all the FX turned up, is monstrous. It will slow down in areas with multiple enemies and fire. You will need a fairly new or updated video card (check lucas arts website) to even run this game. Download the latest video & sound drivers available to you. Check compatibility before you buy!

- Shut off any background services, virus programs, etc before starting single player games: it will help. Adjust graphic settings in game to help performance (shutting off anti-aliasing and complex shadows is a big improvement)

- Save your game often as I noted a couple of bugs where one or more squad member would get stuck and unable to follow during the rest of the mission. Even with the patch installed this still occured. Oh, check for the patch at the lucas arts website as well.

Take care, happy hunting

That pretty much sums up every battle you'll get into in this game, but darn if it isn't fun getting into them. Yeah, your main gun is a peashooter and ammo is hard to come by (considering you and your squad are the only ones in the level using Deeces), but firing it off is fun. The weapons overall really give you that frantic "TAKE HIM DOWN! NOOOOW!" feeling. Well, it least it does for me; that's right, I get an adrenline rush out of playing Commando. Despite your Commando status, you're not a seven-foot-tall army of one. You're a MEMBER of a six-foot-tall army of one.

The squad is pretty good. They're not sitting ducks, but they're not going to be pulling Matrix moves or finishing the objective on you (although you'll have to give them credit for coming back to revive you if you get put down. "Got your back, Three-Eight" is a pretty good quote for the squad). They can kill stuff, but sometimes it takes a while (blame it on the peashooters). They also bicker between themselves a bit, but it keeps things real.

Single player does seem a bit repetitive, but it's a fun kind of repetitive. Before owning the game I played the demo for hours on end, and it never got old (I'm easy to please). Multiplayer seems to be a cookie-cutter afterthought, but I love it just for the player customization.

Bugs? Of course, every game has a few (ah, deadlines...). Most graphics bugs I can deal with (it's the gameplay that matters, not how it looks), but there are a few level issues. Well, all I can say is deal with them.

All-in-all, it starts fast, plays fast, and ends fast (real fast). A great slice of war for you slice-of-war fans. Might not be worth full retail, but it's a good pick-me-up for a slow weekend.

"Is it too late to be one of those fighter pilots?"

I really can't communicate in words how awesome this game is. It is wicked fun to play, has intelligent AI, good graphics, and offers an amazing look into the darker, military world of Star Wars. It's really nice to be able to fight through the Clone Wars from a perspective other than that of the Jedi.

Well I gotta tell you, for a squad based game RC was damn good, the AI was very very impressive in my opinion. And I'm a hard critic because squad based games are my favorite type of game to play. Mostly in taking down the enemy, I know most squad games even with AI team mates you are still doing most of the work, due to your team either being too inaccurate or just too dumb to do anything, it didn't seem like it at all in RC. I didnt see one stupid AI move the whole time I played it. The only thing I felt could have been done a bit better was to have your team take the initiative more often to do different things. Like instead of having to tell them to go to a certain position to use anti armor or grenades, I would have like to have seen them bust out the rocket rifle attachment and put it to the Super Battle Droids more often. The enemy ai is also very good, I often found myself cursing them for being smart enough to dodge my shots and leap out of the way of my grenades, albeit wasting ammo.
The main weapon for your character needed a lot more power. The DC-17 blaster ran out of ammo too quickly for not very much reward at all, very much noticeable against the super battle droids. Most of the time I found myself going through half my ammo before saying screw it and charging at them to go Melee style. Thats another thing, the ability to bust out the melee arm thing was extremely useful and life saving on more occasions than not.
In hindsight I think it was way too short, there are only 3 actual missions that span across around 25-30 levels, not sure of the exact number but it felt like around that. Although besides that fact there were some levels that kept the combat and gaming rather tense because of the situations they would put you in. Especially the later levels on the imperial starship.

As for the multiplayer, I think its terrible, its too generic to be any good or different from any other game out there. Honestly if I wanted to play some classic deathmatch or capture the flag, I would simply reinstall Unreal Tournament 2004 and be completely content with the neverending content of that game.

All in all I really enjoyed this game, with the exception for the few little details that could have made it better and the length was disappointing, hopefully there will be the possiblity of a modding community to form to make some new campaigns or levels

CNM