Star Wars: Republic Commando

Introducing Delta Squad. The Republic's Special Forces.

Lucas Arts has been making video games for quite some time. Some managed to become great hits. Others not so much...

Being the Star Wars Universe such a rich franchise, various kinds of games came out, namely arcade space combat simulators, RPGs, MMOs, RTSs and FPSs. In the later category, several games were developed, mainly the Dark Forces series and their descendents which can be traced down until the fairly recent Force Unleashed 2. Altough these were generally good games, they all came down to the traditional "one-man-army" FPS. Republic Commando aims at being something a bit different... and succeeds.

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a squad-based tactical shooter that takes place in the Star Wars universe, between the time lines of Episodes II and III. You play has the RC-1138 "Boss", the leader of "Delta Squad", a four member team of Republic Commandos, which are basically the special forces of the Republic's Clone Army. The Star Wars fan boys (like me) may initially feel a bit suspicious by the lack of Jedis and use of the "Force", but this only serves to be positively surprised with the game experience.

In terms of gameplay, you may find common elements between this game and the Rainbow Six series, although Republic Commando does not focus on realism. You are able to control your squad members by means of point and click commands such as "follow me", "hold position", "cover that", etc.

The HUD is specially interesting, since it is displayed as if you had your helmet on, with all the game's information being provided by it's interface.

The action is what you would expect for any decent FPS, being able to carry a certain amount of weapons and equipment, with the addition of your "vibroblade" for the melee attacks (it's quite fun to sneak up on a droid to perform a melee attack on him and get hydraulic fluid all over your visor).

In terms of graphics, the game is built on top of the Unreal Engine, so, for 2005, they are pretty decent.

Although the previous features would be sufficent for the game to be worth a shot at, there's something else that makes it stand out. The plot, more specifically the characters' interaction, is really something that gets your attention.

I must say that, in my experience, most games that stand out in my gaming memory owe that to their gameplay. However, with this game, I really became attached with the characters and that alone was sufficient motivation to replay the game's (rather short) campaign several times. There is something about the different personalities and their "one-liners" that really makes you feel as if they are your brothers.

Adding that to the fantastic soundtrack of dark and militaristic musics, the mood is set for you to become completely envolved by the game's environment, making for a very enjoyable experience.

Summing up, if you like military style shooters, playing this game will certainly be worthwhile. However, if for you Star Wars must be synonymous with lightsabers and Jedi Mindtricks, this probably isn't the game for you.

P.S. If at the end of the game you got completely into the characters and the clone's brotherhood, be sure to check out all the Republic Commandos' books by Karen Travis.

Name: Star Wars: Republic Commando

Genre: First-Person-Shooter

Platform: PC (Windows), Xbox

Date of release: 2005

Publisher: Lucas Arts / Activision

Rating: 8/10