Something strange is going on here. Historically, videogames based on the Star Wars franchise are supposed to be mediocre at best – they generally were before Knights of The Old Republic and Battlefront were released, anyway. A decent trifecta of titles was always going to be a definite possibility when LucasArts announced Star Wars: Republic Commando for the Xbox way back in the summer of 2003, and if atmosphere was enough to make a game great, the opening sequences of SW:RC would make for a perfect ten.
But, it isn’t that easy. You can have all the atmosphere in the world and still have a control system that stops people from playing, or a stupidly difficult first level that nobody will have the perseverance to want to complete. Thankfully, Republic Commando avoids both of those pitfalls, and provides a solid, well-rounded gaming experience that is sure to drag you in. And drag you in, it does. It isn’t until there’s an unusual break in the Unreal engine-powered action that you look up at the clock and find that what was only going to be a quick, ten-minute blastfest has turned into another two hours of firing off bullets into the chests of a million and one enemy droids. The reason for this, is that the game leads you by the hand by constantly giving you new objectives. First, you blow up a pillar so it falls – conveniently enough – across a chasm, creating a makeshift bridge. Then, you have to cross it. Following that, you chase down an enemy general on foot, letting him believe that he can get away, before firing a couple of rounds into his ship to send it, and him, to a flame-filled demise.
In a welcome change to the usual FPS potion, Republic Commando sees you leading a team of three fighters through the fifteen or so levels, with your main objective (as always) being to win the war. You never directly control the other squad members, rather you assign them commands based on the situation. A selection of tactical orders are available to you through a combination of the A button and the d-pad. Up orders them to secure the area, down cancels the current manoeuvre, right requests that they form up into the standard squad pattern, with left sending them out to search and destroy. In practice, this works well, as does the other commands, which are controlled by your targeting reticle. Position your sights over a door, for example, and the option appears to send a team member in to lay an explosive charge. This takes time, so you and the remaining two squad members must provide covering fire, before he announces that the job is done, and you press the A button to detonate the charge.
This means that whilst being more complex than most other FPS titles, Star Wars: Republic Commando is just as easy to play as Halo 2, say, or Unreal Tournament. Your squad members generally act with some decent intelligence but should they get in the way of some stray fire and aren’t close to a “Bacta” dispenser (which replenishes health), you can order them to revive each other. This is also true if you take a hit. Rather than just die and restart the level, you have the option to tell your commandos to proceed with the mission, or to revive you so that you can continue on together. This is refreshing, because in all honesty, I’m not the best FPS player, and its a very nice option to not have to start the level again when I’ve been careless and jumped out into a hail of gunfire. Of course, should the whole team be incapacitated, there’s no option but to retrace your virtual steps.
Graphically, Republic Commando puts in a fine performance. Textures are smooth, explosions are fairly believable and the atmosphere that I mentioned before is helped along by some very nice touches. Get too close to an enemy and empty a magazine of bullets into them, and your visor becomes covered in entrails and blood. A second or so later, your visor cleans itself with a wiper blade. It doesn’t sound like much, but these little touches occur across the board, and the game is very much the better for it. There are a few instances of slowdown that remove a little of the polish, but they are very infrequent and not enough to really quibble over.
On top of the high-quality graphics, the Dolby Digital enhanced sound is of your usual Star Wars quality. Shots fire off behind you, grenades whizz past your left ear and your team mates shout after you as you decide to run a little Kamikaze mission into a horde of enemy fighters, all with sights firmly set on you. I don’t see how the sound effects and musical score could be any better than it is.
For multiplayer fans, the normal Xbox Live FPS options are in place. Content downloads will be available (coming soon) in the form of new maps and up to sixteen players can join either a Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag or Assault battle. We were only able to test this in a limited capacity, but from what we saw, the game runs at a fine speed and looks to be one of the more addictive titles over Live. A few new game modes wouldn’t have gone amiss here though, as it feels very much like every other online FPS title does. Personally, I would have like to have seen a semi-persistent world as in MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, with commandos constantly battling it out to take over planets and control the galaxy.
In summation, they’ve done it. LucasArts have come up with the third top-notch Star Wars game in a row. Offline, the game will tear huge chunks out of your life as you proceed through the game without any care for what is going on around you. The importance of caring for the rest of your squad really hits home when you find one of them laid out on the floor and you’ve no time to help thanks to the impending wave of enemies about to fly down your squad’s throat. You won’t cry about it, but it’ll make you think on how you should be approaching the game. A little bit more innovation when it comes to online play would have put the game into the realm of the legends. With that said, Star Wars: Republic Commando should really be viewed as an incredibly solid, compelling, stylish title that has the ability of being able to be played over Xbox Live should you fancy it.
