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Review : Star Wars : Republic Commando for Xbox
Last week I made the very smart purchasing decision of picking up a used copy of Star Wars : Republic Commando for Xbox. This is a first person shooter action game set in Star Wars clone Wars timeline where you play a leader of a four man squad of the Republic's elite clone troopers.
Now the ironic thing is that recently Lucasarts can make better games out of the Star Wars universe that Lucasfilm can make movies out of it. I mean don't get me wrong I liked Return of the Sith the first time I saw it as much as the next guy but this game is a very well done immersive look at an interactive approach to a familiar scifi setting. It is way beyond Dark Forces.
This is a view of the Clone Wars from the perspective of a clone. Your team is just another number in the clone army and is not some fancy schmancy Jedi Knight or political princess with bun shaped hair. The Republic Commandos are rounded out in amusing writing and voice acting. This is one of the better squad based games that I have played and your team is extremely useful and smart. They will engage the enemy, perform tasks, take cover, fix things and blow things up as needed. They are commanded by a context sensitive single button that changes when you select a task for your squad to do. If you click on good sniping position you can command your squad to go there and take pot shots at the droids and bugs. This is not just Doom done with Star Wars but a really good first person action game. The levels are huge and they blend one into another so you can play through the day that the end of Attack of the Clones and play through a pretty cool back story. You have to go through and achieve various goals but since you are granted a level of flexibility with your squad you don't always have to do the action the same way. Some times you can set the explosive charges yourself instead of commanding your troopers to do it.
The graphics look totally awesome and are among the best I have seen on the Xbox. I swear that the level of complexity and immersiveness that recent Xbox 1 games have made make me almost put off plunking down the large amount of cash for an Xbox 360. The lighting and shader graphic effects are on par with the other good Xbox shooters like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. I have no doubt that this game could not be pulled off on the PS2 or the Gamecube since it used tight shaders, texturing and streamed data off the disk using the hard drive as a cache.
The voice acting is believable and the sound effects are perfect. It sounds just as good as a war in Star Wars should sound. There is an original score that they have available to download in MP3 from the Republic Commando website. Some of the military sounding alien marches are right on score with the feel of the game.
This is a darker look at Star Wars and it not really for little kids. The troopers will joke about their desire to blow things up and it is much more violent that a PG Star Wars movie. When you take out a insect trooper with your arm blade their guts spray over the screen and an energy visor cleans off view with a squeegee scraping sound. It is well worth the T rating. It is not Lego Star Wars
This is a fun game even if you don't like first person shooters but if you like Star Wars... like every red blooded American born after 1960 then this can be a choice addition to your Xbox line up. I hope they are working on a sequel because I am going to want more when this one is finished. This game is so good that it make me wonder what Star Wars will be like when George Lucas retires and hands it off to a new generation of creative artists. This game is not just for nerd it kick large amounts of alien ass for the honor of the Senate and the security of the Galactic Republic. So far there is no sign of Jar-jar Binks and I gave my squad order to kill him on sight.
Jake at March 7, 2006 
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Comments
DF FTW!
Posted by: Robert at March 9, 2006 1:52 PM
I used to own it. I think they MIGHT make a sequel and it will be Imperial Commando, I am not sure if its true or not.
Posted by: Brando at March 10, 2006 5:13 PM
