Star Wars Episode III looms imminently like a great big disturbance in the Force, bringing George Lucas's Star Wars full circle to an epic conclusion or back to its very beginning, depending on how you look at it.
Hm, well circular time paradoxes aside, a new movie usually means a raft of new Star Wars games and Episode III proves no exception, with Star Wars: Republic Commando currently rappelling in to put a blaster bolt right between your eyes.
Now as every fule no, Star Wars games have been something of a mixed bag over the years, ranging from the utterly brilliant to the utterly banal, but there's been some signs of revival over the past year with the excellent KOTOR and more recently, Activision's Battlefront, restoring some much needed credibility to the franchise.
Fortunately Republic Commando should go even further in restoring reputations for the Star Wars faithful, casting you as the leader of a four-man clone commando squad in a series of daring missions deep behind enemy lines. Which enemy lines? Well timeline-wise it's set at the end of Episode II/beginning of Episode III in the white heat of the clone wars, as the Republic's clone army fight alongside the Jedi for the very freedom of the galaxy. Or something like that, we're a little hazy on the specifics and since Episode III's not quite out yet, we'll have to leave it at that.
Still, Commando opens nicely with an atmospheric intro as you slowly awake in the blurry liquid of your birthing pod, with reassuring alien voices reminding you that you are the elite of the elite and your enemies should be very scared. Well yes indeed and after a suitable diet of Bacta and birth tank fluid, you're suddenly all grown up and immediately drop-shipped in to prove your mettle in the heart of the war zone, as the Republic invade Geonosis.
So you're inside the splendidly atmospheric command helmet and what does your genetically enhanced vision see? Well for starters the graphics are everything you'd expect from the Xbox, with excellent visuals immediately immersing you in a highly authentic looking Star Wars universe. On the action score though, things start slowly, so you shoot some generic droids, move across the planetary surface, stuff explodes, you shoot some more droids and all seems so far, so well ...ordinary.
Ah, but then your first squad member comes on board and you begin to appreciate that Commando might just be that little bit different from your standard FPS. Commando's tag line is "your squad is your weapon" and as three other clones Fixer, Sev and Scorcher complete your line up, things start to rapidly become more interesting. In spite of being clones, each of your team mates has individual skills and specialities which you need to employ carefully to progress through each level.
Fixer unsurprisingly is an expert hacker and slicer, able to hot-wire doors and hack computers, Scorcher is your explosives and demolitions expert, while Sev is the sniper, a hot shot who can plant an energy bolt right between the eyes of droids or in between the wings of Geonosian guards alike. There's some excellent sound and good banter and repartee between the team and you quickly grow accustomed to their comments, gripes and jibes as you progress through each level, building the sense of really being part of a team.
However command is what you were born to do and learning to issue orders, deploy your clones and make the most of their specialities is what really makes Republic Commando just that little bit different from your standard Xbox shooter. You can give them basic orders like "secure the area" or "form on me" with your left D-pad, and you can also get them all to concentrate fire on particularly tough enemies by simply pointing and hitting your A action button.
However throughout each level you'll also find 'hot points', where the blue ghost of a squad member will appear. Here you can command your team to blow open doors, provide sniper cover, splice into command terminals or even man weapons emplacements. Sounds simple enough? Well in theory it is, but try making it happen when under sustained enemy assault when there's several possible hot points and options to choose from. Sustained tactical thought, as well as fast paced gunplay, soon becomes vital to your progress.
That's not to say the combat itself isn't pretty damn ferocious because at times it is. Basic battle droids provide nothing more than cannon fodder, that is before you encounter the super battle droid version, which packs a much greater punch. All manner of Geonosian guards and Geonosian Elites also await in the first few levels, with powerful beam weapons which can slice your squad in half if you don't take them down. Enemy AI on the whole seems pretty good, even if it does occasionally resort to re-generating waves and rush and overwhelm tactics.
Still there's plenty of excellent sustained fire fights to be had and fortunately your basic blaster can be adapted into a pretty powerful sniper rifle by adding an attachment for long-range kills. You've also got a trusty limitless ammo pistol to fall back on, but this really is a measure of last resort. Your battle armour also boasts a powerful melee spike, which is particularly deadly - and extremely satisfying - if you can creep behind an enemy and spear them in the back. You can even snatch up fallen enemies' weapons though they're not quite as effective in your commando's hands.
One really nice touch though is Commando's death sequences. You can patch up and revive fallen squad members with a portable bolt of Bacta, but if you fall in the line of duty, you keel over, your vision blurs and goes hazy and you have to hope one of your boys has a spare second in the heat of combat to return the favour. However you do always have the option to revive and try and thrive after you've taken a hit or simply reload from your last checkpoint.
We've really only just begun to explore and complete the first few levels of Republic Commando, but already we can say it's got as much promise and potential as any Star Wars shooter we've seen. The first-person action is at times intense but always fun, the whole game looks and feels authentically Star Wars and the squad command system is well realised and certainly adds a very different dynamic to the gameplay. A good measure of how decent a title is, is always whether you want to go back to it after you've written your piece and that's certainly the case with Republic Commando. We'll be reporting back for duty at the end of this next sentence. 'Ten hut and send in the clones!
Hm, well circular time paradoxes aside, a new movie usually means a raft of new Star Wars games and Episode III proves no exception, with Star Wars: Republic Commando currently rappelling in to put a blaster bolt right between your eyes.
Now as every fule no, Star Wars games have been something of a mixed bag over the years, ranging from the utterly brilliant to the utterly banal, but there's been some signs of revival over the past year with the excellent KOTOR and more recently, Activision's Battlefront, restoring some much needed credibility to the franchise.
 |
Still, Commando opens nicely with an atmospheric intro as you slowly awake in the blurry liquid of your birthing pod, with reassuring alien voices reminding you that you are the elite of the elite and your enemies should be very scared. Well yes indeed and after a suitable diet of Bacta and birth tank fluid, you're suddenly all grown up and immediately drop-shipped in to prove your mettle in the heart of the war zone, as the Republic invade Geonosis.
So you're inside the splendidly atmospheric command helmet and what does your genetically enhanced vision see? Well for starters the graphics are everything you'd expect from the Xbox, with excellent visuals immediately immersing you in a highly authentic looking Star Wars universe. On the action score though, things start slowly, so you shoot some generic droids, move across the planetary surface, stuff explodes, you shoot some more droids and all seems so far, so well ...ordinary.
Ah, but then your first squad member comes on board and you begin to appreciate that Commando might just be that little bit different from your standard FPS. Commando's tag line is "your squad is your weapon" and as three other clones Fixer, Sev and Scorcher complete your line up, things start to rapidly become more interesting. In spite of being clones, each of your team mates has individual skills and specialities which you need to employ carefully to progress through each level.
 |
However command is what you were born to do and learning to issue orders, deploy your clones and make the most of their specialities is what really makes Republic Commando just that little bit different from your standard Xbox shooter. You can give them basic orders like "secure the area" or "form on me" with your left D-pad, and you can also get them all to concentrate fire on particularly tough enemies by simply pointing and hitting your A action button.
However throughout each level you'll also find 'hot points', where the blue ghost of a squad member will appear. Here you can command your team to blow open doors, provide sniper cover, splice into command terminals or even man weapons emplacements. Sounds simple enough? Well in theory it is, but try making it happen when under sustained enemy assault when there's several possible hot points and options to choose from. Sustained tactical thought, as well as fast paced gunplay, soon becomes vital to your progress.
That's not to say the combat itself isn't pretty damn ferocious because at times it is. Basic battle droids provide nothing more than cannon fodder, that is before you encounter the super battle droid version, which packs a much greater punch. All manner of Geonosian guards and Geonosian Elites also await in the first few levels, with powerful beam weapons which can slice your squad in half if you don't take them down. Enemy AI on the whole seems pretty good, even if it does occasionally resort to re-generating waves and rush and overwhelm tactics.
 |
One really nice touch though is Commando's death sequences. You can patch up and revive fallen squad members with a portable bolt of Bacta, but if you fall in the line of duty, you keel over, your vision blurs and goes hazy and you have to hope one of your boys has a spare second in the heat of combat to return the favour. However you do always have the option to revive and try and thrive after you've taken a hit or simply reload from your last checkpoint.
We've really only just begun to explore and complete the first few levels of Republic Commando, but already we can say it's got as much promise and potential as any Star Wars shooter we've seen. The first-person action is at times intense but always fun, the whole game looks and feels authentically Star Wars and the squad command system is well realised and certainly adds a very different dynamic to the gameplay. A good measure of how decent a title is, is always whether you want to go back to it after you've written your piece and that's certainly the case with Republic Commando. We'll be reporting back for duty at the end of this next sentence. 'Ten hut and send in the clones!
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