Star Wars: Republic Commando Review - Fun from A Galaxy Far Far Away
Overview
This is an interesting squad-based tactical first-person shooter based on the Star Wars universe. You will be playing the role of the leader of a special forces unit fighting for the Republic in the Clone Wars. The shooter elements are complemented by a steady implementation of squad commands to add variety to the game.
Features (4 out of 5)
Most of Star Wars: Republic Commando just features standard shooter elements. You will have one type of assault rifle and a rechargeable pistol to get you through your missions. Exotic weapons can be picked up as well to add in a little flavor. There isn’t much unique on this front though.
The big feature is the squad command interface. Your tactical vision highlights positions that would be good positions. All you have to do is look at them to order one of your three men to go to the position and start doing the action. This could mean sniping on your signal, throwing grenades, using anti-tank weaponry, manning a turret, or planting a bomb. You will probably be amazed by how well they can handle these abilities too. They are also able to revive you if you are killed, so the difficulty is fairly forgiving. As long as one of you is still standing, all of your team can be revived.
The story itself isn’t bad and it works well as a means of driving the plot. You will carry out special forces support during the Battle of Geonosis. You will then rescue a Republic destroyer from an enemy boarding part and ultimately help the Wookies retake Kashyyyk. This all works to provide a fairly unique series of enemies and environments to keep the missions from getting stale.
Graphics (3 out of 5)
I was fairly impressed by the graphics. The series felt true to the Star Wars look. The models are detailed and accurate to their movie counterparts and the environments just feel right. These environments aren’t that detailed though, so don’t expect a lot. You won’t mind the bland caves and ship interiors, but the jungles on Kashyyyk feel a little dull.
(3 out of 5)
I first played this game on an older computer. It was actually the first game I played with my new ATI X700 card. You will need 256 MB of RAM to play this and a 64 MB graphics card. My computer had 1 GB of RAM and aforementioned X700. It looked just fine on that build, so I don’t think you’d experience much of a problem on any machine built within the last four years.
System Requirements (4 out of 5)
I first played this game on an older computer. It was actually the first game I played with my new ATI X700 card. You will need 256 MB of RAM to play this and a 64 MB graphics card. My computer had 1 GB of RAM and aforementioned X700. It looked just fine on that build, so I don’t think you’d experience much of a problem on any machine built within the last four years.
Overall (4 out of 5)
I felt that this was a really fun game. It’s not the deepest tactical shooter, but it’s accessible and fun. The missions are fairly diverse and the gameplay’s polished and cool. There are minor parts that get a little annoying and a deeper tactical interface would have been appreciated, but it’s still fun. I would suggest this for any fan of sci-fi shooters.
This post is part of the series: Other Star Wars Games
Some reviews of other Star Wars games.
