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Many (and in some opinions most) Star Wars games are rather lackluster. But there are the few exceptions of good Star Wars games. Star Wars Battlefront, both one and two, Republic Commandos, and Knights of the Old Republic are a couple examples. I will review Republic Commandos today, as that is an amazing game.

Star Wars Republic Commandos is a first person shooter that takes place during the Clone Wars in the Star Wars Universe. It puts the player into the perspective of the clone trooper, and has a much ‘darker’ aspect than the Star Wars movies, which usually consists of Jedi cutting down enemies instead of the tragic battles of the Republic Troopers. Star Wars Republic Commandos also puts the player into a Special Forces situation, which was well enhanced by the game makers by instruction from a real Special Forces trainer.

When the game starts out, the player is in the first person view of a newborn clone waving his arms around in a tank of some sort of liquid, a Kaminoan caretaker naming the player “o-thirty-eight” of delta squad. The player is a clone trooper, but not just any clone trooper. The player is an elite member of Delta Squad, a commando made from better genes and given extra time for training and simulations. The player then goes through a very well-made introduction scene, with the character learning and doing a training simulation. The player then meets his/her squad which the player are a leader of, which contains ‘Fixer’, number forty, a loyal and what I consider to be, “down to earth,” commando, who’s specialty is ‘slicing’ into systems, which is the equivalent to ‘hacking’ in our universe. He is signified by his green armor. Then there is ‘Scorch’ or number sixty-two, who is known for his sense of humor. He too, is loyal to the squad, but is sometimes to talkative for his own good. He is signified by orange armor. Then there is ‘Sev’, or number seven, who is the fiercest and as Scorch seems to see as, disturbing. He has what appears to be blood painted all over his suit, and is signified by the color red.

There are many weapons in Star Wars Republic Commando, and the player start out with an adaptable rifle with three different forms: a fully automatic rifle that is standard among troopers, a sniper rifle with pinpoint accuracy and can zoom either 10x or 20x, and an anti-armor attachment that is used primarily for spider droids, which are basically tanks on four legs. There are a barrage of other weaponry that the player can pick up from enemies, such as the Geonosian Laser, which shoots out a powerful laser but the ammo doesn’t last long, and a variety of projectile weapons, believe it or not, including shotguns, sub-machine guns, and a huge machine gun that makes the player’s character move very slowly. There are also Wookie weapons, including a beam crossbow and a homing rocket launcher.

Thirty-eight and his squad’s trooper armor is different than the average troopers, as they have shield generators that work much like they do in the game Halo, and have health protected by those shields. When the shields are depleted, the player has to take cover and wait for them to recharge, as he/she is vulnerable to losing health. When the player runs out of health, he/she becomes incapacitated, or useless. The player can do two things when he/she is incapacitated, and they are to maintain current orders, or revive him/her. When a squad mate revives the player, which takes about five seconds, the player has half health. The player’s squad mates can also take hits and become incapacitated, where the player can either revive the squad mate him/herself, or command another squad mate to revive him.

Thirty-eight is the leader of the squad, and gives commands to the other three squad members. These commands include, “Door breach,” where the commandos get into a breaching position, put a breaching charge on the door, and when the door opens from the breach, the commando at the left of the door throws a grenade into it, “Slice terminal,” which is basically hacking into a system to cause something to happen, such as operating a door, shutting down an explosive and obtaining information from a data core, and, “Plant charge,” which commands a squad member to plant a charge in the desired area to clear some rubble or destroy something. There are other commands, too, such as making a squad member set up a sniping, anti-armor or grenadier position, and retrieving bacta to recover health, which they sometimes do automatically, and the player can also make the player squad focus on destroying one single target before firing upon others.

The game starts on the planet Geonosis, which is the planet where Anakin, Padame and others were captured and sentenced for execution but saved by the clone army and other Jedi. I think it’s rather funny, because the first thing the player see is a normal clone trooper be pulled off of the drop ship the player is on and killed by a Geonosian, a bug-like creature with odd humanoid looks. The character meets up with his squad and takes out a large droid army allied with Geonosians, and the player will have to play the game to find out the rest of the story.

The multiplayer was dissapointing, though... Forgot to add that. xp I can beat it in one day in hard mode I love it so much. ><