Star Wars: Republic Commando – Are you clone enough?

Welcome to the Republic soldier! It seems your clone is a step above the rest. Don’t ask me to explain it, considering you are all clones of the same guy, but anyway. You will be part of Delta Squad. A super heavy commando unit, equipped for anything, both mentally, and equipment-wise. So, suit up and join the rest of your team! If you always wanted to terminate droids and Trandoshans with extreme prejudice, install Star Wars: Republic Commando now, because this is what you will be doing for the next ten hours – in fairly entertaining ways, must be added.

Delta Squad
As established in this Star Wars game, you will play as a Republic commando (clone trooper). You will lead and take your squad to victory through a series of hard-won battles, starting with the famous one from the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones on the planet Geonosis. Being a commando squad means that your missions have more of a clandestine touch, instead of the all-out war ones. You will be inserted behind enemy lines to take out leaders, sabotage reactors, and other covert misdeeds. 

Star Wars: Republic Commando doesn’t have much of a story, and while your team has some characteristics, like the funny one, and the psychopathic one – this part of the game will remain underdeveloped, unfortunately. However, as I see it, this does not matter too much seeing as you all are clones born to do one thing; kill. It comes down to feeling very militaristic, which is a pretty pleasant experience. No Jedi, no end-of-the-world antics, just military targets and a lot of blasting.

Geonosis is not the only place you will shoot up. You will also board starships, and pay a visit to the jungle planet Kashyyyk. Mostly to exterminate space lizards, and help the loud hairy wookies maintain their freedom (so far). The game ends somewhat on a cliffhanger, with no sequel in sight. The sequel baiting does feel a bit forced because suddenly one member of your crew gets taken, but the overall campaign gets completed. Sadly, no sequel was ever made, but you never know. Maybe one day we will get to fight the rest of the clone battles. However, there are plenty of books that have been written about this squad, if you ever feel that you miss the antics of Delta Squad.

Fight as a unit
Gameplay is rather standard when it comes to first-person-shooters, but what makes it stand out is that you are the squad leader of three. Between the blasting and grenade throwing, you have to make tactical decisions how to make the best use of your squad. I wouldn’t say it will strain your brain in any strategic sense, since most of the decisions are based on how fast you can notice the contextual areas where to send your squad.

Now, you will get overwhelmed from time to time, but it’s mostly because the game tends to throw a ton of high health-point units your way. If you can find a nice contextual spot to put one of your men, these bloated enemy droids can be taken down quite fast. See, these spots are more than just areas to shoot from, it determines what kind of weapon your comrade in arms will use. It can be anything from sniper rifles to grenade launchers. Outside these spots, your men are not that great. But with a sniper rifle equipped… holy Jesus, they go from having the famous movie Stormtrooper aim to Lee Harvey Oswald on spice stims.

You can say it undermines the tactical aspect of Star Wars: Republic Commando, and yes, you are right. It does in a way. Even so, it works in the setting of the game. I would have preferred if it was more like Mass Effect or The Bureau: XCOM Declassified where positioning wasn’t as rigid, and special weapons worked under a cooldown for the squad. Yet, it is what it is, and while you can move your men to places of your choosing by setting defense markers, your squad is just too incompetent to survive or do damage for the most part. The encounters become very messy, and the AI is a bit on the scripted side, which becomes very noticeable through maneuvering this way.

However, as said, it works, and these kinds of first-person games are rare as hell already, so you can’t be too picky. Ironic enough though, one of the best maps in the game is the abandoned cruiser where you play solo for most of the mission. It has great tension, and the enemies that come at you are of a reasonable level. As soon as you are with your squad again, the combat becomes rather chaotic, especially the further you get into the game. It’s charming in a way too, but what isn’t charming, is how lame the last couple of missions are. They were clearly rushed, filled with empty corridors, and a bunch of heavy-duty units to blast through. It becomes a slog quickly, particularly the areas that have zero cover, and no goddamn ammo! Good luck scrapping super battle droids with your dinky backup pistol.

The Star Wars visuals & sound
I wouldn’t say the visuals are that great, actually, they probably are on the ugly side. The textures are messy, most of the game is a bunch of corridors, and everything looks a bit oversized, but still, what they set out to do, they do. It does feel like Star Wars, notably the prequel aesthetics. Everything that is expected to be there, is there, and while it doesn’t look pretty in a general sense, it does have a few quirks that make it stand out still.

The visor is the most noticeable one, which heavily increases the immersion. It’s kinda funny how a little addition like that contributes to the overall tactical feel of the game and the sense of actually being there on location. It makes me wish more games would go down this route, instead of just having floating UI segments that are as annoying like flies on your face. But I guess it was not to be, since the Star Wars: Republic Commando is old now and nobody took up the mantle.

The graphics might not be much, yet, the music is magnificent and very dramatic. It sounds like the Star Wars prequel movies, and it shifts seamlessly from exploration to combat mode when you run into Geonosians that need tearing apart. There isn’t too much dialogue, as your battle brothers will mostly bark, or maybe comment on something here and there, but what is there is good. Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett) even makes a return to voice some of the clone troopers. It’s top-notch when it comes to sound and music.

Mods
Star Wars: Republic Commando has a few years to its name now. It means that it will have trouble running on modern systems. However, it’s an easy fix thanks to a bunch of hero modders. The fix that you need is called Star Wars Republic Commando Fix, which you can find here. In my playthrough, I also used the Star Wars Republic Commando Remaster mod that increases the textures and makes the UI (helmet visor) widescreen compatible. You can find that modification here. Installing is as easy as copy & paste!

In conclusion
I wish Star Wars still got off-brand games like this nowadays, instead of always involving Jedi, or being part of already-established lore that we have seen a hundred times before. While the game is not exceptional, the setting makes it enjoyable by being low-key in its theme. Taking part in the military aspect of Star Wars without a grand narrative makes it feel refreshing, as I have always preferred this side of Star Wars over Jedi and their magic. It wouldn’t be Star Wars without the space wizards, and the struggle between dark and light, but I think having these in the world at a distance makes them feel much more mysterious. You can say I got Jedi fatigue!

Beyond this, it’s fun for what it is, and on PC you can find it very cheap usually. I recommend Star Wars: Republic Commando if you ever want to experience the gritty ground combat through the eyes of a grunt, just don’t go expecting anything great story-wise. It doesn’t expand, or even provide much extra detail for anyone wanting Star Wars lore. It’s just a straight-up shooter during one of the major conflicts in the setting, and that is enough, at least for me.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas