Over the years we have seen many Star Wars games come and go. Some offer excellent production value and an incredible experience, such as Knights of the Old Republic, while others, namely the Episode 1 game, are downright awful. Either way, most of them follow the same “Jedi who must save the galaxy‿ narrative and do not show fans of the franchise the other side of the Star Wars saga. Star Wars Republic Commando does that in more ways than one, as it thrusts you into the role of an elite soldier in command of a four-man military squad set in between the events that take place in the Episode II and Episode III films.

 

Republic commandos are elite soldiers in the Republic army who venture deep behind enemy lines to perform important tasks such as assassinations and rescue missions. These Navy SEAL-like operatives are taken through three main locales in the game, which are split into several different missions. Geonosis, the rocky planet from Episode II; a Republic ship, complete with corridor-crawling action; and Kashyyyk, the Wookie homeworld make up the main locations in the game. As aforementioned, the game takes place between the Episode II and Episode III films, meaning many sequences will be taking place during the events of both films. What is particularly interesting is that you will interact with characters from the upcoming film, such as General Grievous.

 

You will act as a member of the squad at all times, meaning there will be no one man army sequences to see in this game. As the leader of the unit, you must direct your men into attack and defensive positions. The group, however, isn't stupid. They will fan out and take cover without needing to be ordered, which takes away some of the often times tedious micro-management found in squad-based FPSs. When you do give orders, it won't take much time, given the extremely simple but fairly complex command system developer LucasArts has incorporated. With just one button press on an object, you can direct your men to snipe, man gun turrets, search and destroy, blast open secure doors, and even recover fallen squadmates. This offers a great deal of liberty when playing the game, since you can quickly order teammates to their positions while maintaining a bead on your target. For example, in one occasion the squad was ambushed and it was because of this accessible management system that one of our men was ordered to a sniper position while another was ordered to get on a gun turret, all within a matter of seconds. The sheer complexity of the system is astonishing when you take into consideration that it is all done with just one button press.

 

Your helmet will serve as your home during the course of the game, since the perspective is never taken out of first-person view, even during cutscenes. Therefore, the developers had to equip the visor with all the information needed. This aspect is reminiscent of Metroid Prime, minus the multiple visor displays. The HUD will show your health, ammo, shield status, and the mission objective at the top.

 

The actual combat system is an almost carbon copy, but a well done copy, of Halo's system. As in Halo, you can only wield two weapons and the customary assortment of grenades. Your primary weapon, a rifle, will allow for two attachments to be added to the weapon to turn it into a three-in-one killing machine. You can add sniper and antiarmor attachments to the rifle at any time, as long as they've been acquired. Your secondary weapon, a pistol, can be swiped out for an enemies weapon or any other weapon lying around.

 

One of the more promising features is the diversity in the enemies and their combat tendencies. Most of the enemies we saw all behaved very differently. For example, the droids would stand out in the clear, while the trandoshans would take cover. Similarly, while the trandoshans were more adept to using tactics, other enemies, such as General Greivous' bodyguards would be very aggressive and leap towards its target. The enemy AI seems to very different among the different enemies, which can make or break a FPS shooter more than any other gameplay aspect.