The Star Wars universe is massive. Before Disney decided to cut the expanded universe, we had stories from all over the galaxy. We had stories about normal citizens leading their lives, be they Human, Trandoshian, Wookie, Twi’lek or god knows what other species. We had stories about normal soldiers that were given no choice but to fight since they were clones. These men lost more brothers than the Jedi, they were well trained, loyal and would do everything to save the Republic. There were also the elite troopers, while not the best of the best (that would be the Arc troopers) they would still go out to do what needed to be done. Karen Traviss, Troy Denning and Aaron Alliston told us stories about these brave men and women and all we could do was passively take part in the journey of these brave men.

The passive viewing was until someone at Lucas Arts woke up and said “Pandemic is working on Star Wars: Battlefront which tells the story of the front-line cannon fodder but someone needs to talk about the commandos” and that is where we are now. Republic Commando is internally developed at Lucas Arts to show us what the commandos did during the Republic’s war against the Separatist forces

Wide Screen Fix:

Before we kick-off, I had to use a third-party program to get Republic Commando to run at 1920 X 1080. Steps below:

1. Download WideScreenFixer
2. Start Star Wars: Republic Commando
3. Create a profile and play a level
4. Exit Star Wars: Republic Commando
5. Open WideScreenFixer
6. Select Star Wars: Republic Commando from the drop-down list
7. Click the gear icon next to the game name
8. Hit the browse button at the bottom left
9. Navigate to “<insert install drive here>\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Star Wars Republic Commando\GameData\Save
10. Double click system.ini
11. Ensure “Automatically Detect Resolution” is selected
12. Click “Save Settings”
13. ENJOY!

Story:

The story follows Delta Squad during the clone wars as they go through three unique missions. The first is on Geonosis during the Clone Wars, the second is investigating and taking control of a Republic ship as it drifts through space and finally the third takes place as Delta Squad tries to help the Wookies on Kashyyyk fight back against the slavers and the Separatist forces helping them. 

The story is delivered nearly purely by in-game orders either from your contact in Republic Command or text overlay that follows the theme of the famous Star Wars scroll. The story hardly matters as its sole purpose is to tie the missions together. 

Sound:

There is no background soundtrack for most of the sections but it is hardly missed since the background sound effects cover for it. There are sounds of the wind, lasers flying in the distance and troops screaming as you walk through the levels. These effects make the game feel alive and add to the fact that you are a team sneaking past a battlefield to take out high-value targets while the other troopers give their lives as a distraction. On the rare occasion there is background music it follows classic Star Wars soundtracks so mute the music if you’re uploading to YouTube to avoid copyright claims (which we haven’t done so enjoy the music).

The voice acting is top-notch, all of the voices sound like grizzled commandos. It doesn’t matter if the commandos are barking orders, having a chat or making a joke; the voice acting ensures that you are following a team of hardened men and not some children pretending to be commandos. The jokes especially are delivered in such a style that you know the joke is a cover-up for a ton of internal pain and that is what we should be seeing from a team of warriors who lose brothers every day.

I like the weapon sounds. All of them are perfectly in tune with what we have seen on screen and games in the Star Wars universe. The sniper rifle sounds deadly while adding to the weapon’s paltry kick. The grenades could have had more oomph in their explosions but they do well enough. The melee blade too makes a satisfying click but the noise enemies make when they get sliced by it is even better which adds to my appreciation for the team on sound duty. 

All in all, I have no major complaints with the sound effects.

Graphics:

The graphics don’t look bad but they show their age. The textures don’t hold up in the current day, the same applies to enemies who look like they were made out of squares when you get up-close and personal. The game shows its age when it comes to world and character models but it is not as bad as you would expect from a game that was made in 2005. The graphics don’t feel that old and are not painful to look at in the least.

The effects feel old as well but again, not as bad as what was expected. The sniper shots leave a trail, the repeater lasers look good though the Trandoshian heavy repeater could have been better. The main glory for the effects comes from the EMP grenade which lines the floor with electricity and the night vision mode which would have looked exceptional if Splinter Cell’s goggles didn’t exist. 

Gameplay:

At its core, Republic Commando is a first-person shooter. From its shooting: Republic Commando doesn’t do anything that impresses me. The gunplay isn’t anything new, it isn’t anything that we haven’t seen before but at the same time I’m not going to say that it is lacklustre. The list of weapons isn’t great, there is a pistol that recharges ammo that you use when all your other guns are empty, a repeater which belongs in the Star Wars Universe along with two weapon mods for it which make it a sniper rifle or an anti-armour weapon. There are also weapons dropped by enemies such as a heavy repeater and a rocket launcher. All the weapons feel alright, they lack the kick you would expect from them but they aren’t soulless.

There are grenades which get some really heavy use in this game because there is a grenade to match the weakness of every type of enemy such as EMP grenades for droids, poison for Geonosians and frag grenades when you have no clue what to use. The main weapon however is the melee attack which does tons of damage to enemies and can take out most enemies in a single hit. The combat comes down to tossing a grenade to reduce the numbers, your regular weapons to weaken the enemies as you approach them and once within range BAM! You hit them with a melee making them deader than Elvis. If enemies are dropping from the roof it makes sense to get up close and personal before they have a chance to aim and simply whack them around before they can do anything. 

The levels are extremely linear with a few alternate routes here and there, I think I only found an alternate route twice during my full playthrough but I believe that there are more. The levels contain mostly tight corridors that you have to follow to reach the end, while there are a few outdoor missions early in the game they might as well be corridors with the tiny freedom of movement offered. The levels herd you from start to the finish, you get little to no means of sneaking up on enemies unless the game wants you to. This is a yin and yang moment in the level design, it’s nice because you know exactly where to aim while enjoying some fast gameplay but at the same time it kills the game’s replay value.

The main mechanic in Republic Commando is the one that it shares with Brothers in Arms; Squad Management. You can order your squad to closely follow you, spread out or take up position at particular points. There are also level specific orders where you can order a squad member to take up sniper positions, grenade positions or to take control of emplaced guns and turrets. This mechanic adds a bit of strategy to each level as it forces you to identify tactics to use rather than just running and gunning. While it needs a bit of thought in Brothers in Arms, Republic Commando makes it a lot simpler, you only point where you want your teammates to go and they will handle the rest. 

The Actual gameplay itself is a frantic and fun combo of shooting enemies, tossing grenades wildly while you desperately try to find the best tactics for your commandos. When the tactics fail, which they will, you have no choice but to figure out a way to either beat the room or fix your mistakes in the heat of combat. The spaceship assault mission breaks the great team-based flow of the game because you are separated from your squad making you fight alone so anything that takes you out is an automatic game over; it is this section and this section alone which lowers the game’s overall score. The attempt of taking control in chaos makes Republic Commando a fun game to play. 

Conclusion:

Republic Commando is fun, fast and occasionally strategic but is let down by an okay story and overly short gameplay. A good budget title for everyone who wants more out of the Star Wars universe while a great title for those who have enjoyed following Omega and Delta squad in the books.

Pros	Cons
Decent visual effects	Poor world models
Classic Star Wars soundtrack	Rarely used background music
Great background audio	Nothing
Great voice acting	Non-existent story
Hectic combat	Overly linear levels
Fun squad mechanics	Squad gets thrown out the window for a third of the game

Recommended Purchase Price: $10 or ₹500

Final Score: 7/10