Umm, look, missteps here are aplenty, way more than a short review can fit in. The baseline of my impressions — We Are the Dwarves may be a functioning product, but it's not a finished game. Every aspect here needs varying degrees of work: core mechanics and UI are a couple of prototyping/itirating cycles away from gelling together, QA-wise it looks like a few months of polish to go, and in terms of content it's all over the place with relatively huge setpieces quickly discarded while some environments get recycled from start to an abrupt ending. It never feels that the devs found their footing with the overall design, so it thrashes between a mostly by-the-numbers ability-based action, a few one-note gimmicks and a clunky real-time squad tactics. I've enjoyed its aesthetics and some of its gameplay quirks, but rather in spite of its more glaring, ever-present flaws. Can't say the latter won't outweigh the rest for everyone else.
One of those cases when all the nice memories are very much deserved: Republic Commando really is that good, and personally I've just started to appreciate it even more after recent replays. To make some sort of a list of its elements would be a disservice, as RC goes all in on tight design instead of reinventing the wheel. The squad system doesn't bring any revelations, but besides working almost flawlessly it always nails the "not overly simplistic, not unnecessarily bloated" spot to keep the pace fast and steady. The level design always gives just enough tactical leeway to make some quick but meaningful decisions, but also not to intervene heavily with blasting off droidekas. The weapons and both enemy and friendly AIs are balanced well enough to maintain this "you're one deadly war machine" feel, while always keeping the danger of being overwhelmed and/or sucker punched very real. Oh, and the "sleeve knife" combined with "visor cleaning" UI effect makes one of the most satisfying melee attacks in shooters, period. Technical hiccups and minor dated design aspects aside, this game kicks major butt.
