STAR WARS™ Republic Commando

''The Squad is your Weapon.'' Republic Commando is a well made FPS that manage to be very atmospheric and immersive thanks to good soundtrack, voice acting, mission design, and game mechanics. The only significant problem i have with it, is that i feel like it ended a bit soon (because i was having fun!). One of te most unique and underrated Star Wars game. I loved it on my Xbox back in the day, replayed it recently from GOG to see if it held up after 20 years... and yes, it mostly does. +Pros: *interesting and intuitive squad tactics mechanic, all done trough 4 simple order buttons and 1 interaction button. Easy to use, yet feels like there is depth and requires thinking in how and where to place your squad to create kill zones, or so as to cover every angle when defending, cover yourself when advancing, etc... Surprisingly rather good AI for your squad members (especially for a 2004 game). They usually don't derp around much, they do what you expect, you feel like you can rely on them. *Very atmospheric and immersive, feels like you've never really seen the star wars universe in this way before. The 3 squad members have a surprising amount of personality for being all clones, and you feel attached to them by the end. They have good VA, and just enough friendly trash talk with each other to be fun, but not to much so as to be annoying or break the atmosphere. The tone is more dark and serious than what you're used to from most other star wars media. *is actually challenging on Hard mode. (i recommand to play it on hard since it absolutely requires you to use the squad as your main weapon, and work as a team, which i felt was more fun and interesting to play this way). -Cons: *A little short. 7-10 hours depending on how much you die. There is minimal replayability once the campaign is done. The multiplayer was good back then, but nobody plays it anymore obviously. *Over-reliance on endlessly-spawning enemie in some places can feel a bit cheap and frustrating.

Star Wars Republic Commando is my favourite Star Wars game of all time - but that does not mean it is perfect - not by a long shot. Pros: - Excellent soundtrack, which is a mixture of original Star Wars music composed by John Williams as well as a few tracks by Jesse Harlin. These are specifically composed for Republic Commando and feature Mandalorian war chants to create an excellent mix. Really good stuff! - The length of the game. Some people might see this as a con, but I think it is good that the game is not longer than it is. The credits will roll after around 6 to 8 hours and based on the fact that a lot of mission objectives are extremely similar and sometimes tedious, it is a good thing they are not drawn out any longer. - The game allows the player to command his sqaud to perform certain tactical manouvers, like taking a sniper or grenade position or attack one target specifically. It is one of the aspects that works very well, but could be developed even further, if ever a sequel was to be released. Cons: - This game came out in 2003 and the age is visible. - Mission objectives are often very similar and boring (pressing E on a panel) - no coop mode. This game practically screams for a coop mode where each of the 4 squad members could be controlled by a player. Sadly this is not the case. - From a technical standpoint, it can be tricky to get this game running on modern systems without issues. There are mods that do that, look them up. All in all a great game (my favourite, as I mentioned before), but if there ever will be a sequel, there are so many things that could be improved

Ok, before someone cries for ''heresy'', let me explain myself. ( Half of this review will be spent discussing this theory, then we move on judging the actual product). SW: Republic commando is a strategic ( although sometimes it fails a little bit in this department) FPS inspired by many strategic FPS came before it. At the start, I made the simple analogy with ''band of brothers but in space'' ( which is also true but only if you stop on a surface level) but after some though, I noticed that it shares a lot of similarities also with the Halo saga, most notably two things: 1 - it was design to work for both console and PC, but clearly though primarily for the console, judging by the HUD, simplified strategic commands and shooting mechanics, ( plus , like Halo, shares the ability to create theme levels ( horror, infiltration inspired, ecc) and has a certain pace that is remarkably similar with the master chief saga), 2 - The settings, or rather, its massive soundtrack, which you could reply: ok, so what? Well, the whole point of the Halo saga was to create something memorable, and this was done by the feelings transmitted through surroundings and well, the music , which many FPS tries but little manage to came close to that feeling of glory and warrior's spirit that both Halo and SW:RC manage to impart, primarily, again, thanks to its soundtrack ( c'mon, tell me that Ka'rta Tor isn't one of the most well crafted piece you'll ever hear). Anyway, Finally speaking of the game itself, it's actually above pretty ok, and there's not nostalgy here : I played just some year ago and decided to play it again. Is it, however, truly worth it of 5 stars? mmmm no, and it's just enough for the four stars: the game isn't bad or anything, it just starts with great ideas but doesn't fully employ them. After a while, you'll feel a little monotony, but the game tries, to some extent, to not overstay its welcome. So, after all this, it's ok to buy it? YES, absolutely worth it!

I would say that this is a must-have for collectors of the star wars games, but I fear nostalgia has gotten into people's heads if they are saying this is a 5* game. It's very repetitive, the story is the classic - we have a generic mission, go and complete it and so on, the loop gets old real quick and overall just isn't something that pulls you and engages. Buy if heavily discounted, otherwise don't

I originally had this game on Xbox, and while I enjoyed the theme, the setting, the characters etc. overall the game was sort of OK. I'd play it when I wanted to be a clone commando, never otherwise. But now that I got this on the PC I have to say this version is SO much better! The character models have all this extra detail I don't remember from the Xbox version, aiming is enjoyable and actually allows you to hit the soft spots of the tougher enemies and the squad mate AI seems to be improved (or I just know how to use it better). Overall it's a nice shooter if you like shooters, and a great game if you want to play as one of the clone troopers, even if it's as a part of a special squad. I enjoy the action when it's there but for someone who doesn't get kick out of Star Wars the less action packed sequences may be a bit boring. If you do enjoy Star Wars, the prequels or just the troopers, this game is well worth your while.