STAR WARS™ Republic Commando

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.

The game is still worth playing in my opinion, but has aged poorly. Graphically I would say that it still mostly holds up, or and there are several mods that update several models and textures if that's your thing. However, the mouse is CRAZY fast in menus, the AI is definitely early 2000s level, and the game frequently crashes on loading screens. If you can look past these issues then I would say you should get it. It's a steal at $10 and if you get it on sale then I'd definitely say it's worth it. I give it a rating of slightly stale cheese out ten.

So, I guess to start, I am a star wars fan, and I've always liked the clone troopers, so this game's premise was a done deal when I was a kid (I played the hell out of this back in the day). So you're apart of Delta Squad, an elite team of clones assigned to covert ops throughout the Clone Wars, in terms of story... I'll be honest, there isn't much, and this game has a very different feel than most star wars media, but unlike say, Kotor II they don't really use this grounded, more gritter tone to tell a unique story, and the linear nature of the levels doesn't help either, but I do like Delta Squad, they don't have tons of depth or moments to delve into their personalities, but what's there is cool. Regarding the gameplay, it's pretty simple, you go through a level, you assign your squad to take certain positions or issue other tactical orders against your enemy with a decent array of weapons to use (My favorites are the Trandoshan shotgun and minigun), the only catch I have with the competent gameplay is that many enemies are tanky, and I feel that Delta Squad is not as durable as they could be, given the growing challenge the game sends your way. In technical areas, on Win10 I found it runs fine, I did notice some textures being messed up (Mainly that the clones' armor has grey patches) and the game shows its age in the visual department, and the mouse can be VERY sensitive. So, all in all Republic Commando is a decent game, if you like star wars or shooters in general, perhaps give it a try, but I'd wait for a discount.

This is one of my favorite games and I was glad it was on gog. Squad commands in an fps, in the star wars universe. Amazing. Gog have also addressed the two known issue with playing it on modern hardware, speedy mouse and graphics. All you have to do is replace a couple of folders in your gamedata to fix the graphics, and you will be killing droids in style. To fix the fast scroll you just run the game in debug, but I didn't bother because it doesn't bother me and I like it tracking my playtime in gog galaxy. I linked the article, but if the link ever doesn't work just google graphics fix for Republic Commando. https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022715793-STAR-WARS-Republic-Commando-essential-graphics-enhancements

I had very low expectations of this one, especially as it came out during the prequel nonsense years. In actuality the prequels were almost worth it (almost) just to see this game get made. Excellent shooting, great atmosphere that feels authentically star wars, really great voice acting with memorable characters. Possibly the best Star Wars game to come out since the prequels.