PlayStation 4 review copy provided by Aspyr
Star Wars has and always will be a large part of my life and has always been one of the driving forces of my love for movies, music, and video games. There were countless games from the franchise that I had played in my childhood years but one of the more notable ones that I had missed was Star Wars: Republic Commando. With Aspyr’s continued determination to keep the old Star Wars games of the 2000s still pumping with life, it seemed a fantastic time to try out the remaster of the game on a PlayStation console, finally. While the game has been available on PC and Xbox One via backward compatibility, this remastered version offers better resolution and visuals to take advantage of the newer hardware. Did this game live up to my childhood nostalgia for the Clone Wars era? Yes, but not without its faults.
Story
Republic Commando revolves around Delta Squad, an elite team of clone commandos that are put together in order to carry out some of the Republic’s most daring missions. We play as Boss, and over the course of the game become familiar with the other 3 members of the squad, Scorch, Fixer, and Sev. Each one has their own personality and gives enough chatter throughout missions to bring us to care for each of them. The story is set at the very beginning of the Clone Wars following the large-scale battle we all know from Attack of the Clones.
Through the game’s 3 campaigns, we get to see what happens between Attack of the Clones and the moments leading up to Revenge of the Sith. It’s a great thread that I didn’t expect to see pulled throughout the game as it jumps through the timeline to pivotal moments of the Clone Wars era. While Delta Squad themselves are indeed still canon in the Star Wars universe, this story unfortunately is not. I still had fun with the ideas and I’d like to believe that Delta Squad did carry out these missions anyway.
Gameplay
The gameplay aspects of Republic Commando are a test of their time. The game came out when FPS games were starting to really do a lot of right things for the genre and this one is no different. The gunplay is a mix of something in the vein of Halo mixed with a little bit of COD. It’s futuristic but also realistic. You can gun down your enemies with your blaster or pistol but it’s more than that. Your blaster can change its ammo type with the press of a button. This changes it from a regular blaster to a sniper rifle or even a bazooka of sorts. You can also pick up enemy weapons like shotguns or miniguns to really take control of a battle.
Managing ammo and the many types of grenades is one of the most important aspects of the game. Saving your resources and taking down the weaker enemies with regular blaster ammo can be effective but even at that end, I always found myself in a tight spot when against fiercer enemies. It’s a dance in figuring out enemies’ weaknesses and taking advantage of them. It’s not an easy task but by the end, I knew just how each one worked and ran them like a gambit.
Speaking of which, there are many different enemies to fight, and remembering each ones fighting style and patterns is something you’ll really have to pay close attention to. There are easier ones like the Geonosians that fly around or Battle Droids that fill the corridors like fodder. Then, you have the tougher ones that always seem to cause the biggest problems for you like the Trandoshans that are just as strategic in combat as your team or the Super Battle Droids who charge on as if you aren’t unloading clips into them. Each enemy serves a purpose and they all do just what they were created to do, kill.
There are a few mini-bosses sprinkled throughout the game but no end-game person that you’ll go toe-to-toe with. While I would’ve loved to go against a separatist leader and take them in for their crimes, I actually like how a lot of the more difficult situations in the game play out. Getting used to a campaign’s flow to find all of its pieces coming together at the end of it felt justified and organic in its presence. I’m not gonna lie, it was an amazing moment when I fought off General Grievous’ bodyguards for the first time. This was an aspect that I had no idea was part of Republic Commando. I felt like a kid again.
Another awesome aspect of Republic Commando’s gameplay is Boss’ visor. It shows your teammate’s health and locations, where he’s being shot from, and it can go into night vision mode. I love how cool the night vision aspect is and I wish that it was played up more than it actually is. I remember as a kid that this game was marketed with some really ominous scenes but I never felt them come through fully. The beginning of the Prosecutor campaign had a taste of this but lost it way too soon.
Getting into the team aspects of the game, I really wish it was cleaned up a bit better in this remaster. The point of it is that you get to call out orders for your squad in real-time for them to carry out. This includes things like setting a charge, hacking a terminal, reviving a fallen comrade, or even just taking cover. While this is a great idea, I found bugs here and there. These issues weren’t incredibly horrible but they were immersion-breaking. It stinks though because this is one of the game’s most important mechanics from start to finish.
Visuals
As far as visuals go, this title is pretty solid. I’m actually really upset that I didn’t get to experience this game in its glory back in the day. This would’ve blown my little mind. It still looks good and manages to get a lot of things right in terms of the look and feel of the Clone Wars era. My one gripe is that a lot of the corridors can begin to feel a little too samey and unfortunately, it’s the ones that I don’t really feel fit well in the game anyway.
Audio
Some of my absolute favorite tracks from the prequel saga films made their way into Republic Commando and it really made my nostalgia train pick up steam. It also reminded me of the magic that the Star Wars franchise holds. The in-game sounds too are completely consistent with those of that time period and the enemies sound pitch-perfect. One thing that bothered me about the audio is that not all clone troopers have Temuera Morrison’s iconic silky yet gruff New Zealand voice. Most just have a standard North American accent and had me shaking my head when I first met them. Luckily, Boss maintains the true voice of the clone troopers, as Morrison actually voices the character himself.
Replayability
Because of its unique gameplay and a great story, there’s a lot of replayability. Even if you just want to experience that wonderful time period in the galaxy, this is worth jumping into every now and again. I know that I’ll be showing this to my kid one day to reminisce about my childhood and the time period of Star Wars that dominated my life for every second.
What It Could Have Done Better
First off, the AI is pretty dumb. I can understand that times are different from how they were. We’ve come much further in that space than before but it still wasn’t great compared to other games from that generation of games. My teammates and enemies seemed like they had stage fright on multiple occasions. Just standing there and letting things just happen.
I experienced other issues such as bugs throughout the entire game. I couldn’t use my command wheel the entire game which was annoying and there were instances where I’d have to mash buttons because the game just wouldn’t pick up on my button presses for whatever reason. It’s just little things like this that can make it feel a little messy. I also found the gunplay lacking at times. I didn’t always feel like my guns were actually doing damage. It fell more to the fact that there wasn’t much feedback to let you know how well you were hitting enemies.
Verdict
Even with its small list of faults, this is an iconic game made for an iconic franchise. It’s a title that I wish I had played as a child. Even though I didn’t experience this as a child, it didn’t change the fact that I still had my eyes glued to the screen as I tore through clankers. It even managed to sneak in a surprise or two that gave me the feels that I was searching for within it. If you’re a Star Wars fan at all, whether you’ve played this or not, you have to check it out on the better hardware. You owe it to yourself to check out a game that gambled by doing something different in a beloved franchise and it paid off fantastically. Aspyr, keep doing what you’re doing and bringing back those old Star Wars titles!
