The Past and Times of Yore: Star Wars Republic Commando, Soldiering on

Release date: February 28th 2005
Genre: First-person shooter
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Engine: Unreal Engine 2
Platforms: Xbox, Microsoft Windows
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Well 2018 was quite a year in gaming and I hope you enjoyed all of the posts despite the fact that there was unfortunately only 8. As you can see I'm still going and this year I hope to do at least one blog post a month but with things going on and work commitments i'll see how I go. I still have a large backlog of posts so I'll get through them as best I can. Here's to a great 2019!

This was an interesting one that I purchased from GoG.com. A Star Wars game where you play a Clone Trooper, though it has been done before though in the original two Star Wars Battlefronts. I was looking forward to playing a game that did not seem to feature Jedi of any kind. And I’ll admit I enjoy playing a linear First Person Shooter, I’m not sure why maybe it’s just because it’s simple unlike all of the completion-focused sandbox games with random encounters and respawning enemies and objects to collect which take up so much of your time. With those linear shooters it’s just like bang-pow, well that was that bit let’s keep goin, and when you play it on easy you don’t get bored and can power through it, not that I’m trying to power through the game I just like to get it done and not get stuck anywhere. Star Wars Republic Commando is one of these types of games, of course it’s not jumping around shooting like a maniac like Doom, it’s a game about tactics, a little bit of tactics, but tactics none the less. You are commanding 'Delta Squad', an elite group of clone commandos, through three missions during the beginning of the Clone Wars as your first mission is on Geonosis which we all remember from Episode II Attack of the Clones.

Ooooo my pre-battle-scarred helmet

When starting the game you have the title crawl of course then after a short cutscene where a Kaminoan introduces the clone commandos and their purpose as well as the war situation you are then booted to the troop deployment on Kamino and wow it was pretty intense seeing all the troops flying when you’re currently by yourself.

Huge docking bay, hundreds of soldiers, pouring rain, it's like the start of every war deployment

You are then flown to Geonosis where you are introduced to your abilities and some commands things like healing from bacta stations and taking out gun emplacements with thermal detonators. You then meet your first Squadmate Scorch the younger-sounding wisecracking demolition expert And soon after you meet Fixer the squad’s slicer and no-nonsense by-the-book career soldier and finally Sev the bloodthirsty tough guy sniper who adorns his armor with red paint which may or may not be blood.

Dey be my squad

Now that my squad was at full strength I got to practise giving orders and fighting with them, if there is a fairly powerful enemy you can assign the squad members to target them by pressing the F key. Along the way there are various locked gates, terminals and mounted weapons, you can use these yourself of course but the best course of action is to assign a squad member to the task, I enjoyed doing this as you watch the squad member carry out their task or use their gun emplacement. I had to do this quickly as soon as you entered an area enemies often came at you, other times I got everything set up just right then initiated the enemy attack by advancing slightly.

Commanding 'Sev' to initate a door breach

One of the best moments was when I had all three squad members on Sniper positions pointing at a door down a hallway, I then crept up to the door and opened it then watched as the enemies that came out got shot to pieces by sniper fire. During play my usual course of action was to assess the area for anything I could order to squad members to man then usually ran around on my own providing additional fire or getting up closed and meleeing enemies which I often did as ammo was relatively sparse.

Snipe away boys (I have the Sniper attachment in too)

Your main weapon was the DC-17m Interchangeable Weapon System, which has rifle, sniper and grenade launcher attachments, the sniper and grenade launcher were very useful and you really had to conserve the ammo, you also had the weaker but self-recharging DC-15S and your trusty Knuckle plate vibro blade which I actually used quite a lot for the fact that one of the most common enemies you encountered was the B2 Super Battle Droids  and if you didn’t have any sniper or grenade ammo they took such a large number of regular rife rounds to kill that most of the time I just ran around them in circles stabbing with my knuckleblade which proved even faster then shooting them with regular rounds. You could also use enemy weapons such as the Geonosian Elite Beam Weapon, Accelerated Charged Particle Array Gun or Wookiee Bowcaster though only one at a time could be used, the genosian weapon was particularly good.

The first part of the Prosecutor mission, I use a few different weapons including some trandoshan weapons.

 As you battle through the level’s you and your squad will often lose health when you deplete your shield, your shield auto recharges but too much damage will deplete it then go through your health. Interestingly your squad does not have a medic, you can heal yourself though wall mounted medical units and your squad usually heal themselves automatically if they need it but sometimes need prompting to do so. If you do lose all of your health you go into a ‘downed’ state and require another squad member to revive you. If the last squad member dies then it’s all over. There were some situations where all my squadmates had died and I was running around by myself praying I could clear out the remaining enemies, but most of the time if you studied your surroundings and planned ahead you would be fine. For clones your squad members certainly have very different personalities despite the fact that they are all supposed to be clones in fact it only seems like you and your commander who don’t have much of a personality. The squad is fun to play with they have a good amount of banter with Scorch and Sev being the most talkative it’s basically Scorch as the young joker, Sev as the tough guy and Fixer as the straight no-nonsense guy bringing them in line. Your own character ‘Boss’ has a fairly neutral gruff older tone and like Fixer does not really have a sense of humour. Your squadmates commend you if you make a good shot and grumble if they have to be revived, It’s quite not akin to Battlefield Bad Company but it’s still pretty good.

Destroying the Spider Tank on Geonosis

The game came out in 2005 but still looks pretty good, the bulk of the storyline is made up or three missions which have many sub-stages and missions inside of them, the initial walkthrough and first mission being the first battle of Geonosis which you would remember from the movies where you battle many geonisian warriors as well as the trade federation droids. I had a few slip ups here where I ran out of ammo and had to make do with my fist blade and the pistol and died a few times but got through it ok, those damn flying genosians were tough though that beam weapon they have really helped and that fight with the spider tank was pretty cool. The next missions a derelict Acclamator-class assault ship designated the Prosecutor, the squad has to infiltrate the ship and find out what happened to the crew. You start this mission alone as you and your squadmates have been split up between sections, the first time you enter it’s pretty damn dark and spooky. The ship has been taken over by some Trandoshan slavers and you can use their Accelerated Charged Particle Array Guns which are basically shotguns, you also encounter larger trandoshans with the LS-150 Heavy Accelerated Charged Particle Repeater Gun (seriously could they make these names any longer) which is basically a minigun and is very powerful but chews through ammo like a boss.

Alternate weapons were useful for conserving ammo for your main weapon.

You do meet some other troopers from the original crew of the Prosecutor though like the introductory part of the game and like any game where you are supposed to be alone, any contact with allies is fleeting and they quickly meet their messy demise. You eventually meet up with your squadmates and then have to plow through the ship to get to the bridge, this wasn’t too hard the final bits were pretty challenging though you had to really scramble around to kill things like those droid dispensers that kept churning out super battle droids. These and enemies on turrets or just rooms with lots of enemies can be challenging in itself especially if you have limited cover or no heavy weapons at your disposal.

Having access to a turret really helps, I was like running back to them constantly to make best use of them.

The final mission is Kashyyyk where you personally help the Wookies who have been enslaved by more trandoshans. This was pretty cool as the only ever time I’ve seen the wookie homeworld was in Battle of Kashyyyk in Episode III and also in the Age of Empires style, Genie Engine representation in Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. Well this time around it looks pretty cool albeit in a much more condensed environment, with giant trees and foliage all around. I actually liked the way you started in the jungle then as you got higher you went into the trees, the best part about this mission was fighting alongside the wookies and the Wookiee chieftain Tarfful although I accidentally blew them up a few times. This mission had several run-ins with the trade federation IG-100 Magnaguards and one of the fights Tarfful actually joined in on so it was difficult trying to kill the droids and not hit Tarful as well. This scenario actually ended with the Battle of Kashyyyk though Delta Squad weren’t around for it though I’ll give a small spoiler you do actually hear from Yoda.

Fighting with the Wookies on Kashyyk, damn those droid dispensers

As I said before the visuals are still appealing being a bit dated nowadays. I started out with the view set to be looking out from my helmet, with was very immersive but I ended up just turning that off as it got a bit annoying with the tunnel vision. It was great to visit locations from the movies. Your hud shows you your health, shield level and grenade ammo with your weapon ammo being displayed on the gun itself. It also shows the directs you are being shot from and the status of your squad members, the squad hud lets you know if you squadmates are, engaging the enemy, healing, downed or at a specific weapon station. You also almost always have your current objective displayed at the top of the screen which is quite helpful.

The view from inside your helmet

The levels were very linear but it was expected in a game like this, the challenge was as you moved into each new area/room, survey your surrounds, and organise your squad tactics. Kashyyk was probably the best looking as you progressed through the dense jungle into the treetops. It was a unique feeling to be (sort of) ‘just another trooper’ fighting in the battles for the Republic and not like one of the main characters in the film deciding on the fate of thousands, you just did what you were told, to some distress later in the game. Another thing was you really felt like you were part of a team or the leader of a team I should say, bantering together etc, getting through the various engagements, I almost had like a kinship to them all in the end. Of all the old Star Wars games I’ve played recently: Shadows of the Empire, Star Wars Starfighter, Jedi Outcast even Tie Fighter I would still only replay Republic Commando, I don’t know I just like it. Of course it’s not the best, it’s no Jedi Academy which I have now replayed for what would possibly be the 6^th time and I think no Star Wars game will ever trump The Old Republic MMORPG. But for a Star Wars first person shooter this thing is pretty damn good.

JD.


 
An unofficial trailer, a good one too

For the boys