Retro Review: Star Wars: Republic Commando

<p>It was a sad day for many <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> fans when Disney decided to board up the doors at LucasArts&period; I was one of those fans that shed a tear when I heard the news – I remember looking through my old Xbox Star Wars games and noticing that I was missing an important one&colon; <em>Star Wars Republic Commando&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So I went online and bought myself a copy&period; Having my original Xbox recently repaired also prompted me to get back into these licensed gems&period; I ran to check the mail every day for this beauty and when I finally got it&comma; I popped it into my Xbox and let the nostalgia hit me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Released March 1st&comma; 2005 for Windows and Xbox&comma;<em> Republic Commando<&sol;em> was met with critical acclaim&comma; which makes me wonder why I never bought it&period; Oh well&comma; I have it now and boy am I glad it&&num;8217&semi;s a part of my collection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In this game you take control of Delta Squad&comma; one of the best Clone Commando outfits there are&period; Taking place right at the start of the Clone Wars&comma; you lead your team through three campaigns during the course of the war&comma; which take you to some key battles in the Star Wars Universe&period; You start off on the frontlines of the Battle of Geonosis as Delta RC-1138&comma; where you meet the commandos you will lead all over the universe&colon; Scorch&comma; Fixer and Sev&period; From there you take up a campaign a year later on the <i>Prosecutor<&sol;i>&comma; which use to house all the clones before they were ready for active duty&period; Finally you are taken to the final battle of the Clone Wars on Kashyyyk&comma; where you finish your time with Delta Squad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05005313&sol;919833&lowbar;20040823&lowbar;screen024&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-81066" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05005313&sol;919833&lowbar;20040823&lowbar;screen024&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Republic Commando" width&equals;"995" height&equals;"746" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics&comma; while obviously dated for the time&comma; are not too bad&semi; in my opinion they look a bit better than <em>Halo<&sol;em>&period; This is a first person game&comma; and LucasArts was clever enough to make the first person view out of the Clone Trooper helmet&period; In the helmet view you have your HUD – health&comma; ammo&comma; and weapons all within plain view in combat and the textures and draw distance are pretty good&period; Jumping back two generations does some wear and tear on the eyes&comma; but it reminded me why this was my favorite generation of all&period; The graphics aren&&num;8217&semi;t perfect nor photorealistic&comma; but they got the point across quite well&period; The enemy designs are also done very well and there&&num;8217&semi;s just nothing more satisfying than stabbing a Battle Droid in the face&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are tight too&period; The developers used the standard first-person shooter model for this game&period; The only part of the controls that I don&&num;8217&semi;t like is the fact that I have to click on the right joystick to go down my iron sites – I hated <em>Halo<&sol;em> for doing this and hate <em>Republic Commando<&sol;em> for doing this as well&period; Using your squad is also very simple as well&colon; You just point to an interactive area&comma; click on A and there they go to either snipe&comma; blow something up&comma; or heal with Bacta&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Switching weapons isn&&num;8217&semi;t a chore&comma; you click on the d-pad and can chose between your rifle&comma; grenade launcher&comma; sniper rifle&comma; and whatever weapon you pick up from the deceased enemies&period; Grenade is the right trigger&comma; and you can pick through grenade types with the black button&&num;8211&semi;each grenade is extremely useful against the battledroids&comma; except for the the time-slow grenade&comma; that one was useless&period; For a ten-year-old game&comma; <em>Republic Commando<&sol;em> handles great&period; It didn&&num;8217&semi;t have a huge learning curve to overcome and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t die due to faulty controls&&num;8211&semi;very easy to pick up and blast away&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05005303&sol;2196197-sw&lowbar;republic&lowbar;commando&lowbar;pc&lowbar;version&lowbar;&lowbar;39&lowbar;&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-81067" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05005303&sol;2196197-sw&lowbar;republic&lowbar;commando&lowbar;pc&lowbar;version&lowbar;&lowbar;39&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Republic Commando" width&equals;"1034" height&equals;"583" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This game is definitely a must play for any Star Wars or first-person shooter fan&period; I went looking for it due to the fact that I had only heard good things about it&comma; and wanted to break in my newly repaired original Xbox with a classic that I would enjoy&period; This game did not let me down&semi; I enjoyed it from the moment it booted up&comma; until my last shot was fired&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; as with most LucasArts games&comma; it felt like they forgot to add the final chapter or level to the game&period; It ended very abruptly&comma; and then credits&comma; much like<em> Force Unleashed<&sol;em> 1 and 2&comma; both of those games surprised me by the sudden ending&period; And now to honor LucasArts&comma; I shall end this review just as abruptly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;