18-Mar-2005 It is a time of great celebration in Lucas Valley. The games unleashed from the bearded one's empire used to be of variable quality, but they've recently crept into 'outstanding' territory. First we had a double helping of that 4,000-year-old RPG stuff to wrap our grey matter around, and now we get this little beauty. It's the polar opposite of all that dialogue-based soul-searching and Jedi hocus-pocus, but boy oh boy, is it good. And there's not a single lightsaber in sight.
Republic Commando is no normal FPS, despite its fairly run 'n' blast appearance. It borrows heavily from Full Spectrum Warrior's (Issue 30, 9.2) breathless tactical forward-thinking gameplay, just as it happily picks over Halo 2's (Issue 36, 10.0) sense of epic storytelling (although never matches it, naturally). There are claustrophobic Doom 3 (see page 076) moments stuck in conduits and corridors creeping with death, and there are elements of Aliens thrown in for that extra zesty 'soldiers in shit' touch. In fact, Republic Commando is as much about the survival and comradeship of your four-man squad as it is about killing aliens. The brothers - Boss, Scorch, Fixer and Sev - act as individuals when required, but work best as a cohesive unit. They are the most vital weapon in the game and are devastatingly intelligent. And the AI? God knows where LucasArts got it from, but it's flawless. Not once did the characters get in our line of fire or act in any way to suggest AI oversights or corner cutting. Their swift, surgical approach to combat has to be seen to be believed. And, better still, whenever you want to take control of them, they obey.
With a simple order system controlled solely through looking at something on screen and pressing 'A', the right person for the job instinctively goes and does whatever it was you'd hope they'd do. If you want a door breached, a mine laid, or a droid dispenser 'dealt with', the AI reads your mind and goes off to do its job. Not once did the AI fail us, and that's fantastic.
Levels also make damned sure we make good use of the squad, throwing us into what would surely be no-win situations if guns and blasters were our sole dependence. By a quick assessment of the situation and a few barked orders to the men, we were mounting turrets, holding back seas of droids that would seek to flank us, and, by the skin of our clone teeth, managing to somehow secure success. It's bastard hard in parts, but thinking on your feet will get you through where blasting will only get you fried.
Aesthetically the levels could have done with a little more invention and quantity. Geonosia, an abandoned Separatist ghost ship, and Wookiee planet Kashyyyk are our lot, and despite the epic scale of each, Star Wars is so rich with worlds and cultures, it's a shame more wasn't made of it. What we do get through, is attention paid to the smallest aspects which are, like the AI, flawless. Lighting, particle and character physics are all exemplary. Seemingly trivial squad banter manages not only to add exposition and explanation to situations, but fleshes out the team beyond the obvious two dimensions, and the score is movie standard.
Some might piss and whinge that LucasArts has effectively recreated a simplified Full Spectrum Warrior in space (only with the ability to actually shoot) then felt compelled to label it Star Wars. There are very few indications that this is actually a galaxy 'far, far away' save for a few Wookiees and stray R2 units, but none of this matters. The experience treads that fine balance between shooter and strategy so well, that any non-Star Wars moments (shotguns and pistols in space, purlease!) are easily forgiven. It may not even be that original in the big scheme of things, especially as it borrows the juicy bits from just about everything else we've played, but it does so with such relish and panache that that too is completely forgivable. A clone it may be, but a clone of merit nonetheless. Take a bow George, you've done it again.
Official Xbox Magazine staff
// Overview
Verdict
An amalgamation of every quality shooter but one that works so well and is so much fun to play it's forgivable.
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