StarWars Republic Commando Review

Republic Commando is a first person shooter that lets you take control of a squad of elite clone troopers. Similar to other shooters you have a health bar, a separate gauge for shields and a fancy HUD, but running and gunning won't get you very far in this game. The focus is on using tactics to lead your squad to victory using the D-pad to give your troops commands to follow as you battle.

 Taking place during the battle at the end of Episode II, you play Delta-1138, a clone commando bred and raised in the clone factories of Kamino. You are put in charge of Delta squad which consists of three other squadmates. Each one respectively has his own personality, which makes for interesting dialogue at times. The voice acting is good and the opening visuals really put you in the game.
 The beginning of the game puts you in battle on Geonosis and from there you travel to a ship called "The Prosecutor", and then to Kashyyyk. You'll slaughter the poor droids, Geonosians, Trandoshans, and anyone else who lacks the common sense to get out of your way.The blood of your fallen enemies will actually stick to your helmet blocking your view until this convenient windshield wiper cleans it up for you. You and your squadmates will also rely on bacta stations to regain health, but even if your health drops to zero it is not the end. You can command squadmates to revive you, so the game technically doesn't end until your entire squad is incapacitated. You also have to hack computers, and breach doors to get through the levels. Your squadmates are trained specifically for each of these tasks on top of others, but there's nothing they can do that you can't do yourself, which makes them expendable if the computer decides to play dumb. And it pays to pay attention when your squad needs cover, otherwise you may find yourself swamped by enemies.
 Your enemies are not the smartest, but it's very easy to get pinned down in a firefight in later levels.

 The campaign is only a few hours long, but about halfway through, I got bored with punching the same enemies in the face. If it wasn't droids, it was Trandoshan blood all over my face. Eventually the game reaches the point where one level looks just like the next, and since the game is very linear there's not much exploring to do. So basically you end up running down corridors, blowing through doors, killing enemies, wash, rinse, and repeat. Not very exciting.
 The game starts out strong, but by the end I was far from thrilled. Multiplayer is decent but nothing to brag about either.

 The game is far from terrible, but unless you really like being a clone and shooting super battledroids with bowcasters, you should find something else to play.

Republic Commando: 3/5

-Cj Hackett