I got the PC version of the game the day it came out and I just finished it half an hour ago. Here is my review, though it's only on the Single Player. I haven't had a chance to do Multiplayer yet.
This is my take on the game, playing it on either Easy or Medium at any given point in the game.
If you buy Republic Commando expecting some revolutionary game, then you are going to be disappointed. Some people might think this is a bad thing. It's not. Lucasarts with their past two first person shooters, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, tried to follow Jedi Knight and make a revolutionary first person shooter, and it didn't quite work out that way. Republic Commando stepped back from the "let's do something new" attitude of Lucasarts, and approached the attitude "Let's follow the formula of our predecessors." Republic Commando has the feel that vintage First Person Shooters do. No lightsabers, no force powers, no quasi-roleplaying leveling up. Just shooting and more shooting. It's also squad based, and although I haven't played other squad games like Rainbow 6, I think it carried it out pretty successfully.
Another point to reinforce that Lucasarts was going out of their own mold with this game is that it didn't follow the typical Star Wars format. There was no scrolling yellow text at the beginning explaining what was going on. You were just taken threw a cutscene that was from birth to your first mission in Geonosis. And there were a few times that Star Wars music would kick in while playing, but most of the music I didn't recognize and it was possibly new. And during the credits, it didn't do the typical Star Wars music that you see at the end of the movies. It didn't even do any Star Wars music. Evidently Lucasarts got a rock band called Ash to make a heavy rock track for the game called "Clones" and that's what plays. And it's very satisfying to hear the music and you can match it perfectly to memories of storming through doors while firing at enemies and ducking for cover so you can lob a few grenades. Imagine my suprise when after I beat the game and decided to look at the Extras that I had earned by completing each campaign and there was a music video of "Clones" that went between seeing the band play and watching battles in the game. It was awesome.
The friendly AI isn't dumb as rocks like in a lot of games. If you tell them to take a sniper position, you'll see them make a few head and chest shots. Unfortunately, one area where the AI is lacking is when you tell a teammate to take a grenidier position. Even though the manual says they won't throw a grenade if you are in the blast radius(I think), they do anyway. Of course, that's probably more my fault. Also, the path finding is pretty good. They won't run into mines, they almost always look for cover from which they can fire and hide behind. However, I did have two instances where one of my teammates, Fixer, got stuck in some kind of glitch and I had to go to a previous save. Lucasarts also did a good job of setting up where your teammates could snipe, use anti-armor weaponry, etc. Overall, your teammates make your job a lot easier, while not making it a cake walk. Just as it should be.
Now, the enemy AI could use some work. It felt like all the enemies were drunk and had their reaction time slowed, though Super Battle Droids tended to be pretty accurate most the time. However, the number of enemies and the power of their weapons doesn't let the apparent drunkeness dilute the challenge. You and your teammates will die quite a few times, most the time due to your stupid mistakes. When playing this game, you learn to hate Super Battle Drioids even moreso than Droidekas(mainly because the latter has two huge weakness: a minimum firing range and an energy shield that can absorb blaster fire like no tomarrow but can't take melee strikes worth crap. Which makes sense). The Super Battle Droids have a lot of armor(rivaling that of Droidekas energy shield) and pack quite a punch. The best way to take them out is with an anti-armor shell or with two EMP(or whatever they are) grenades followed by a thermal detonator. And Super Battle Driods are by no means rare on the battlefield. You will see them time and time again.
The sound was good. I didn't get any glitches and it all sounded like it was supposed to. Also, Scorch was pretty funny sometimes and so was Sev in his own dry humor way(Scorch is the fun loving one, Sev is the ruthless killer, and Fixer is the serious soldier/computer nerd).
Storyline was pretty good. There is a nice twist at the end of the game that was interesting. Now, when I say the storyline is good, I mean it's good for an FPS. FPS are not known for their storylines in the first place, so if you are looking for a phenominal, mind blowing storyline then go pick up an RPG or strategy game. Republic Commandos has a decent storyline that doesn't take away from the game and adds just a little bit.
The length of the game was also pretty good. It wasn't too short at all and it wasn't too long(for me at least). It was about the length of Call of Duty, and I imagine it might be a little bit longer on Hard.
To summarize, people who enjoy the FPS genre will most likely enjoy this game. Those that don't enjoy the FPS genre probably won't. This is an FPS in its truest form.
This is my take on the game, playing it on either Easy or Medium at any given point in the game.
If you buy Republic Commando expecting some revolutionary game, then you are going to be disappointed. Some people might think this is a bad thing. It's not. Lucasarts with their past two first person shooters, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, tried to follow Jedi Knight and make a revolutionary first person shooter, and it didn't quite work out that way. Republic Commando stepped back from the "let's do something new" attitude of Lucasarts, and approached the attitude "Let's follow the formula of our predecessors." Republic Commando has the feel that vintage First Person Shooters do. No lightsabers, no force powers, no quasi-roleplaying leveling up. Just shooting and more shooting. It's also squad based, and although I haven't played other squad games like Rainbow 6, I think it carried it out pretty successfully.
Another point to reinforce that Lucasarts was going out of their own mold with this game is that it didn't follow the typical Star Wars format. There was no scrolling yellow text at the beginning explaining what was going on. You were just taken threw a cutscene that was from birth to your first mission in Geonosis. And there were a few times that Star Wars music would kick in while playing, but most of the music I didn't recognize and it was possibly new. And during the credits, it didn't do the typical Star Wars music that you see at the end of the movies. It didn't even do any Star Wars music. Evidently Lucasarts got a rock band called Ash to make a heavy rock track for the game called "Clones" and that's what plays. And it's very satisfying to hear the music and you can match it perfectly to memories of storming through doors while firing at enemies and ducking for cover so you can lob a few grenades. Imagine my suprise when after I beat the game and decided to look at the Extras that I had earned by completing each campaign and there was a music video of "Clones" that went between seeing the band play and watching battles in the game. It was awesome.
The friendly AI isn't dumb as rocks like in a lot of games. If you tell them to take a sniper position, you'll see them make a few head and chest shots. Unfortunately, one area where the AI is lacking is when you tell a teammate to take a grenidier position. Even though the manual says they won't throw a grenade if you are in the blast radius(I think), they do anyway. Of course, that's probably more my fault. Also, the path finding is pretty good. They won't run into mines, they almost always look for cover from which they can fire and hide behind. However, I did have two instances where one of my teammates, Fixer, got stuck in some kind of glitch and I had to go to a previous save. Lucasarts also did a good job of setting up where your teammates could snipe, use anti-armor weaponry, etc. Overall, your teammates make your job a lot easier, while not making it a cake walk. Just as it should be.
Now, the enemy AI could use some work. It felt like all the enemies were drunk and had their reaction time slowed, though Super Battle Droids tended to be pretty accurate most the time. However, the number of enemies and the power of their weapons doesn't let the apparent drunkeness dilute the challenge. You and your teammates will die quite a few times, most the time due to your stupid mistakes. When playing this game, you learn to hate Super Battle Drioids even moreso than Droidekas(mainly because the latter has two huge weakness: a minimum firing range and an energy shield that can absorb blaster fire like no tomarrow but can't take melee strikes worth crap. Which makes sense). The Super Battle Droids have a lot of armor(rivaling that of Droidekas energy shield) and pack quite a punch. The best way to take them out is with an anti-armor shell or with two EMP(or whatever they are) grenades followed by a thermal detonator. And Super Battle Driods are by no means rare on the battlefield. You will see them time and time again.
The sound was good. I didn't get any glitches and it all sounded like it was supposed to. Also, Scorch was pretty funny sometimes and so was Sev in his own dry humor way(Scorch is the fun loving one, Sev is the ruthless killer, and Fixer is the serious soldier/computer nerd).
Storyline was pretty good. There is a nice twist at the end of the game that was interesting. Now, when I say the storyline is good, I mean it's good for an FPS. FPS are not known for their storylines in the first place, so if you are looking for a phenominal, mind blowing storyline then go pick up an RPG or strategy game. Republic Commandos has a decent storyline that doesn't take away from the game and adds just a little bit.
The length of the game was also pretty good. It wasn't too short at all and it wasn't too long(for me at least). It was about the length of Call of Duty, and I imagine it might be a little bit longer on Hard.
To summarize, people who enjoy the FPS genre will most likely enjoy this game. Those that don't enjoy the FPS genre probably won't. This is an FPS in its truest form.
Democracy: rule by the stupid
