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Lucas Arts PC and XBox |
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So in the 11 minutes and 13, no 12, seconds he has left before I do my recreation of Strom Thurman's record setting filibuster for him (24 hours and 18 minutes long, for those interested), I'm going to review the new game coming out this month (March 1st), Star Wars: Republic Commando. Now for some reason, I'm not quite sure how or why, I was not invited to Lucas Art's invitation-only in house preview. I'm sure it was just lost in the mail, and next time I'll receive my invitation in a timely manner. But anyway, since I was not privy to the in house preview, I had to make due with a lowly demo that's been in wide release on the internet. Plot. Republic Commando takes place in between Episode II and Episode III. The Clone Wars are in full force and have been going on for several years. You play the part of the leader of 4 Special Ops Clones who have been modified to be more independent and free thinking and such. In other words, your squad and you have actual nicknames, which instantly disqualify you to be part of the nameless Red Shirt masses, and as such you have enough hit points to actually survive more than one shot. The basic game flow is that your squad gets sent on special missions. These missions are linked together by some unifying story arc, leading up to the events right before episode III. What this story arc is, I cannot say though. The demo involves a mission on Kashyyyk, the Wookie home world to rescue one of their leaders from Trandoshan slavers (think evil clone army of Kermit the Frog) who have overrun the planet. Graphics. The graphics are fairly detailed, and seem reminiscent of Star Wars Battlefront. It must be something about the pixel shaders in DirectX 9. Anyway graphics are fairly good. Unfortunately for me, I have a good 8x AGP card in a 4X slot, so I cant quite run at the highest settings. One interesting thing I found in that the "Rag doll effect" of the bodies has been kicked into overdrive. Bumping up against a body seems to make all the parts rotate, especially the head: lots and lots of head lolling. Its not necessarily unrealistic but it is decidedly odd looking. (I should know; I've been around several bodies. Remember those competitors and broccoli truck drivers from earlier?) Overall, I can easily say that the graphics are none too shabby. Sound. Like every other Star Wars game since Dark Forces, the developers went and raided Skywalker Sound and after that they went and ripped all the Star Wars soundtracks to mp3. Anyone who has every played a Star Wars game this century knows what to expect. As for anyone who hasn't, I hereby EXCOMMUNICATE you from nerd society, as you are obviously a poser and defiled all that is holy, you stupid, stupid-HEY! Only 4 minutes left till I get to go back into Dr. Torvaldus's office again! Aside from the good quality Standard Star Wars Sound (SSS), one feature that definitely wins the game brownie points is the inane banter your squad mates throw about. In short, they constantly ridicule everything, including you. When you die, some smart-aleck will say something helpful like "He's as much a danger to himself as his enemies," or "Busted another boss." If you demand they revive you and they don't fell like helping you yet, one will helpfully offer the sage advice "Sir, patience is a virtue." Gameplay. Here is where the real meat of this reviews lies. Republic Commando is a "Team Based First Person Shooter." This translates into: "Game where you run around with guns and shoot things, and you have a posse of traditionally idiotic helpers who are best at running across your line of fire and standing around uselessly." Surprisingly, this is NOT Republic Commando. The developers went to great lengths to make the command interface and squad AI as good as they could manage. There are several basic commands, form up, spread out, attack, etc that are assigned to the F-Keys. When more complex commands are available a targeting reticle will appear near the object. Move your crosshairs over the reticle and a hologram of one of your troopers will appear along with a 1-3 word description of the action. A reticle over some boxes will probably mean "Take Cover and Snipe." A reticle next to the lock on a door with several holograms will mean "Perform door breech maneuver," while the reticle next to the door's control pad will mean "Hack the door lock." There are sols other actions like "man the turret," "squat behind these boxes and lob lots of grenades at what ever comes through that door," and "revive teammate." This brings us to another interesting facet of the game: you don't lose till all of your squad, and you, are dead. Any squad member can revive another member, though it takes a moment. When one is revived, they come back with about 25% health. A devious player will kill off nearly dead squad members then revive them for a small boost in health. For some reason though, they are always ungrateful and complain a lot, even though you are helping them. Finally we come to your weapon: the Swiss Army Gun. Unlike most FPS games where you somehow manage to squeeze some 10 odd weapons into your pants, from assault rifles to chain saws (is that a rocket launcher in your pants, or are you just happy to see me? And guys wonder why there aren't many female gamers), Republic Commando limits you to 3 weapons: a pistol, your Swiss Army Gun, and one other. The Swiss Army Gun is truly a word of art. It is one gun with several attachments: it has assault rifle mode, sniper mode, anti armor mode, and one or two more. Changing weapons means replacing clips and screwing on different barrels. The different modes require different types of ammo. Ammo is scare in the demo, so I find myself progressively changing one weapon setting for another as I run out of ammo. Your squad mates apparently have a secret stash, because they never run out and they never share. When all else fails you have your rechargeable blaster and a Wolverine-esque blade that pops out of your fore arm plate. Pistol whipping is also allowed and encouraged. Finally, occasionally your squad will find amusing ways to kill people, such as taking a Trandoshan's knife away and stabbing him with it, humorous little bits like that. Overall, the squad based play is easy to pick up and the AI is for once intelligent. Interaction with the environment is somewhat limited, as most things can't be moved broken or destroyed, so don't be expecting any Half-Life 2 type interactions. Difficulty. The difficulty in the game is very elastic-like. My first time or two through the demo (takes about 15-25 min) was quite difficult. Replaying the level though, I noticed that sometimes, especially when faced with multiple option reticules that some combinations where significantly more effective than others. Additionally, although interaction with the environment is limited, sometimes it makes a difference. In the demo your squad is raiding a Trandoshan base. There are several places with spotlights. If you are quick and shoot out the spotlights before they hit you, the base alarms will not sound, and rather than fighting 50 guys you only have to fight 10. Basically, in this game there is more than one way to do something and it does make a difference. Spiffy Stuff. More than 1 way to do something, the running commentary of your team, and the fact that sometimes you get guts on the visor of your helmet and it has a little windshield wiper to take it off. Replay Value. See the section on difficulty. Also, I played the demo about 10 times. Not sure about the long term, but in the short term the game has potential. Also there is supposed to be multiplayer. I have no clue how it works, but if the squad is involved it is bound to be interesting. Overall. I've never really played a squad based game before, and certainly not one with good AI. While this game may come and go, from the demo, the game certainly has potential and has peaked my interest. I plan on going out this month and buying it first chance I get. The bottom line: It's got to be worlds better than Star Wars Battlefront, but I'm not expecting it to be Knights of the Old Republic. OHHH DR. TORVALDUS . . . ! Final Ratings:
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