Star Wars: Republic Commando (0)

Overview

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a squad-based first-person shooter set between the events of and . It was originally released for in February 2005; a version followed in March 2005.

The game features an innovative, context sensitive system. Using a single button, the player can order squad members to take up sniping positions, hack doors, or utilize grenades at predefined locations in the environment. This system is similar to one that would later be used in the series.

Developed internally by , it was well received by critics and is generally regarded as one of the better games. One of the common criticisms, however, concerns the shortness of the single-player campaign, which can be completed in only a couple sittings. The game is also notable for closing on a cliffhanger ending that has never been resolved.

Sales figures for Republic Commando were never released, and no sequel was announced.

Backstory

The world of Republic Commando is set in the Star Wars universe but is much darker compared to other games in the . The darker, grittier tone represents the world as seen through the eyes of a clone soldier, who is born and killed for a singular, violent purpose. This stands in stark contrast to the idyllic vision of the Jedi, whose powers are so great that they have little to fear from the droids that constantly hound the clone soldier.

The game is divided into three chapters: , the Prosecutor, and . Throughout all three chapters, the player controls , leader of Delta Squad. Delta Squad is a group of four commandos. Receiving the standard training of a soldier, these elite commandos are augmented with superior strength, endurance, and additional training in specialized roles and squad-based tactics. Boss's three squadmates are , , and . Trained to work as a singular unit, Delta Squad is deployed on covert missions that require the finesse and strength that only Delta Squad can provide.

Delta Squad

Delta Squad is comprised of four members, all of them clones designated by a number preceded by the letters RC, which naturally stand for Republic Commando. They are each easily identified in-game by the color tones in their armor. While each squad member has a different area of specialty, they're all generally trained to carry out any order. Here's a brief description of each of the team members.

Levels

Campaign 1: Geonosis

• Prologue
• Extreme Prejudice
• Infiltrate the Droin Foundry
• Destroy the Factory
• Advance to the Core Ship
• Infiltration of the Core Ship

Campaign 2: Assault Ship

• The Rise of Delta Squad
• Ghost Ship Recon
• Rescue the Squad
• Attack of the Clones
• Saving the Ship

Campaign 3: Kashyyyk

• Critical Discoveries
• The Rescue of Tarfful
• Obliterate the Outpost
• The Bridge at Kachiro
• The Wookie Resistance
• Search and Destroy
• The Final Strike
• The Fate of the Squad

Weapons

Ranged Weapons

Instead of the standard issue DC-15s assault rifle, the clone commandos are equipped with the improved DC-17m. The DC-17m has three modes (which can be seen in detail in the table below) and it's Delta Squad's primary weapon.

1. Standard blaster automatic fire
2. Sniper mode via an attachment
3. Anti-armor mode (also via an attachment)

Delta Squad can only equip 2 weapons at a time, but that doesn't mean the arsenal at their disposition is not varied.

• DC-17m -- Blaster Attachment - This is the DC-17's standard fire mode. It fires and recharges quite fast and it gets the job done on most situations.

• DC-17m -- Sniper Attachment - The sniper attachment is equipped with two zoom levels (10x and 20x) and it's obviously the best way to get rid of a couple of enemies without having to get your hands dirty. Any head shot is an instant kill. The scope helps you to differentiate friend from foe: enemies will glow red, allies will glow green.

• DC-17m -- Anti-Armor Attachment - This is the DC-17's most powerful fire mode and one of the most powerful weapon in the game. However, and since the available ammo scattered throughout the game is a little on the low side, it is to be used wisely.

• DC-15s Side Arm Blaster - The equivalent to a pistol, this is your sidearm. It has a self-renovating unit that prevents it from running out of ammo, but you will still have to recharge it after 8 shots in a row or so.This weapon makes sure that your squad is never without something to shoot with.

• ACP Array Gun, aka "the Shotgun" - The Array Gun is pretty much a shotgun, and it will naturally do the most damage in close encounters. If you can keep all the 8 pellets on the target you'll most likely get to kill it with one shot.

• LJ-50 Concussion Rifle - This rifle has a low ammo count, but it compensates with a wide explosive blast radius. As a bonus, the rifle butt (melee secondary attack) has a shocking effect on your target.

• Accelerated Charged Particle Repeater Gun, aka "the Repeater" - The equivalent to a sub-machine gun, it can be quite useful due to its high fire rate. Ideal to cut through shields, but not very effective against armor.

• LS-150 Heavy Repeater - This is the heaviest machinegun you can carry with yourself. It has an excellent rate of fire and the biggest clip size, making it ideal to get rid of a wave of enemies. However, it will slow down your movement speed and on top of it, it takes some time to reload, so be sure to know what you're doing.

• Bowcastor, aka "the Crossbow" - This crossbow is the only other scoped weapon in the game (the scope will also isolate your enemies from your allies). This weapon comes with a couple of neat features: its projectiles bounce off walls and can be used to surprise your enemies. It also packs "impaler bolts", which will deliver a painful electric shock to its victims when fully charged; that and they'll nail your poor victims to the wall.

• Guided Rocket Launcher - This rocket launcher has a slow fire rate, but its power surpasses even the DC-17 Anti-Armor attachment's. As a bonus, and as the name indicates, you can guide your shots for betterand utter decimation. It is a very weighty weapon though, and it will slow you down almost to walking speed. It has the biggest blast radius of all the weapons in the game and therefore a well placed shot will allow you to take multiple enemies with a single shot.

Melee Weapons

The Vibroblade is the only real melee weapon in the game, since that apart from it all the player can do is hit the enemies with the butt of his/her rifle or pistol.

• Vibroblade - The Trandoshans often get up close and personal to you and it pays off to have something to fight back in those situations. The Vibroblade can be used with all the DC-17 fire mode variants and also with the Trandoshan Repeater and can be activated by simply triggering the secondary attack button. After delivering the blow, the blade immediately go back into your armor, so there's no need to worry about changing back to your primary weapon afterwords.The Vibroblade can be incredibly efficient in emergencies and in close-quarters combat and if you aim for the head you'll most likely get a one hit kill.

Detonators & Mines

There are 5 types of explosive-like weaponry in Republic Commando, and all of them can get to be very useful if used properly, in the proper scenario and with the right timing. The player can carry a maximum of 5 of each at a time.

• Electrostatic Charge Detonator - As the name states, this detonator emits an electrostatic charge that will render electronic circuits completely useless and electrocute organic targets. This make it extremely effective against Battle Droids, but also against organic enemies. It should be used with caution because it has a large blast radius and you will not want to be affected by it as well.

• Diversionary Flash Detonator - The equivalent to a flash-bang, this grenade causes minimal damage, but will blind your enemies for several seconds. It is most useful in situations where you come face to face with superior enemy numbers.

• Thermal Detonator - The Thermal Detonator pretty much acts like a normal grenade would, and it deals a lot of splash damage.

• Sonic Detonator - The Sonic Detonator grenade delivers a sonic blast, making it very effective especially against organics. This detonator will attach itself to any surface it hits and it will explode itself due to the proximity of an enemy target or will for you or any of your squad mates to detonate it remotely. If neither of these situations occur, it will simply wait ten seconds and eventually explode.

• Proximity Mine - This land mine has a motion-detector that will cause it to explode whenever anyone (including you!) walks into its action radius. The motion detector can however be fooled by taking a "slow-crouching" approach to it.

Gameplay

Republic Commando's gameplay is linear and fast-paced. A brisk, forward motion is encouraged by continuously respawning enemies as the player makes his way to various objectives. As the commandos

make their way through their missions, they'll encounter battle droids, Geonosians, Trandoshan slavers, and ' personal MagnaGuards. Dealing with these enemies requires the player to order his squad to use proper tactics, such as utilizing anti-armor shells against heavily armored spider droids. Should the player or his squadmates be disabled, another squadmate can revive the injured using an infusion of bacta. The game ends, however, if all squad members are disabled.

Enemies

During the Republic Commando campaign, the player will meet an array of different enemies, which can be fit into 3 main categories.

Droids

• Battle Droid
• Super Battle Droid
• Droideka
• Scavenger Droid
• Advanced Dwarf Spider Droid
• Grievous’ Magna-Guard

Trandoshans

• Slaver
• Mercenary
• Heavy Mercenary
• Grenadier

Geonosians

• Warrior
• Elite
• Drone

Levels

Republic Commando is divided into 3 Campaigns plus a Proloque level that serves as the game's tutorial and an Epilogue that sets in motion the idea of a possible sequel... that never came into existence, at least so far.

- Prologue: the Beginning

- The Clone Wars

• Geonosis

1. Extreme Prejudice
2. Into the Hive
3. Strength of Brotherhood
4. Infiltrate the Droid Foundry
5. Destroy the Droid Factory
6. Advance to the Core Ship
7. Canyons of Death
8. To Own the Skies
9. Territory
10. Infiltration of the Core Ship
11. Waking the Giant
12. Belly of the Beast

• Republic Assault Ship

1. The RAS Prosecutor
2. Delta Down
3. Unwelcome Visitors
4. Rescue the Squad
5. Alone
6. Troika
7. Jailbreak
8. Tactical Supremacy
9. Attack of the Clones
10. Lock Down
11. The Wrath of the Republic
12. Saving the Ship
13. Holding the Line

• Kashyyyk

1. The Rescue of Tarful
2. Hard Contact
3. From the Shadows
4. The Bodyguards
5. Obliterate the Outpost
6. Aim for the Heart
7. Critical Strike
8. Bridge at Kachirho
9. Turning Point
10. The Gauntlet
11. Detour
12. A Bridge Too Far
13. The Wookie Resistance
14. Behind Enemy Lines
15. V.I.W.
16. Saving Ammo
17. Live Ordnance
18. Fate of the Resistance
19. Search and Destroy
20. Heart of the Citadel
21. Moving Upstream
22. The Final Strike

- Epilogue: the Fate of the Squad

Multiplayer

Republic Commando also features some extensive multiplayer modes that can be played over system link (2-16 Players), split-screen (4 Players) or through Xbox Live. This Xbox title also supports Content Download, allowing additional maps to be downloaded. Game types include:

Each round consists of one team attacking whilst the other defends, and then the defenders get a chance to attack. The attackers begin with a flag in their base and their objective is to bring this flag into the opponent's base, which scores two points. The defenders must prevent the attackers from bringing the flag inside their base. If the flag is dropped, it automatically returns to the attackers base for a short period of time. If the defenders manage to prevent the attackers from burning the flag into their base for the entire time limit, they score one point. Both teams get to attack in a round, with the winner determined after all rounds are completed.

Voice Talents

Soundtrack

The music for Star Wars: Republic Commando was written by and used to be available for download at the game's official website, when the game still had one. The compositions range from the use of lots of moody segments to the use of plenty of epic awe-inspiring choir themes.

Trivia

• In the demo for , there is a hidden of Boss' helmet sitting in a difficult to reach position. This has lead to speculation that a sequel is in development.

• In the Prosecutor level when the player reaches a Trandoshan barricade, there is a little room. There the player finds a lightsaber and triggers the dialogue "An elegant weapon for a more civilized time? Heh. Well... times have changed".

Other Info

The version supports:

• Players 1-4
• In-Game Dolby Digital
• System Link 2-10
• HDTV 480p
• Communicator Headset
• Content Download
• Online Multiplayer
• Friends
• Voice

PC System Requirements

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Operating System: Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP

• CPU: Pentium III or Athlon 1.0 GHz or faster CPU required

• RAM Memory: 256 MB

• Graphics Card: 64MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) capability required

• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Audio Device

• CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive required

• Input Device: Keyboard and Mouse required

• DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c

• Hard Drive Space: 2 GB of free hard disk space required. Additional free space required after game installation for Windows swap file and save games

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS

• Operating System: Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP
• CPU: Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, or Athlon XP 2400 2.0 GHz or faster

• RAM Memory: 512 MB

• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForceFX 5700 or higher
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Audio Device.

• CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive required.

• Input Device: Keyboard and Mouse required.

• DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c

• Hard Drive Space: 2 GB of free hard disk space required. Additional free space required after game installation for Windows swap file and save games.

Video Chipsets Supported at Time of Release

• ATI Radeon 8500
• ATI Radeon 9x00 Family
• ATI Radeon Xx00 Family
• IntelR GMA Graphics
• NVIDIA GeForce3 Family
• NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti Family
• NVIDIA GeForceFX Family
• NVIDIA GeForce 6 Family