• Republic Commando 2
• Star Wars Republic Commando Co-op

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a reboot of the 2005 game of the same name, developed by Ghostrealm Studios for the Nintendo Switch. Contentsshow Story Republic Commando's story is divided into multiple missions, each one depicting an operation Delta Squad is involved in. Prologue Mission. Initially released in February 2005, Republic Commando’s development and subsequent launch were marred by studio layoffs at the now defunct gaming division of LucasArts, dismissive attitudes from some LucasArts’ executives, and constant setbacks throughout its evolution. It makes the NPC co-op mechanic feel seamless, and the firefights.

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a tactical first-person shootervideo game, set in the Star Wars universe, released in 2005. It was developed and published by LucasArts for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The game uses Unreal Engine.^[1] As of April 19, 2007, this game is backward compatible for the Xbox 360 with a downloadable patch.^[2] It was also made backwards compatible on the Xbox One on April 26, 2018.^[3]

The game received positive reviews at release. Many critics praised the story and combat, but criticized the short length and average multiplayer.

Gameplay[edit]

The game features some gameplay elements that resemble features in other first-person shooters. The heads-up display (HUD) shows the player character's helmet, with a tactical visor. The player acts as squad leader of a squad of four elite troops. The squadmate order system allows the player general tactical control over the three non-player characters (NPCs) squadmates that round out the four-man commando team. Many objects in the game environment will highlight when the crosshair is placed over them. The player can then press the 'use' key to issue an order automatically associated with the object; for example, a sealed door may highlight with a synchronized team breach-and-clear command, or a computer console might have a 'slice' (computer hacking) command, while a pile of cargo boxes suitable for a cover position with good vantage may provide a 'take up Sniper/Anti-Armor position' command. Where possible, the squadmates will usually take their preferred roles (sniper, demolitions and technical). The player can also order the squad to move to secure any position (wherever the crosshair is pointed), or perform search-and-destroy. Also, there are orders to command the squadmates to group up or spread out according to the player's discretion for the situation.

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In single-player mode, the player and squadmates do not die when they run out of health, but rather are incapacitated. If the player character is downed, the player can order the squad members to attempt to revive the player or to continue with their current orders. Therefore, the game is only truly over when the player and all members of the squad are incapacitated at once or if the player is downed in a position his squadmates cannot reach (such as chasms). Certain missions may require squad members to split up to accomplish various isolated objectives, and in such scenarios, where the player is operating alone, losing all the player's health also results in a game over. While reviving a downed commando restores a small amount of health, bacta charging stations are necessary to fully regain it.

Weapons can be acquired in both single player and multiplayer. Throughout the campaign, the player always carrys the compact DC-17 and a blaster pistol with unlimited ammo. The DC-17 can be configured into an assault rifle, sniper rifle, and grenade launcher. The player may also use weapons dropped by enemies.

Republic Commando maintains a first-person perspective throughout the game, presenting the story from the eyes of Delta Squad's squad leader, RC-1138 (Boss). His squadmates include RC-1162 (Scorch), a talkative explosives expert; RC-1140 (Fixer), a skilled hacker and a dedicated soldier, and RC-1107 (Sev), the squad's sniper who enjoys racking up kills. Information is received via radio commands from a Clone officer (referred to as 'Advisor'), and a text-based objective list with a pop-up objective tracker arrow that points the player to the next objective.

Plot[edit]

The game is set during the events of the Clone Wars that started at the climax of the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. In the game, the player takes command of a Clone commando team, made up of elite Clone troopers. These Clone commandos have been specially bred at the clone factories on Kamino. The commando team travels to various locations in the Star Wars universe, including Kashyyyk, Geonosis, and the derelict spacecraft Prosecutor. About two years pass from Delta Squad's first mission to the end of the game.

At the beginning of the game, Delta Squad is deployed from the RAS Prosecutor individually into the front lines of the Battle of Geonosis. There, Delta-38 ('Boss', the player character) meets up with squad mates 62, 40, and 07 ('Scorch', 'Fixer' and 'Sev' respectively). Delta-38 has been selected to lead this unit and guides them on their mission to assassinate the Geonosian leader Sun Fac, chief lieutenant to Geonosian Archduke Poggle the Lesser, one of the members of the Separatist Council. After accomplishing this objective, Delta Squad sabotage the droid factory underneath Sun Fac's headquarters, disable an anti-aircraft bunker that is wreaking havoc on the Republic Army's air forces, and then sneak onto a disabled Separatist Trade Federation Lucrehulk-class Core Ship and steal important launch codes to prevent the Separatist fleet from retreating, escaping seconds before the ship is destroyed.

A year into the war, the now-veteran Delta Squad is sent to investigate the derelict Acclamator-class Republic Assault Ship (RAS) Prosecutor, their former home before being deployed to active duty. The team splits up to investigate, when they begin to lose contact with each other one by one aboard the ship. After entering the ship, Delta-38 ponders why the interior of the Prosecutor remains deserted and eerily quiet, when he is suddenly ambushed by Scavenger Droids, which are responsible for the communications disruptions between the squad members. Delta-38 continues fighting off Scavenger Droids and comes across Trandoshan Slavers and Mercenaries. 38 singlehandedly fights his way through the ship, collecting information from the ship and rescuing his squadmates. Once Delta Squad is together again, they destroy a jamming device in order to restore ship-wide communication. Delta Squad then destroys a Trandoshan dropship in a hangar, accidentally blowing up the hangar's shield regulator in the process. Immediately afterwards, a Lucrehulk-class Trade Federation Battleship drops out of hyperspace nearby, as the Trandoshans were about to sell the vessel to the Separatists in exchange for droid support. As Republic reinforcements are en route, Delta Squad defends the vessel against hordes of battle droids, destroying the docking shield regulators, allowing nothing to pass through. They then proceed to the gunnery deck to activate the fire control computers, a lengthy process that they have to perform while under heavy droid attack. Successfully activating the computers enables the Prosecutor's turbolaser cannon batteries to open fire on the Trade Federation Battleship, saving the Prosecutor and working in conjunction with the timely arrival of a second Republic ship, the RAS Arrestor, to ultimately destroy the Trade Federation Battleship, shutting down all remaining battle droids on board the Prosecutor.

As the war drags on, Delta Squad participates in increasingly dangerous missions. A plea for help is heard by the Republic from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. Delta Squad is sent to rescue General Tarfful from Trandoshan slavers and mercenaries. After encountering General Grievous himself in one of the compounds and fighting off his MagnaGuards, they learn of the full ramifications of a Separatist/Trandoshan alliance. Delta Squad sabotages a vital Trandoshan supply depot and proceeds to the key city of Kachirho, setting in motion the Battle of Kashyyyk. There, they move through the Wookiee tree city, securing important objectives and battling against hordes of advanced battle droids. They destroy a bridge center-span at Kachirho, strategically splitting the droid army and cutting a large part off from its reinforcements, and proceed to secure the Citadel. Soldiering through the most elite Separatist forces, Delta Squad once again splits up to man four heavy anti-aircraft turrets in order to assist in the destruction of a Separatist destroyer hovering over Kachirho. Once the ship is destroyed, Clone Advisor CC-01/425 orders Delta Squad to regroup at 38's position. However, Sev reports that he's under heavy attack before all communication with him is lost. Delta Squad prepares to rescue Sev, but Advisor orders them to evacuate immediately. As they head out on the gunship, devastated by the apparent death of Sev, they are debriefed by Jedi Master Yoda. A huge Republic fleet is seen deploying outside the gunship, as the now three-man Delta Squad prepares for another assignment in the battle.

Soundtrack[edit]

Republic Commando is notable for being the first entry in the official Star Wars game series to feature licensed music. The song 'Clones', performed by the band Ash, is played when the credits roll. Ash are known for their Star Wars fandom; their debut album was entitled 1977, and contained numerous Star Wars references.

The main bulk of the soundtrack is a break from convention of previous Star Wars games that use abridged versions of John Williams' original score, instead using a combination of Williams' music and new music composed by Jesse Harlin. This new music takes on a high-paced, gritty and vocal theme to the traditional Star Wars score. 'The entire goal was to present a very dark and military take on the Star Wars universe from the point of view of disposable grunts – something no one had seen before,' said Harlin. 'Most of John Williams' material is very romantic and thematically relates to characters we weren't focusing on.'^[4] Of note is the 'Vode An' theme, which plays in the main menu and several key points throughout the game (such as when the player's clone commandos defeats a large group of enemies). The 'Vode An' theme, as well as several other key music pieces, have additional choral lyrics in the Mandalorian language. It was these lyrics that further inspired author Karen Traviss to develop the Mandalorian language into a 'fully working language'.^[5]

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Reception[edit]

Republic Commando received generally positive reviews with mostly minor complaints. It has been praised by some critics for giving players one of the most enjoyable Star Wars experiences, despite its lack of Jedi. Complaints mostly refer to its short campaign and average multiplayer experience. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 80.35% and 78 out of 100 for the Xbox version;^[6][9] 79.11% and 78 out of 100 for the PC version;^[7][10] and 74.67% for the mobile version.^[8]

In the United Kingdom, sales of Republic Commando's Xbox version surpassed 60,000 copies by the end of 2005.^[32] In France, 85,000 units were shipped for the game's launch.^[33]

Cancelled sequel[edit]

A sequel to the game was already planned well ahead of production of Republic Commando. The game was titled Star Wars: Imperial Commando and was based on the betrayal of Republic Soldiers, however the project only went as far as concept art, and was cancelled.^[34]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Star Wars Republic Commando - PC'. IGN. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
2. ^'Original Xbox Games on Xbox 360'. Archived from the original on April 21, 2007.
3. ^Bill Stillwell (April 10, 2018). 'More Original Xbox Games Coming to Xbox One Backward Compatibility'. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
4. ^Bielawa, Justin (March 8, 2006). 'Commando Composer: An Interview with Jesse Harlin'. Music On Film. Archived from the original on July 20, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
5. ^Proctor, Aaron (August 5, 2006). 'Exclusive Interview with Karen Traviss, The Clone Gal'. The Boba Fett Fan Club. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
6. ^ ^ab'Star Wars: Republic Commando for Xbox'. GameRankings. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
7. ^ ^ab'Star Wars: Republic Commando for PC'. GameRankings. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
8. ^ ^ab'Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66 for Mobile'. GameRankings. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
9. ^ ^ab'Star Wars Republic Commando for Xbox Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
10. ^ ^ab'Star Wars: Republic Commando for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
11. ^'[Star Wars] Republic Commando review'. Edge (148): 101. April 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
12. ^'Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox)'. Electronic Gaming Monthly (191): 134. May 2005.
13. ^Reed, Kristan (February 23, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox)'. Eurogamer. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
14. ^'Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox)'. Famitsu. 845. February 25, 2005.
15. ^Reiner, Andrew (March 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando (Xbox)'. Game Informer (143): 136. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007.
16. ^DJ Dinobot (March 28, 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando Review for PC on GamePro.com'. GamePro. Archived from the original on January 12, 2006. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
17. ^The Enforcer (March 1, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando Review for Xbox on GamePro.com'. GamePro. Archived from the original on November 16, 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
18. ^Gee, Brian (March 15, 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando Review (Xbox)'. Game Revolution. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
19. ^Colayco, Bob (February 25, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando Review'. GameSpot. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
20. ^Score, Avery (September 1, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66 Review'. GameSpot. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
21. ^Tuttle, Will (February 21, 2005). 'GameSpy: Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox)'. GameSpy. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
22. ^Madigan, Jamie (March 7, 2005). 'GameSpy: Star Wars Republic Commando (PC)'. GameSpy. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
23. ^Bedigian, Louis (March 15, 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando - XB - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
24. ^Hopper, Steven (March 17, 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando - PC - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
25. ^Buchanan, Levi (November 7, 2005). 'Star Wars Republic Commando: Order 66'. IGN. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
26. ^Adams, Dan; Perry, Douglass C. (February 18, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox)'. IGN. Archived from the original on March 19, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
27. ^Adams, Dan (February 18, 2005). 'Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC)'. IGN. Archived from the original on September 11, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
28. ^'Star Wars: Republic Commando'. Official Xbox Magazine: 80. April 2005.
29. ^'Star Wars: Republic Commando'. PC Gamer: 76. April 2005.
30. ^Schaefer, Jim (March 13, 2005). 'A winning team: Your squad mates are the best in 'Star Wars: Republic Commando''. Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on March 13, 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
31. ^Wilcox, Mike (March 25, 2005). 'A break from formula'. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
32. ^Reed, Kristan (May 3, 2005). '2005 UK Sales Review'. Eurogamer. Archived from the original on April 10, 2007.
33. ^https://web.archive.org/web/20051020174939/http://www.afjv.com/press0501/050119_starwars_republic_commando.htm
34. ^Smith, Rob (2008). Rogue Leaders: The Story of Lucas Arts. Chronicle Books. p. 183. ISBN978-0-8118-6184-7.

External links[edit]

• Star Wars: Republic Commando on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Star Wars: Republic Commando at MobyGames
• An Oral History of Republic Commando by lead programmer Brett Douvile: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4

A squad-based Star Wars tactical shooter, hmmm? Normally we're a tad suspicious of LucasArts for its obsession with continuously yanking on the flaccid teats of its most lucrative intellectual property - and for very good reason. It's not that our attitude instantly defaults to cynical the minute we see the licence; it's more based on years on being mostly let down by patchy (and often plain cynical) attempts to seemingly cover all genre bases known to man, while, y'know, canning the stuff we actually want to play like Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2. Sigh. We digress. Even so, the idea of Halo meets Rainbow Six in the Star Wars universe sounded like a pretty inspired concoction, admittedly while still running a huge risk of being a Clone War of the wrong kind.

If you're still groaning over that last sentence - and admittedly it does veer dangerously close to tabloid in terms of gratuitous punnage - it does at least give you a clue as to what we're dealing with here. Given that LucasArts can practically do anything (and usually does) with its treasured property, we have one of those non-movie-based Star Wars games set in between 'Episodes' - in this case snugly between the timelines of One and Two. Now, before this review degenerates into one of those discussions about the relative merits (or otherwise) of these hotly debated films, there are still rich pickings to be had from a game developer's point of view. Could this game be better than the films that inspired it?

Kashing in

In this case we're given the chance to explore the adventures of a four-man team of elite Clone Troopers. Effectively a band of (supposedly) personality-free nobodies, this gives LucasArts the opportunity to steer away from the main action and zoom in on the foot soldiers, get inside their heads and find out what the little guys were up to while the movie events rumble on elsewhere. Voiced by Temuera 'Jango Fett' Morrison, you take charge of 38, the leader of the four man Delta squad, on a three-campaign-long foray that takes you across the planet Geonosis and through a ghost ship before concluding on the lush Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk.

But although the general mission objectives and gameplay mechanics share a lot in common with other squad-based shooters, it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to discover that Republic Commando is much faster-paced. Like the Rainbow Sixes and Ghost Recons before it, you take control of one man in a four-strong squad in a series of seek-and-destroy situations and follow all the familiar door breach/flash bang counter-terrorist manoeuvres that we've long been used to, but the sheer enemy count and the pace of the action is that much more intense. It feels like a well-judged compromise between the hardcore watch-every-step style of Rainbow Six and the all-out action run-and-gun style of the best sci-fi shooters out there.

In addition, many of the more superfluous commands have been radically streamlined into context-sensitive one-touch orders that let you get on with the business of shooting instead of wrestling with a command interface. If you need someone to lay an explosive charge on a droid generator, 'slice' (i.e. hack) a control panel while all hell's breaking loose or take up a sniping position, then you can issue all these commands with impressive efficiency by merely pointing your reticule at a context-sensitive icon and hitting A while laying down some laser fire on your aggressors. It's a seamless, efficient and flexible system that's so impressively intuitive that you'll barely even blink before you've issued an entire array of orders that would have probably resulted in a swift death in other comparable games.

Get over here!

If you find yourself impatient waiting for your squad to amble over to a particularly vital fixture that needs blowing up, you can take all of these matters into your own hands - albeit at the risk of being shot to pieces in the dangerous process of spending anything up to a minute out of firing action. On top of that, holding down the A button brings up a Red Storm-inspired command menu that gives you the option of issuing all-encompassing commands to your squaddies, such as Search And Destroy, Form Up, Secure Area and Cancel Manoeuvres, or the brilliantly useful ability to get them to concentrate their fire on a specific target by just hovering your reticule over your enemy and tapping A.

But as slick and superb as it undoubtedly is, there are still the odd moments that you're left cursing that they didn't take action sooner, or wondering why the game ends up misreading your input because you're not in the exact 'zone' required; for example, issuing an explosive command to the AI despite the fact you're clearly standing right in front of the thing trying to do it yourself. As intelligent and useful as your squaddies are, they also seem to enjoy ignoring the regular Bacta (health) stations until you more or less force them to recharge - in the heat of the battle it can be a real wind-up to note such self-defeating behaviour.

And it's on the issue of health that the often ferocious gameplay hinges. In Republic Commando you don't die as such, but have a Halo 1-style shield protecting initial blasts, followed by increments of health that get taken off one by one once your shield is down; take too much damage and you'll become incapacitated, slump to the floor and view the continuing action immersed in a wonderfully messed up and warped visual state. Handily the Deltas carry emergency Bacta guns that appear to inject you and 'jump start' you back to half health, which is LucasArts' cunning way of allowing you to more or less cheat your way through the game. In addition to that, you can also revive your fellow Commandos, nip off to a nearby infinite health station when you're flagging and keep dashing back to the action to finish off the stragglers. It's this central cheating gameplay mechanic that effectively keeps you going, and even when all four of you get wiped out the 'save anywhere' facility and regular checkpoints mean there's very little in the way of frustrating back tracking. Although we approve of games that don't annoy us to levels of pad-throwing unfairness, this level of kindness means it's the sort of game you'll rip through in under ten hours without breaking too much of a sweat, which is in itself a problem.

Republic Commando 2

And now onto our favourite subject

Still, as much as we felt that there must be a better way of keeping players in the game than effectively giving them infinite lives, the overall level of consistent entertainment Republic Commando offers is so high for it to only be an issue when the odds are stacked unreasonably. Sometimes, the going seems to get so tough that the game itself seems to resort to a transparent form of respawning cheatery, which is so cheeky in game design terms that we're almost awestruck with admiration at the bare-faced nature of it.

As we've alluded to many times before, we're not the biggest fans of respawning AI enemies in the world ever, but when destroying the source of these replicating menaces becomes an integral part of the level design it's almost endearing. It's like they're telling us right to our faces 'we know how much you hate respawning enemies, and how lazy you think it is as a design decision, so we're going to produce these bot replicator boxes and make it mission critical to swiftly demolish them lest you get overrun by the bastards'. At first it's quite amusingly self-deprecating, until - that is - the awesomely well-armoured Super Bots appear and require a small army's worth of lead, grenades, plasma, sniper fire and the like to destroy, while simultaneously making them so powerful that you're lying prostrate if you're unfortunate to cop a few of their blasts.

Damn them! Still, despite all of this total unfairness, the fact that you can semi-cheat your way to victory with skillful use of infinite health probably makes it even more unfair on them. In short the team made a game so loaded with (often respawning) enemies that they probably soon realised that without infinite health you'd be toast in no time. Clearly that wouldn't have been fun, so they made it fun at the risk of removing any semblance of credibility and the crucial suspension of disbelief. But, ach. Get over it. It works. It's a lot of fun. And it looks good. Just as Halo gets by with decent AI and drawn out chase-and-retreat firefights, so too Republic Commando's central appeal is the quality of its combat and the feel of being utterly immersed in huge firefights. The satisfaction of reducing skinny bots to scrap metal and knife-wielding chasing lizards to green goo is worth the entry fee alone, never mind the more challenging foes such as the lumbering Super Bots. It's not exactly reinventing gaming itself, but it twists two popular styles of gaming we love into a quality experience wrapped up in a technically impressive way.

A sight for sore visors

Indeed, although we've rattled on about the actual gameplay for ages, the audio/visual side of the game is easily among the most impressive we've experienced on the Xbox. Given the strangely low profile build-up to the launch we were quite pleasantly surprised to find just how slick the whole thing is, with an unflinchingly high standard throughout. Wherever you look, be it the scenery, the texturing, the lighting, character models, the particle effects, the destruction or even the physics, it's right up there with the very best console gaming has ever delivered. Some of it comes at a price, though, with noticeable V-sync tearing on occasions, a disappointing lack of widescreen support and the odd frame rate dip evident when your rifle fire slows down in the heat of the battle. Having said that, it rarely affects the gameplay to any significant extent.

Audio-wise, meanwhile, has there ever been a better sounding game? Having gone to great lengths to employ Hollywood special effects gurus the whole game really comes to life in surround sound with not only some of the best use of subtle spot effects we've ever heard, but great characterization in the voiceovers, some amusing one-liners by consistently good voice actors, perfect gun effects and even good footsteps. As an audio experience there's almost no let up, with literally hours' worth of dialogue adding a brilliant layer to the already excellent atmosphere, underpinned by the usual high quality sweeping Star Wars score that we've come to expect over the years. And if you hadn't noticed how good the audio is already, an unlockable documentary goes through the process to demonstrate with pineapples just how you get the sound of squelchy giant lizard footsteps. A nice touch.

All that remains at this point is to mention that once you've recovered from the shock of an astonishingly anti-climatic 'conclusion', there's always the added bonus of multiplayer to keep you going. Judged against the competition it's fair to say it's not exactly going to have Xbox owners abandoning Halo 2's multiplayer mode any time soon, but it does at least cover the usual suspect essentials. Whether via four-player split-screen, 16-player system link or 16-player Live you can engage in Republic Vs Transoshan Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, or eight-player Capture The Flag or Assault. Dragon age origins helmets.

Star Wars Republic Commando Co-op

Multiplayer let-down

Coming with the standard Quick Match and Optimatch options, it's not going to be the game credited with changing the very face of multiplayer gaming, but the 10 maps we scoured through are of high enough standard to make it worth a few matches - if only to have another opportunity to use some of the game's cooler weapons (the rocket launcher appears, what, twice in the whole campaign?). What's most disappointing about the whole thing, though, isn't so much the lack of me-too deathmatch variants, but that LucasArts didn't bother to allow players to play the campaign mode co-operatively as Red Storm achieved so successfully in the likes of Ghost Recon 2, Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow. In a sense it's unforgivable given how much fun this mode would have been (and is in other similar titles) and we don't understand why such an obvious idea wasn't implemented. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.

With that in mind, Republic Commando's rather short-lived single-player campaign becomes somewhat more of an issue than it might have otherwise have been. With a bit of co-op action we'd have happily run through the whole campaign again with some mates as it's a wonderfully entertaining experience with set-piece after set-piece testing your resolve to the very limit. Whatever you might argue should have made it into the package, and the whole issue over the dubious health mechanic, what's there in single-player terms does add up to a consistently satisfying whole. Having chugged our way through Dark Forces and through the patchy Jedi Knight series over the past ten years, it's heartening to finally come away from a Star Wars FPS feeling genuinely happy that LucasArts has used its much-abused license in a relentlessly entertaining way.

We hardly have to encourage LucasArts to make another Star Wars game, but more of the same focus on quality with a little less of a half-hearted approach to multiplayer and it'd be impossible to ignore. As it is Republic Commando deserves huge respect for managing to be the best Star Wars shooter ever.

8 /10