Star Wars: Republic Commando. Partners in Arms
Genre: Action
Developer: LucasArts Entertainment
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment
Official website: www.lucasarts.com/games/swrepubliccommando
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: LucasArts Entertainment
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment
Game website: www.lucasarts.com/games/swrepubliccommando/
System requirements: Processor 1.2 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB Video, 2 GB HDD space
From the game about the futuristic "Delta" squad serving His Majesty Emperor P. and Darth V., expectations were almost on par with Ghost Recon from a galaxy far, far away. "A tactical bone-crunching shooter with a faded license in the lead role," the suits from LucasArts solemnly proclaimed both at E3 and on the relevant sites. Certain citizens, including your obedient servant, naively believed the fairy tale, sat in a circle, and began to wait, reading selected parts from press releases to one another.
Clowns of the Old Republic
With the first dead body of a flying Geonosian, it became clear that players had been cunningly deceived by at least half. The tactical elements here are about as plentiful as in the domestic marvel-game "Boomer." However, we will address tactical features later. The developers did not forget to engage the juicy license, generously packing the box with copyright-embellished stormtroopers, droids, and the mandatory English Accent. I will immediately mention that you will not be allowed to wield a lightsaber, nor look at battles featuring particularly valuable Jedi from the saga. Everything is strictly built around the amazing adventures of four trained clones behind enemy lines of imperialism and petty sabotage within the ranks of the Trade Federation and its relatives.
The plot takes place in the currently fashionable time interval between the second and third episodes of the Lucas saga, right during the so-called "Clone Wars." Players will not be allowed to participate in battles on the scale of those occurring in the last twenty minutes of the second episode. Instead, the player will be offered thrilling runs through narrow corridors, ventilation shafts, and the tropical forests of the Wookiee homeland - Kashyyyk.
Industrial Light & Magic
The interiors, by the way, amaze with their sparseness. Of course, one could debate that corridors in the battle ships of the Trade Federation were not meant to be decorated with fetishistic trinkets, and the mountains of Geonosis are filled with rubble and corpses (there are some, but for the most part, they do not affect the situation with the environment). Nevertheless, the picture is quite depressing. It is unclear where the resources of the not-so-weak Unreal Engine 2.0 have gone: polygon-starved droid models are also covered with muddy textures, which makes them look more like wooden puppets. Juicy special effects, blazing during fierce battles, intricate bump mapping, and, of course, the continuous supply of new opponents are all aimed at hiding the developers' main "discovery" - catastrophic low polygon counts. By the way, this symptom can be found in almost any object, except for maybe the main characters of the game.
The Fantastic Four
Basically, it was all about the four Republic fighters. It’s nearly impossible not to fall in love with the charming snow-white stormtroopers - a uniform that oddly resembles the dress uniform of Third Reich soldiers plus a touching English accent does incredible things to the heart of a former pioneer. Your comrades from Star Wars: Republic Commando, however, are different from those you observed in the films and then frantically cut down with a lightsaber in Jedi Outcast 2. Firstly, each of your colleagues is equipped with their own personal color - green, yellow, and red. Secondly, for their specialization.
But even here everything is remarkably banal - the team consists of a demolitions expert, a sniper, and, excuse me, a hacker. To keep an eye on this rotten intelligence, a special clone has been appointed - the commander, in the guise of which the player actually takes the stage. As stated at the beginning of the game, the clones also differ in character, degree of joke adequacy, and abilities in shooting metal dummies. The guys regularly crack militaristic jokes, some of which even made your disobedient servant smile. Jango Fett has already lost his head in both the literal and figurative sense due to such treatment of his precious DNA. And if your joking cloned friends happen to fall flat on their faces after a series of enemy attacks - don’t be sad, you can always revive a friend with a portable "resurrection kit," like something from Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault.
Cut Them All!
The gameplay evokes a persistent sense of Déjà Vu, however banal it may sound. Judge for yourself - you and your team race to wherever the arrow indicates, getting involved in fights with the local inhabitants and replenishing supplies from generously scattered stash locations, heading for a new checkpoint with... enemies and health kits. It even reaches the absurd - what about numerous health-restoration machines (can I call them "medkits" in a granddad style?) on a ship populated exclusively by droids? You guessed it - "dimenhydrinate" for polygon shortage will not help them anymore. Add the blatant scripted levels, starting from harmless "triggers" to enemies that literally materialize before your eyes, and you will get a rough idea of a hopeful shooter in your favorite universe. Comparing it to Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and a plethora of other pretentious linear shooters (to which our current guest can be unequivocally referred) is not desired at all - the parallels are too obvious.
Everyone Went to the Front
Strangely enough, Star Wars: Republic Commando pulls out of the entire above-described swamp exactly those combat clashes with mechanical and organic filth that take place under the unmissable dramatic SW-themed music. And here comes the time to talk about the "tactical elements." Naturally, one shouldn’t expect from the game the capabilities of Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six. Here everything is maximally friendly to the young cinephile who has come to our shores to shoot a couple of droids before the release of "Episode III." Practically every stone, every reasonably convenient cover is supplied with a tiny "icon," after which aiming at it and pressing the corresponding button, your comrades will bustle about and solemnly perform a "tactical maneuver," commenting on it with an obligatory quip (and I like it! - ed. note). The same story applies to "medkits" – aim, press, and the colleague is already limping towards the medic station. That's all the tactics. Although it is worth noting that the bet on casual gamers does not reduce the effectiveness of such an approach - in cover, the clones have the ability to fire accurately, throw grenades, and take less damage. The clashes also happen to be maximally brutal, aggressive, and "with flair." What’s worth at least the helmet (by the way, one of LucasArts' undeniable finds), splattered with enemy blood in a very realistic gray or green color after a fierce knife strike to an accessible part of the body. However, even here there is a flaw; apparently, fantasy was clearly forgotten when it came to the arsenal: pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, shotgun, flamethrower, grenades... After the examples from Half-Life 2, such a "variety" can easily be perceived as a personal insult.
In Conclusion
It seems that old Lucas will not stop churning out games with the Star Wars logo for a long time, all thanks to the notorious "Episode III." The quality of them, of course, will compete at best with products from Value Software or other one-day wonders "inspired by." It’s a pity that the words fit perfectly for Star Wars: Republic Commando, despite its undeniable, albeit few, advantages. It’s funny for you, but it’s a pleasure for us to play such a thing, and you can block us with all available means.
Rating:
Gameplay: 7.0
Graphics: 6.0
Sound and Music: 7.0
Interface and Controls: 8.0
Author's Score: 6.5
Overall Rating: 6.7