Star Wars: Republic Commando

We had a plethora of Star Wars games on our Xbox when I was a kid. My dad, my younger brother, and I would play through most of them so many times that they literally had nothing left to discover, but then we'd just play them again! There was one exception to this phenomenon, but it wasn't due to disinterest. I loved watching my dad play Republic Commando, but as a kid, I couldn't get further than the first couple of chapters. The coordinated, team-based combat with surprisingly powerful enemies is incredibly intense and deserves a whole TV show on its own. Unfortunately, those surprisingly powerful enemies were too much for little old me to handle, and I was relegated to the audience. My appreciation for the game never dwindled though, and now that I have a little more experience with first-person shooters and games in general, I'm ready.

Republic Commando introduces a new type of trooper in the clone army. Commandos have more training, better weapons, additional implants, and far more dangerous assignments than their rank-and-file brethren. While they are especially capable soldiers, their value means that they are usually kept out of the front lines and only assigned the more specialized tasks. These tasks tend to require a high degree of coordination and teamwork, so commandos are raised, trained, and deployed in squads of four. The game begins on Geonosis during the clone army's debut battle and follows one of those squads on their mission to infiltrate an enemy fortress and eliminate the Geonosian general, Sun Fac.

Right from the start, this game lets you know that it won't be easy. If you were used to Star Wars: Battlefront II with its abundant ammunition and fast-depleting health bars, or Halo with its absolute tank of a player-character, then it's time for you to adjust, and fast. Whether it be by numbers or just sheer strength, you will constantly be outclassed by your opponents. Only with a healthy blend of strategy, skill, and teamwork will you succeed in your missions and make it out alive. As the leader of your squad, you are responsible for directing the other three commandos over the course of the game, and you will fail quite quickly if you don't learn to do that effectively.

Your very first mission to eliminate Sun Fac concludes with a memorable sequence where you need to hack two computers on one side of the room while endless waves of battle droids and Geonosians flood out of four doors spread across two levels on the other. Your squad will keep shooting at the enemy until you tell them otherwise, so you could try to hack the computers one by one, but that is a hopeless endeavor, and your team will quickly be overwhelmed. Instead, you can assign your squad to perform tasks and get things done a little faster. I had a commando hacking on each terminal and directed the third to take cover and snipe while I handled grenades and anti-armor fire. Thanks to our teamwork, we managed to repel the flood of bugs and droids while making quick work of the computers at the same time. Not every encounter will be as straightforward as that, but assigning your commandos to the right places can make even the most dangerous encounters manageable.

It's the intensity of those moments that really drives the game forward. Triumphing in a fight that you know you should have lost is exhilarating, and Republic Commando knows how to give you just the right amount of resources and just the right situations to barely make it out alive, time after time. Now that I've finally been able to play the whole game after holding it in such high regard for the past decade and a half, I have to say that I'm still impressed. Republic Commando has gripping gameplay and an intense story, all without waving around a lightsaber once. This is one of the earliest clone-focused stories, and I think it deserves more recognition in the new Star Wars canon. Whether you care about the canon or not though, this is an excellent game for those looking for a mix-up to the regular FPS formula and a true strategic challenge.

The game is available for Steam here (as of 5/20/23): https://store.steampowered.com/app/6000/STAR_WARS_Republic_Commando/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 5/20/23): https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/star-wars-republic-commando-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 5/20/23): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/star-wars-republic-commando/BRJB0RMH33T2
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 5/20/23): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1032-CUSA19302_00-STARWARSCOMMANDO/

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