Star Wars: Republic Commando is one of those games that anyone who rushes out and buys it is going to want to like more than he really does. A squad-based, first-person shooter set in the Clone Wars between episodes II and III of the Star Wars movies, every Star Wars gaming fan will want to give it a try. But the potential of this game is wasted and ultimately it just does not have the polish to make it a great effort. It is fun, but if you’re a fan of first-person shooters rather than Star Wars there are better games out there for the money.

Star Wars: Republic Commando follows the exploits of Delta commando squad. The members of Delta are four clones of the Republican army that have been specially trained to be superior to the average clone infantry soldier. The player takes the role of Delta 38, leader of the squad. Other members of the squad are Delta “Sev” 07 the sniper, Delta “Fixer” 40 the splicer (computer hacker) and Delta “Scorch” 62 the demolitions expert. Delta’s mission is to take on the toughest and most dangerous missions required by the Republic in their war against the Separatists.

Game missions include the usual search and destroy, retrieve data, rescue prisoners, etc. missions that we see in most FPS games. Of course all of Republic Commando’s missions take place in the Star Wars universe. That makes them a bit special. In the course of the game the Delta squad will fight on planets and ships both familiar and new to the fans of the films and see alien races encountered before, and even a character or two that they are familiar with. There are three overall missions: Geonosis, a derelict assault ship and the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk. An average player will complete the whole game in about 10 - 12 hours.

From a presentation point of view, the game is very good. The Star Wars environments and creatures come to life and the player gets to interact in the world. Pretty much everything is well detailed. The first-person, inside-the-helmet view is terrific and the heads-up display (HUD) does a great job of giving the play/squad leader all the information he needs to monitor not only his own condition but also tell at a glance the status and availability of the three squad members. Of course all the in-game music and sound effects are the real deal Star Wars stuff. Weapons give nice, satisfying, authentic reports when fired. The voiceover work is top notch, with many entertaining quips from squad members as they fight through levels. The voice of Delta 38 is even performed by Temuera Morrison, the actor that played Jango Fett in Episode II. The non-intrusive cut scenes are also first rate.

Republic Commando’s marketing tagline is, “The squad is your weapon.” This is true and nicely calls out the feature that Republic Commando does best. As the player moves through environments, the HUD will mark locations that will give your squad members cover and a steady place to engage enemies from. All the player needs to do is look at the point and press the ‘A’ button to order a squad member to man the position. Likewise, the HUD will mark places for the placement of explosives or a computer terminal that needs to be sliced. As the squad commander, the player also has four commands that affect all members of the squad at once. These are accessed by holding the ‘A’ button and then using the fours points of the D-pad to issue a command. These commands are a blanket cancellation of all individual orders, an offensive “search and destroy” order, a defensive “secure area” order, and a “form-up” order that will bring all squad members to the commander. While it takes a little practice to execute all the orders well, by the middle of the game players will be quickly and efficiently deploying their squad to take out the worse the Separatists can throw at them. It is very satisfying to see the dance of destruction that can be accomplished by a well-ordered squad on the attack.

When not being ordered about, squad A.I. is also excellent. These guys really do have their own personalities and will do most of what needs to be done without any orders at all. They are more deadly from assigned positions, their accuracy goes up, but they are still bad-asses even with no direction at all. The player will want to do all in his power to keep his squad intact with their various specialties. Fortunately squad members going down is not the end of them. Each commando carries a device to restore fellow troopers to life and give them back half of their health. This is also important when the player as commander goes down. He is immobile but can still issue orders for the squad to continue the last orders they were given or come and revive him. Of course the situation will govern which is most advantageous. Sometimes you don’t want them to lose the firepower of a man for the several seconds it takes to revive you while at other times the presence of the commander is absolutely essential.

If one strips away all the Star Wars trappings of this game, the flaws begin to show through. Honestly, aside from squad command elements, this is a very generic FPS game. The single-player missions are definitely the highlight of the game. The multiplayer elements feel terribly tacked-on. I could not get on an online Live game that did not suffer from highly noticeable lag. The poor multiplayer elements make the replay value of the game very debatable. Enemy A.I. was a mixed bag. During some engagements I actually saw enemies quickly pick up the grenade I had just thrown and lob it back at me. Other times I could stand right next to them and they would act as though I was not there.

Weapons were also grossly generic. The standard issue DC-17m blaster rifle is like a Swiss army knife. Rather than separate sniper and anti-armor weapons, attachments are put on the blaster rifle to give it these functions. There are also a few enemy and indigenous-population weapons that can be picked up and used, like a Trandoshan slaver shotgun or a Wookiee bowcaster. But none of the weapons really function any differently than the stock set of weapons that are in most FPS games.

Most grievous, I found a couple of bugs in the game. Once the game outright crashed and I had to reset the console and load my last save to get back where I was. Twice I lost squad members. Once I backtracked as far as I could and never found the lost commando. His health was green and good on the HUD, but no order would call him and he could not be found. A quick reload of the last save point brought him back. Another time, as I deployed for a skirmish, I notice my sniper Sev was among the missing. Again, no order brought his reappearance. Backtracking with the other members I found Sev caught under a platform made of pipes, walking but not getting anywhere, stuck against a pipe. I walked around him and again tried to issue orders to move him. Nothing worked. This time I really did not want to revert to the last save, so I tried the solution that seems to work best in most situations in an FPS … I shot him. Sure enough, he gave a quick complaint about me shooting him and he was free to maneuver again.

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun playing Star Wars: Republic Commando and I think almost any Star Wars fan who picks it up is going to have fun too. But I do think there are enough flaws and outright mediocrity in the game to bring its overall score down to just a good 3.5/5. If the Star Wars license had been better exploited to create a truly unique gaming experience and the game had just a little more programming polish, Republic Commando could easily have been a top-rated game.