Game #1222: Star Wars Republic Commando

 No clones were harmed in the making of this game.... I think 

 For the longest time, I considered Star Wars: Republic Commando to be one of the finest Star Wars games out there. I used to play this game on PC a LOT back in the day, and finding out that it only released on Xbox, when it came to consoles, was heart breaking. But alas, the game got a Switch rerelease, and I finally get to own a copy of it.

 Republic Command is a very interesting Star Wars game because you don't play as a Jedi, nay, you play as one of the clones in the Clone army, a squad leader at that, and you get to command your four-man team in a series of deadly missions. So you could say that this is a squad-based first person shooter, but your squad is made up of AI allies that you lead into the fray.

 The game offers a very simplified command input system. Objects that can be interacted with have an icon over them, press X and the nearest squad mate will get to it, as long as they are free. While each member of your squad has a very distinct personality, when it comes to tasks they are all the same. Some tasks, such as activating computers or setting up bombs you can do yourself, and have your allies protect you, but considering these tasks take 10-20 seconds... it's more fun if you send one of them to do it for you while you partake in the firefights. You also get four general orders: Regroup, Offensive Approach, Cover an Area or Cancel Orders.

 You are equipped with an assault rifle that can use two attachments, one turns it into a powerful grenade launcher and another one into a sniper rifle. There's a fourth weapon, a very useless gun that recharges slowly, but it's pretty much a last resort. You can also use very powerful melee hits. These makes armament feel rather limited at times. To be fair, you get a free weapon slot that you can use on either a Shotgun, Machinegun, Crossbow, Minigun, Railgun and a laser gun, but there's no guarantee you'll find more ammo for these guns. The first mission, for instance, only features the Laser gun, but thankfully, the next two missions have more variety(Although you won't find the laser gun again).

 The game is relatively fun, but... when the game starts spawning spongy enemies it starts getting a bit dull, When you find yourself wasting most of your ammo on two enemies... it can get rather boring. The whole hacking and placing bombs also gets rather monotonous after a while. It's definitely not the most exciting game out there, but hey, the concept of a clone squad is pretty neat, and I really liked the characters.

 The Switch port runs rather smoothly, which was very welcome... but it did crash once. And there's this weird right analog stick bug, which I think only happens on certain rooms, in which your aim will be forced to the ground, and then you won't be able to turn left, only right. Exciting the room fixes it, but it's a very weird bug. It was the most frequent during the second mission, but nothing too intrusive, 

 I also came a few bugs. One time, one squadmate was alive, but it showed up as dead so it couldn't do anything, thankfully, the stage exit was close by, so it wasn't too much trouble. Similarly, one time a squad mate got stuck on a box. I killed him and revived him to no avail. And another time.... a squad mate didn't follow me, and I realized when we were miles and miles apart. He wasn't even stuck on an order, he simply didn't budge.

 Republic Command is a fine game, but nothing to write home about. It's a game that has certainly seen better days, but I wouldn't write it off completely, as I think it had some very interesting ideas and characters that are worth a look for people that enjoy Star Wars.

7.0