Each Wednesday I take a look back at an old video game that I have either played or never played and give my thoughts on it. These may be PC, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis or Gameboy games. I won’t play through the whole game, but I’ll play a level or two and everything I do will be captured and put on our Youtube page.
This week I was inspired by this past weekends Star Wars Celebration and decided to install and play an old PC game called Star Wars: Rebublic Commando. The game puts you in the role of a clone trooper battling through the clone wars. You an advanced clone trooper and have been put in charge of a group of three other clone troopers, each with their own special talent. You have a sniper, someone who can get past gates and locks and a tough infantry guy who is there as muscle. Your abilities are normal, you have the ability to carry different guns and throw grenades. At certain parts of the game you will encounter many enemies and it’s up to you to position people in real time to better your chances and to provide cover fire. The controls are your basic W,A,S and D keys to move, R to reload and your mouse is used to shoot, scroll through guns and throw grenades.Each time you are able to have someone perform a command such as sit somewhere and snipe or hack a gate you will get a prompt on the screen. Most actions require the F key, so you’ll see it pop up a lot when sections are lit up.
Aside from the gate hacking, the game seems to have a decent difficulty. The bullets you shoot are powerful against droids, but against other enemies they are pretty weak. If you run out of bullets you have a pistol which shoots lasers and just needs a few seconds to recharge. The higher the charge the more powerful the shot, but in tough time you’ll be running and gunning to stay alive.
As I mentioned above, the game goes through some battles of the clone wars. It’s not going to be a fix for those of us who are waiting for Battlefront, but it’s something to get by if you’re into nostalgic gaming. The graphics aren’t the best and the cut scenes aren’t anything to be amazed at.
You can probably find this game for a few dollars at swapmeets or garage sales, so if you’re a Star Wars fan or just love first person shooters then give this one a try. I believe it’s also available on the original Xbox, but it may cost more than a few dollars