1 Part Halo + 1 Part Rainbow 6 + 1 Part George Lucas = Goodness
Star Wars: Republic Commando is one of those games that may actually surprise you. As of this moment it's the first and only attempt at an FPS set in the new Star Wars universe since the Dark Forces series. It's a super solid shooter with a dash of squad tactics mixed in, and once you've played it for awhile you'll be wondering why Lucasarts hasn't made a sequel by now.
The game is set just before the events of Episode II as you play the commander of an elite clone unit. A unit used for stealthy reconnaissance and "search and destroy" missions. The settings are distinct as you'll journey thru worlds from the Attack of the Clones film like Geonosis, Trade Federation ships, and the Wookie homeworld. Overall the story isn't as cohesive as it probably could have been, and perhaps that had more to do with the fact that it had to walk around the film's storyline, but most missions and settings just seem to be there as an excuse to shoot stuff. Which, in the end, isn't such a bad thing for an FPS.
The game, on a whole, looks and sounds really great. The voice overs can get repetitive at times, but they're spot on, and getting Temuera Morrison (the actor who portrayed Jango Fett) to do the voice work of the lead only adds to the overall quality of the product and the squad voices add a really nice dose of character to the game. The worlds and graphics also have a nice stylized quality to them too. A bit more gritty and "macho" than the standard Star Wars game. It's not a straight up rip off of Halo, but you can definitely tell that the developers took their cues from that franchise. The soundtrack too is appropriate and has that very distinct "Star Wars" quality to it. In all honesty it's one of the best soundtracks of my recent memory.
Where the game tries to distinguish itself from the pack is with its squad control mechanic. For the most part they works nicely, but once in a blue moon the squad AI can become a handicap. It's fun to set them up in different positions of cover and let them do their thing. Sniping, demolition or setting them at a door way and letting them breach the next room is great fun, but it's those in between times where they can feel like a bunch of kids on a field trip in need of a good chaperon. Unless they are assigned to a certain position they tend to wander around aimlessly, run directly into enemy fire, or stand in front of the player blocking their fire. When the mechanic works it's really, really fun to experience, when it doesn't it's just a method in madness.
The online portion of the game is very, very me-too and offers the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Assault. When I played this game it was very hard to even find matches being played, but when I did it was a very standard feeling online FPS. It's nothing to toot your horn about, but it's nice to know that it's there, and would be nice to see the squad portions expanded in a potential sequel.
The game also has a very open ended and unsatisfying ending that will leave most scratching their heads and really wondering where the sequel is/went. But at the end of the day Star Wars: Republic Commando for Xbox is a game that, at first glance, doesn't seem to bring a whole lot new to the FPS genre, but once you have finished, it doesn't really matter because it's a solid game and you will have a good time with it. You'll just be wondering where Republic Commando 2 went.
+Fun use of the Star Wars franchise
+Good audio/visual presentation
+Great voice work
+Fun squad tactics
-AI can be spotty in certain areas
-Incoherent storyline
-"Blah" online features
