There's no shortage of Star Wars games out in the universe right now, but only a handful have stood the test of time. While fans have their own nostalgia for certain Star Wars titles, just a few are considered to be genuinely great video game experiences, with gameplay, a narrative, and art style that all transcend the rest of the franchise, and elevate the title far above just another licensed game. Star Wars: Republic Commando is one such title.
Released in 2005, Star Wars: Republic Commando debuted at the height of the Star Wars video game golden age, right alongside other beloved titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and the first LEGO Star Wars. Even all these years later, Republic Commando still holds up, with a simple but gripping narrative, a distinct art style, and some intriguing squad-based mechanics. In this age of more dark and mature takes on Star Wars, it's the perfect time for a Republic Commando sequel.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a Unique Take On the Universe
While Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic brought the fantasy and wonder of the movies to the video game medium, and the Revenge of the Sith tie-in game imitated the visuals of its movie counterpart, Star Wars: Republic Commando goes for a darker, more mature approach to the Star Wars universe. This can be seen in practically every element of the game from its visuals, to its music, to its gameplay.
From the get-go, Republic Commando's visuals ooze with wartime grittiness. The game opens with the player-character, simply called Delta-38, being born on Kamino. While Kamino in Attack of the Clones is depicted as a bright facility, with stark white lights everywhere, Republic Commando's version dulls those lights down quite a bit and makes the facility feel more ominous. Through Obi-Wan's eyes, Kamino seems like a simple high-tech facility, but through a Clone's eyes, Kamino is both their home and their training grounds, where their daily routine revolves around getting ready for war.
After a brief tutorial sequence, the player lands on Geonosis, but again, it doesn't have the same bright orange hue as its movie counterpart. Instead, Republic Commando's Geonosis is dirty and hazardous. Sand and mud slowly start to spread across Delta Squad's white Clone armor, and dark caves hide terrifying, tall Geonosians. This darker visual style persists throughout all of Star Wars: Republic Commando, with the lighting being used to elicit fear and a sense of realism at all times. This more mature tone is heightened with the use of blood and oil, which sprays on the player's visor when they engage in melee combat. The game's character models also emphasize danger and tension, with even standard B1 Battle Droids looking ominous, with decaying and rusting limbs.
Star Wars: Republic Commando's gameplay serves to cement this tone throughout the game. Republic Commando sees the player control a squad of three Clone Commandos, each with their own specialties. Through simple squad commands, the player can get their team to breach a door, hack a panel, take cover, or get in a turret. The real hook of Republic Commando is that it's deceptively difficult. A squad of B1 Battle Droids, or even just a single B2 Super Battle Droid, can often give the entire squad a run for their money.
Every single enemy unit in Republic Commando could mean death for the entire team if the player isn't being strategical enough, which adds a constant layer of tension to every single firefight in the game. The player constantly feels as though they're facing overwhelming odds, and that's pretty bleak for a Star Wars game. Throw some ominous choral chanting on top of that, courtesy of composer Jesse Harlin, and Star Wars: Republic Commando is one intense military shooter.
However, though Republic Commando's firefights remain intense throughout the entire 8-hour experience, the game isn't without its levity. Between all the action, Delta Squad takes the time to talk with one another, which often leads to some pretty funny exchanges. These small moments not only help to make each member of Delta Squad feel like a real, unexpendable character, but it also helps to keep the game a little lighthearted, which is vital in keeping that trademark Star Wars tone.
It's The Perfect Time for a Star Wars: Republic Commando Sequel
There's no denying that Star Wars: Republic Commando is still one of the most unique takes on the Star Wars universe, and it's about time that a sequel was made. Over the last few years, there's been more of a push from fans to try and make Star Wars a little more gritty and mature. While this wouldn't really be appropriate for the mainline series, with it having always been tailored around child audiences, the Star Wars spinoffs have dabbled a little with a darker tone.
Beginning with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story back in 2016, Star Wars has been slowly introducing more mature elements to the franchise. In Rogue One, audiences see a Rebel leader murder an informant, see every main protagonist get killed, see a nuclear-like blast obliterate the two main characters, and see Darth Vader decimate a hall full of Rebel soldiers. Rogue One may have still ended on a hopeful note, but it's a much more mature take on the Star Wars universe, an approach that the most recent Disney+ series, Andor, is also using.
Both Andor and Rogue One have shown that Star Wars fans are longing for more mature takes on the universe, and a Star Wars: Republic Commando sequel could fit that niche perfectly. With modern gaming engines, Republic Commando's darker visual style can evoke an even greater sense of foreboding and intensity, with much more realistic visuals making each enemy and environment more terrifying.
A sequel to Star Wars: Republic Commando would also fit a particular gameplay niche. Over the last decade or so, single-player squad-based shooters have practically died out, with even the face of the genre, Rainbow Six, turning into a multiplayer-focused experience. If the game doubled down on its squad commands and made those systems more complex, then a Star Wars: Republic Commando sequel could fill that squad shooter gap in the current gaming market, and thus stand out from the crowd even more than it already would.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is currently available on PC, Xbox, PS4, and Switch.