Operating System: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP Computer: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer required. CPU: Pentium III or Athlon 1.0 GHz or faster CPU required. Memory: 256MB RAM required. Graphics Card: 64MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) capability required. Sound Card: 100DirectX 9.0c compatible Audio Device. CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive required. Input Device: Keyboard and Mouse required. DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c is included on this CD. Installation: 2 GB of free hard disk space required. RECOMMENDED CPU: Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, or Athlon XP 2400 2.0 GHz or faster CPU recommended. Memory: 512MB RAM recommended. Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForceFX 5700 or higher. MULTIPLAYER SUPPORT Local Area Network Play: Supports up to 16 players via Local Area Network. Internet Play: Supports up to 16 players via 56Kps or

Introduction (from Lucasarts.com)

Star Wars Republic Commando is a squad-based first person shooter that lets you explore the elite world of the Star Wars military. Leading a 4-man squad of Republic Commandos, your missions take you deep behind enemy lines on over 14 intense and challenging levels through three different campaigns where you will face more than ten brutal enemies. You\'ll have more than a dozen deadly weapons at your disposal, but none more lethal than your squad. What makes the squad in Star Wars Republic Commando so unique is the game\'s innovative \'One Touch Squad Control\' system that allows you to engage your squad with just one button.

Graphics

Republic Commando is based off of the Unreal Warfare. Consequently, it has extremely good graphics. Everything has nice shadows. Characters look realistic, weapons look good, and the effects for everything look great. The demo has a lot of dark areas, with lights spaced throughout. Sadly, the lights are not destructible.

Squad Combat

Republic Commando?s feature that Lucasarts talks about the most is it squad control system. Throughout the levels, you have 3 other clone troopers following you around. Some areas have an outline of a soldier, by hitting the use key from any distance, one of your commandos will go over to it, and defend it. Or, if there are enemies around it, the commando will proceed to attack them. The AI is good, though not perfect.

Healing

One of the other unique features is that your characters never truly die, unless the entire squad is taken out. Once you or one of your commandos takes too much damage, they pass out, and one of your remaining troops will attempt to heal you. While they are healing you, however, they can still be attacked. When you are knocked out, you can still look around, but everything is extremely blurry.

Hud

Another feature, which you will either love or hate is the helmet. The HUD is setup as a clone trooper helmet, consequently, the bottom left and bottom right corners are completely obscured. It also adds a very slight distortion to the screen. If you are hit hard enough, the ?screen? gets a hole in it. It lasts for a few seconds and than a small laser repairs it

Weapons

The weapons are pretty decent. You start out with a clone trooper pulse rifle, which has quite a few modes. The main mode is a very fast firing laser rifle, it doesn?t do that much damage, but fires really fast. The next mode is a sniper rifle with a scope, it does a lot of damage, and is nearly perfect accuracy wise. After that, there is the grenade launcher, which launches some kind of energy bomb. When the ammo for that is used up, there is the ubiquitous pistol, which never runs out of ammo. In addition to these weapons, there are grenades that can be thrown by hitting a key, and a physical attack, which, depending on the weapon that you are using is either swinging your gun at someone, or a small knife gauntlet on your other hand that punches out. If you want more firepower, you can pick up one extra weapon, ranging from gatling guns to shotguns. The concussion rifle makes an appearance, and the effects for it are incredible.

Enemies

In the demo, there are small, flying robots that shoot lightening, and various types of Trandoshans. The trandoshans rely on swarming tactics and sniping. Some of them have Jetpacks, and will fly onto the screen. If you hit them in the jetpack, it will misfire. All in all, the enemies are nothing to be trifled with

Allies

Besides your squad, you have some wookie allies that help you out from time to time. They are quite fearsome in a fight, though they don?t look that much like wookies from some of the other star wars games and movies.

Sound

The sound is pretty good, with appropriate noises for weapons and explosions. All of your team members sound alike, which can?t be a complaint, seeing as they are all technically the same person.

Stability

The game was very stable, though it crashed quite a bit with the ATI Catalyst 5 drivers, reverting back to 4.12 fixed all crashes.

Appropriateness

This is a shoot-em up game, so violence is a given. There is blood whenever someone gets hit. If you are extremely close to an enemy when you shoot them, blood splatters onto your helmet, blocking part of your FOV until your laser ?windshield wiper? cleans it off. Because these are aliens, the blood is a rather fake shade of green. The d word is used a couple of times. Your commandos make quite a few, aggressive remarks, such as ordering wookies to pull arms off, (which they don?t actually do, it is a joke from A New Hope.).

Conclusion

If you aren?t offended by the above, it is a very good game. It was challenging. It will be interesting to see what the full game looks like. The length is a little short though, and some may not like having the game end in the middle of a cutscene. Good incentive to get the whole game.