The night vision mode and the visor “wipe” still hold up really well. Character models are detailed enough to pass in 4K on the Xbox One X (especially the droids) and the environments do well thanks to good use of lighting and effects. Some HUD elements like the grenade icons are the worst offenders and could do with some tweaks on the filtering side if that’s even possible. In backward compatibility the game does benefit from an enhanced resolution and what appears to be a steady frame rate however that same improvement also exposes the low detail textures and art assets which can be blurry up close. The load screens between these areas aren’t terribly intrusive now and on Xbox One X they barely last a few seconds which is a nice step up from loading off a DVD on the original console. Some sections open with a short scripted event to reveal a new environment or set the appropriate tone – it’s a technique used well in other games of the era such as the aforementioned Halo CE and one we’d later see used to great effect on the 360 generation with the excellent Rainbow Six Vegas. It does mean that there isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to deviate from the path the designers have laid out but the game encourages you to keep moving forward constantly so you rarely have time to stop and consider your options beyond each door you want to breach or hack. Levels in the game are mostly small discrete areas that are chained together with a narrative and it works really well. Each of the clones have their own distinct personality which is a trait that the franchise later used to great effect a couple of years later in The Clone Wars series. Set after Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones the game put the player in the role of a squad leader of three highly trained clone soldiers who are sent on dangerous missions for The Republic.
One of these was an old favourite of mine from the original Xbox days so I thought it was time to revisit LucasArts’ 2005 shooter Star Wars: Republic Commando and see how it holds up. With the new month here another batch of Games with Gold titles arrived too. EDIT: this post was previously published as “Playing Republic Commando on Xbox One X”.
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