Just Another Level

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Republic Heroes

It was inevitable that I would pick up this game and at least try to enjoy it.Star Wars has always been an interest of mine and the cover did have me curious if they would go as far as to do something first person shooter style with the clones. Of course, considering it is based off The Clone Wars animated series.... It all ended up in disappointment. I will start off this review by saying this game was made for children. Ages 11 to 14 will thoroughly enjoy the action/adventure style gaming and has challenges that could put their skills to the test. I personally am not a fan of The Clone Wars animated series, so there will be a section at the bottom for nerd-ish star wars rantings. But, I am going to set aside those differences for now and review the game.



At First Glance
 This is one of those games that is obviously bad. Looking at the cover and the pictures in the back is enough to say, "Yea, this game is just advertisement shit." You don't even have to read it to know it is crap. But, I gave it a shot and got a few achievements out of it. The graphics are something you could see on a playstation 1 so don't get too excited by the looks. It is a very badly put together mess and was obviously meant for children with low attention spans. You might be better off picking up a Lego star wars game.. Or, maybe playing one of the "Knights of the Old Republic" games on the original xbox.

The Story (Or lack of)
 Usually when I play a game I expect to be partaking in a new adventure or at least one that is unfinished (A sequel to past endeavors?). Republic Heroes is not the start nor the end of a story. Instead, it is sort of a filler episode in the middle that they created for kicks and giggles. Realizing that didn't come till the end of the game and I was very displeased to find out the story meant absolutely nothing and did nothing for progression of the original story. It is a standard good vs evil concept where your characters (The Jedi and the Clones) are out to stop the evil plans of Kul Teska and Sith Lord Count Dooku along with his apprentice Asajj Ventress. With so much to expand on in the star wars universe, why in gods name did you decide to just make a filler episode? Come on LucasArts... You can do better than that.

Gameplay
 This looks like a playstation 1 game and plays like a playstation 1 game. It makes me wonder why they even bothered putting it out for all the new gen consoles. It is pretty easy to control your characters, but when jumping around it sometimes auto guides you and sometimes you just fall off the edge. It is annoying since you never know if it will auto guide you to the ledge or if you are just going to fall to your death. Don't expect to get through this game without dieing multiple times. There are skills you achieve by getting points and paying for it, but they are all essentially quite easy to get. With those points you may also buy useless items like hats and big heads that don't look quite right on your character. And, you may also buy dances that the droids can do. Another somewhat useless purchase but if there is an achievement involved I am all for it. This is a choppy game that hardcore gamers would find very unacceptable. Kids would love it, but I am sure they are less likely to care so long as it is something to play.

Overall Rating - 4/10 : It is obvious why I gave it such a low rating. There were very few amazing parts in this game (were there any?) and it will just leave you frustrated that the story did not progress to anything exciting. It is just like playing a filler episode of a series and not finding any high action points. If you are looking for easy achievements this is the way to go, but otherwise just give it to a younger sibling and don't bother. Huge waste of time.

Star Wars Nerd-banter
 I have a lot of beef with this game. A LOT of beef. I have a lot of issues with The Clone Wars series in general but this will be quite a refresher on why I hate it so much.

1. Ahsoka Tano - This is one of the most pointless and most annoying characters in the star wars universe (With jar jar as an exception). Anakin shouldn't and didn't have a padawan. Her main reason and purpose was to be some sort of comic relief and appeal to children. According to the story the padawan was assigned to anakin so he might not be so wild and learn to settle down as a teacher. However, when we get to episode 2 Anakin has returned as Obi Wan's apprentice. There is a rule of 2 in the jedi order. One master, one apprentice. You can't just decide to be both a master and an apprentice. She dissapears out of no where when the tv series ends and there is no telling what happened to her in between the television series and the movies. Why leave a loose end like that? It could have all been avoided and she really didn't hold much of a purpose anyways.

2. Aayla Secura - Why does she have a french accent?

3. Jabba the Hutt - In one of the few cut scenes Jabba the hutt is portrayed as a blue tint. This isn't a big issue but something I noticed right off the bat. The only Hutt that was actually blue was Borvo the hutt. Hutts come in many tints and colors. It shouldn't be so hard to make jabba the dusty brown color we all recognize him as. Were they just being lazy?