SW: Republic Commando

[Krakrok]

Anyone else thoroughly unimpressed by the Republic Commando demo?

The intro cut scene seemed cool enough dropping to the Wookie planet but once I got there I thought the graphics looked like total crap. The aliens look like walking green turds with silver "armor" and the guns were pathetic at best. You know those movies where everything is dark? Republic Commando is like that. "If we make it dark all the time it will look more real!" Except compared to say Jedi Academy or even Halo I think it looks like ass.

The default blaster rifle doesn't even feel like it is shooting anything (as in the sound was lacking and it looks like a paper cutout) some blue lines go out and it takes forever to kill the aliens with it. The grenade launcher and the shotgun weren't much better. Even the chain gun you loot off the boss had no feeling like I was actually shooting anything. Press the button, a yellow line goes out, and if you're lucky the enemy dies before you run out of ammo. If that was a chaingun I'm Captain America.

Ammo. I was always running out of ammo. I don't know if I just suck or what but I never had any and always had to keep switching guns to one that had some. Most of the time I had none and I kept having to grab an enemy weapon and use it until it ran out which was pretty quick. The ammo pallets that I did find blended in with the level and were hard to see not to mention the fact that they hardly held any ammo to begin with.

The AI of the standard alien was pathetic at best. In the first area where the turret was once you breach the door you can stand there forever and the aliens just keep spawning in it seems (same with the ambush tunnel). Towards the end of the demo they mostly stood around and wouldn't chase me back down a tunnel even though there was at least 8 of them. I never did see what happened to any of the wookies I rescued they just seemed to disappear. But if you get close to the standard alien they pull their swords and kill you in one swing it seemed.

Suffice to say I was also unimpressed by the 3 other commando's which were suppost to be on my team.

Am I just smoking crack or is this game ass?

[SirBruce]

I don't know about the rest of your review, but gamma complaints are always crack-fueled.  It's impossible to release a game that will have the appropriate gamma level for all machines; if you find a particular game too dark, just turn your fucking gamma up.

Bruce

[Rodent]

Tried the Xbox demo that came with Kotor 2. Seemed like a pretty decent game to me.

[Krakrok]

I don't know about the rest of your review, but gamma complaints are always crack-fueled.  It's impossible to release a game that will have the appropriate gamma level for all machines; if you find a particular game too dark, just turn your fucking gamma up.

I've never had to adjust gamma on any other game. Ever. If I adjust the gamma and black is now washed out the game is too dark. The explosions aren't too dark and neither is the weapons fire.

[stray]

Tried the Xbox demo that came with Kotor 2. Seemed like a pretty decent game to me.

Same. What I played, I thought was pretty good. Maybe we've inadvertently dropped our "standards" by having an XBox? PC only people always find more things to complain about. Especially graphics.

Then again, I only gave it one quick run through.

[Krakrok]

I think I figured out the main reason I don't like it. I am playing it like a FPS but it feels like it should be played more tactically than that. Almost as if it needs a pause button or to be turn based. For example, in the first tunnel where you are cut off the enemies just keep respawning on the catwalk and you sit there and kill them until you run out of ammo and die. The real goal though is to find the door and tell a squad member to blow it so you can escape. If you play it like a FPS this isn't logical. If you play it more tactically it is.

The funny thing about the FPS/tactical thing is their PR person or one of the devs states the complete opposite in a preview done by Gamers Temple:

Heather: Republic Commando is all about Action - not tactical micromanagement, pause menus, and tedious inventory selection. Your squad is a very effective weapon and - like a weapon - is very easy to use. You never have to pause the game and spend 5 minutes worrying about where they are, who has the grenade, and trying to get everyone where they should be. It is much more about running and gunning with 3 elite squad members at your disposal who you can quickly assign to maneuvers and control with commands to help you take down the enemy targets.

[SirBruce]

I don't know about the rest of your review, but gamma complaints are always crack-fueled.  It's impossible to release a game that will have the appropriate gamma level for all machines; if you find a particular game too dark, just turn your fucking gamma up.

I've never had to adjust gamma on any other game. Ever.

Yes, and I never had to upgrade DirectX in any other game... ever... until, well, until I did.  Deal with it.

If I adjust the gamma and black is now washed out the game is too dark. The explosions aren't too dark and neither is the weapons fire.

I agree.  You either adjusted the gamme too far, or you need to adjust one of your other settings.

Bruce

[eldaec]

Internet Forum Tip: never complain about a game being too dark or assclowns appear from nowhere and start an irrelevant discussion about gamma.

What you probably meant is that the environment suffers from insufficent contrast. (and adjusting gamma to solve this problem just results in blacks turning light grey).

But I didn't think the demo sucked espeicially.

[MaceVanHoffen]

I would just like to point out that calling someone an assclown is one of the greatest contributions of the Internet.  Damn funny.

PS- Although I liked the demo of the game, I concur with the OP: it's too dark on my system.  Feel free to denigrate my utter lack of gamma uberness.