Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

With the main films in the Star Wars franchise now well behind us, there has been a shift towards filling the gaps between some of the films, with the biggest shift been towards telling the story of the Clone Wars. Having spun off its own TV series and movie, LucasArts have begun to move back into the video game spectrum and bring with it the new style of Star Wars designed to appeal to a new generation of people who perhaps might have missed out on the films. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is the second in this particular line of the franchise to hit the Wii but is the force strong with this one?

Gameplay

Set between Episodes 2 and 3 of the new trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes continues The Clone Wars saga. The war with the Sith is now raging across the known galaxy and any bit of leverage the sides can get can ultimately sway the war in one sides favour. As a sign of good faith to the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt decides to part with some smuggling records which detail the activity of a group known only as the Separatists. With this information, it becomes clear that the war is covering more and more ground and so Obi Wan Kenobi travels to Naboo to meet with Senator Padmé Amidala to discuss the growing troubles of the region. At the same time, General Skywalker and an army of clone troopers are embroiled in a fight to discover what it is that the Separatists want and ultimately to stop their potentially damaging plot against the Republic forces.

Gameplay is split twofold: you'll get to the story from two sides, controlling Anakin Skywalker through half of the missions as well as taking control of the clone trooper commanders on the front line in the other half. As a result, the gameplay tries to set itself apart by showing variety in having these two distinct sections of the game but they unfortunately do nothing more than show a lack of ideas and imagination on behalf of the developer. The Jedi sections of the game pair you off with Anakin's apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, and you'll move around enemy lines to aid the progress of your troops by depleting droid numbers, taking down Clankers and other enormous mechanic structures and solving some minimal puzzle elements. The problem is that the action for all the fights quickly grows monotonous and when the game tries to show some ingenuity by allowing you to hijack the larger droids or their vehicles to use against the enemy, they're so poorly implemented it feels like an afterthought. These areas also prove problematic when simple platforming elements are introduced. I say simple but due to the level design, camera and controls, these quickly become a trial and error area where you'll find yourself dying over and over again just trying to land on the right platform. The game does try to aid you by automating some of the jumps but unless you're in the right spot it doesn't work. Yet these represent the highlights from the game. The clone trooper levels are worse, showing little in the way of ingenuity or originality at all. You'll control a single trooper through various levels blasting droids over and over until you reach the end. There's no deviation from this formula and even the drop-in/drop-out co-op, which is implemented throughout the entirety of the game, doesn't help to alleviate it. It does try to improve things a little by offering up in level challenges that can be played co-operatively to insight some form of competitive spirit between players but it never really manages it.

The game takes some liberties from the Lego Star Wars games though and once a level has been completed, you can replay them again with characters you can unlock by collecting points and buying them from the in game store. It's here that you can also upgrade your characters and their stats, with this a necessity as you progress through the latter stages of the game. Yet, even with these new characters and new and improved skills, the levels themselves still maintain their steady course and never deviate leaving very little in the way for replayability. Even with the main demographic being the younger gamer, this is severely lacking in that certain something to make it feel like a true Star Wars game.

Controls

The game makes use of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk giving you the option of either using motion controls or using standard button inputs, although some motion controls are mandatory. Playing as the Jedi means you can swing the Wii-mote to use your lightsaber attacks but because there is no skill to this, any and all mundane gestures replicate to on screen action making for a repetitive set up that feels unnecessary seeing as the B button does the exact same job without any gestures. As the clone troopers, you'll have to use the Wii-mote's IR pointer for aiming and it works well but it can be tricky getting the reticule and your fire to go where you want it as it doesn't seem to take into consideration that everything is on the same level as you. You will have to use more motion controls here though as the game's cover system requires you to flick the Nunchuk downwards to make you stick to some scenery or roll towards some scenery but it doesn't feel right and feels more like a gimmick that doesn't work. Overall, though, the controls aren't bad and are manageable. Problems do arise when you have to do platforming sections, however, as the jumping mechanic, assigned to the A button, seems to be automated at some sections while at others it just doesn't work and you'll be having to repeat sections over and over again due to the poor controls and camera here.

Graphics

The style of the TV series and the movie has been faithfully recreated by Krome Studios, albeit with a lower polygon count and much lower resolution textures. Character models portray an accentuated look and do look well done for the most part, looking like the respective characters and showing a good level of detail as well as decent animation. It is clear, however, that the character models have been shared assets as the colours used on them seem a little on the blocky side and don't blend as well as they should. Environments suffer a similar fate and while they too get the job done, they remain largely unimaginative in comparison to the things we've seen in either the films or the other games set within the franchise. Textures look muddy and due to both the fixed camera angles and the choices in the level design, it can be extremely hard to judge distances for the platforming sections. Lighting effects are decent though with the lightsabers and blaster fire glowing with the same intensity as it does in the other mediums. The game does manage to throw a considerable amount of foes at you at once but they're your standard droid designs seen throughout the franchise and the game chugs under the weight of these occurrences heavily, even when the number of enemies is still in the mid to high digit numbers.

Sound

The same sweeping orchestral soundtrack that became memorable in the earlier Star Wars films, and continues to take pride of place in The Clone Wars series, shows up here and sounds fantastic. It's dramatic and soothing when it needs to be, punctuating the game's action and cut scenes perfectly to the point where it feels as though it could itself have come from the films and quickly sets the mood. The voice work doesn't quite match the standard of the music, never really coming together as fluidly as the developers perhaps hoped it would but it gets the job done. Sound effects are very much akin to those heard in other Star Wars games and sound good. The Wii-mote's speaker is put to use to relay some of these, particularly the blaster sounds for the clone trooper sections of the game, however the quality and the overall repetition of these will grate and there's no way to turn them off. It therefore dampens the mood of the game somewhat.

Final comments

There are a lot of good Star Wars games out there and there are a lot of bad ones and unfortunately, this falls into the latter category. While trying to recreate the atmosphere and style of The Clone Wars series, which Krome Studios have managed to do well enough, the gameplay feels lacklustre and falls short of the excitement you should get from a Star Wars game. There are plenty of levels and a decent co-op option but because the game is so repetitive and frustratingly blank at times, you may find yourself switching off before the end. Younger gamers may well get something out of the game but its unlikely anyone else will.

Pro: Art style of the series is recreated faithfully, musical score is superb as always, drop-in/drop-out co-op does make the game slightly better
Con: Gameplay feels shallow and repetitive, controls aren't as reliable as they should be, frame rate and camera issues really hamper the game
Final score: 5.4

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