Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (Xbox 360) Preview

Posted by Jon Seddon on 09.04.2009

We got the chance to play this co-op game at Gamescom and it proved a worthwhile experience.



Despite the fact that this is being published by Lucasarts and has the Star Wars name, this game shares none of the tech from Force Unleashed, which I found quite surprising.

The game is being developed by Krome Studios who developed the Wii exclusive, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels last year. This time around it will be releasing on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and DS.



The game is based on the TV series which has been storming the Cartoon Network and is set between the first and the second season. You get to play as either a Clone Trooper or a Jedi Knight as one of a 18 playable characters, including favorites like Captain Rex, Anakin and Oni-Wan. It is essentially designed for co-op and whilst this is drop-in and drop-out there is no online implemented in this demo. I asked the developers at Gamescom and they said they were still thinking about it. At this late stage though, this is unlikely to feature.

The demo has one mission where you play as Clone Troopers and one mission where you play as Jedi and both support local co-op.



The Clone Trooper level has you trying to reach escape pods on board a star ship that's imminently about to explode. Controls for Clone Troopers have an option twin stick shooting mechanic, which is actually pretty difficult to use. As an alternative you can use the Right Trigger but then shots go in the direction you are facing. You can also collect secondary weapons such as grenades, which can be aimed with Y, but in practice seem a little fiddly to use. If that fails you have a melee attack and you can also duck behind scenery if the fighting gets too intense. Other than the simple droid shooting game play you have a few electronic lock picking mini games, which, like the overall difficulty seem to be aimed at the younger player.

The Jedi level is just about traversing the level unleashing your simple force powers where you can. Controls seem even simpler, with jump, force push, saber attack and block being about it. On occasion you do get to jack droids, which allow you to take control of their weaponry or just destroy them. The puzzles for the Jedi mostly seem to be of the environmental type, e.g. jack a droid and use it's laser to make a pillar into a bridge.

There is a bit of collecting mechanic, with points given for each enemy you beat. Points mean prizes and in this case it's unlockable costumes from Lucasarts wardrobe, so expect to see a Luke Skywalker etc.



When watching the game being played it almost has a Lego Star Wars look to it, all be it with art assets taken from the animated series. This is also seen in the way that you don't really seem to be able to die - leaping into chasms see you re-spawn at a similar spot a second or two later. At times, the game looks pretty good, but at other times (more noticeably in the Clone missions) it looks very non-HD with prominent jaggies. The voices appear to be those from the show and help in the overall presentation.

The game risks being too easy, which could mean you either race through it, or it gets dull before you see it through to the end. If it manages to tell a compelling story though, it may prove an entertaining little diversion from the AAA titles this October.

Go and play it for yourself on Live!

Screenshots
All 22 Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes Screenshots