At first glance, Republic Commando plays like any regular first-person shooter, but there's lot going on here that gives it a tight, cohesive feel that really aids the immersive quality of the game. The first thing you'll notice is that the game takes a cue from Metroid Prime by placing you literally inside the helmet of a clone trooper, complete with visor, sensor readouts, and health and ammo displays. You'll even have blood or oil splatter on your faceplate when you kill something up close, and afterward an amusing electric windshield wiper will appear to clean the muck from your view. You can disable the visor if you want more viewing area, which makes the heads-up displays just hang in midair, but we found that the helmet view went a long way toward making us feel just like one of the clones.
A strong single-player campaign is the clear focus of Republic Commando, but the game will also ship with a multiplayer mode for 16 players online or split-screen with up to four players on the Xbox. You'll find the expected array of multiplayer game types from deathmatch and team deathmatch to capture the flag and assault, the last of which is an attack-and-defend game type where one team tries to breach the other team's base to score a point. It's safe to say that anyone who enjoys the fast-paced, accessible shooting action of the single-player game ought to get a lot of extra mileage out of the multiplayer mode in the game.
