Republic Commando deserved a sequel

Star Wars has seen plenty of great games in recent years. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel are the best games to come out of Star Wars’ partnership with EA, and Star Wars Outlaws is an underrated gem that successfully translates Ubisoft’s open-world formula to a galaxy far, far away. But none of them fill the void left behind by Star Wars: Republic Commando, the best Star Wars game that never got a sequel.

Republic Commando takes place during the Clone Wars, a central conflict of the prequel trilogy. Instead of playing as canon-fodder regular clone troopers, you embody an elite clone commando nicknamed Boss. He’s the leader of Delta Squad, consisting of Republic Commandos Fixer, Scorch, and Sev. Together, they take on dangerous and important missions reserved for the best the clone army has to offer, like rescuing a Wookiee Chieftain. Republic Commando came out before the 2008 Clone Wars animated series, meaning it offered players one of their best looks yet at a foundational era and conflict in Star Wars. It also exemplified how freakin’ cool this universe is outside of Jedi, Sith, and lightsabers.

Its gameplay is top-notch, with excellent first-person shooting across a variety of levels, like a battle droid factory and the jungles of Kashyyyk. The level set on a derelict ship was incredibly creepy to 10-year-old me, and is still a bit scary now; separated from your brothers, you explore a ship shrouded in darkness and overrun by frightening, lizard-like Trandoshan slavers. Call me nostalgic, but I still rank Republic Commando as one of the best FPS games I’ve ever played.

And I’m not alone there. Polygon ranked it as one of the 10 Star Wars games every fan needs to play in 2021, and it pops up in rankings of the best Star Wars games from a variety of other outlets. Its 78 on Metacritic doesn’t do Republic Commando justice — people freakin’ love this game. That’s why it’s such a shame a sequel never manifested.

It wasn’t for lack of ideas on LucasArts’ part. According to lead developer Brett Douville, there were two stories in contention for a potential sequel. “In one, you would have played the side story of Revenge of the Sith and carried out Order 66, hunting down Jedi as a team. In the other, Sev would have been the first man in the Rebellion army — the tagline was something like, ‘Every Rebellion begins with a single soldier,’” he said in a 2016 interview (via Kotaku).

I don’t know about you, but I’d gladly play either of those games. (Though, the idea of hunting down Jedi as Boss & co. does admittedly sound rather dreary…). But a sequel wasn’t meant to be; Douville said LucasArts underwent a company-wide “reboot” before those ideas could be formally pitched. We all know what eventually happened a short time later: Disney bought Lucasfilm and everything underneath its umbrella in 2012, shuttered LucasArts’ development teams, and ceased development on several projects that were in the works, most notably Star Wars 1313.

Image: Aspyr, LucasArts/Disney

Since then, Star Wars fans had to endure EA’s exclusivity with the license, which resulted in only two Battlefront reboot titles, two Jedi games, and 2020’s Rogue Squadron in terms of console releases. Now that EA’s exclusivity has expired, Disney is free to license Star Wars to other studios, which has resulted in Star Wars Outlaws as well as a myriad of announcements for other games, such as Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, and the Knights of the Old Republic remake. More games from EA are on the way as well, including a third Jedi title and Star Wars Zero Company.

But nowhere in that list is a Star Wars: Republic Commando sequel. Hell, I’d even settle for a spruced up reboot at this point, if it meant a renewed spotlight on the game could potentially drum up interest in making a brand-new sequel. If a follow-up game never materializes, at least we have some Star Wars novels to enjoy that continue Delta Squad’s journey. While Karen Traviss’ Republic Commando series begins by following another batch of clone commandos, Omega Squad, the game’s Delta Squad become featured players starting in the second book, Triple Zero.

Republic Commando turns 21 today, March 1. To celebrate, let’s raise a pint to the best Star Wars game to never get a sequel.