A video game so beloved by fans the leads were brought into the new Star Wars canon with The Clone Wars TV show. LucasArts' Republic Commando released in quite possibly the best Star Wars years ever in 2005, which saw the release of several other Star Wars titles, plus the concluding chapter of the Prequel Trilogy with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Republic Commando wasn't your bog-standard FPS title though. A tactical shooter that had more in common with Ubisoft's classic Rainbow Six titles than Call of Duty or Battlefield, the game put players in the shoes of an elite commando unit in the Grand Army of the Republic, commanding a team of three other clones as they go behind enemy lines and carry out top-secret missions.
The game had a fantastic sense of scale and atmosphere, and a surprisingly engaging story. Plus, it made the battle droids of the prequels a genuine threat, with super battle droids and droidekas requiring special attention, and different engagements requiring you to manage your squad properly.
Republic Commando is something of a bittersweet title though, with the story ending on a huge cliffhanger that leaves the fate of one of your squad-mates up in the air. (Don't worry Sev, we haven't forgotten about you!)
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
