Forums > Submission Feedback > honestgamer's Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes review

Not sure I agree with your assessment here. While I enjoy easy games, I agree there should be enough challenge to keep the player interested.

However, I think you have to consider the other side of the coin. If they made this game too hard, people would be calling out how this game in inconsistent. You play as a Jedi Knight, of course nothing should be challenging save a duel with a Sith Lord. We can't have the galaxy's protectors turned into mashed potatoes by a bunch of tin cans.

But I do agree that more focus should be made on the actual game play itself instead of throwing in dozens of check points as a duct tape solution.

I also like how you point out you almost need a wide screen TV to play the game effectively. Way to really go the extra mile.

As an avid Star Wars fans, I would be more perturbed if this game was difficult, because I would be one of those complaining about how a Jedi shouldn't have so much trouble.

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If you don't mind me saying, Jason, I think this review has issues that are due to a meandering start that Randxian also seems to have had trouble with.

I don't mind your designation of the game as easy. I like the fact that you, as always, point out where this was coming from in the developer's mind (12 year olds may not be as good as oldern gamers). Such points make your pieces come off as more professional because you are showing that you understand the mind of a developer and are not just a rabid fan who stumbled across the ability to code a site and write reviews. So, kudos for that.

But I think your point on difficulty is a bit confusing. Shortly after complaining that the game isn't hard enough (a complaint you manage fairly well but don't really drive home until you talk about checkpoints not resetting enemies... that brings to mind Bioshock) you suddenly complain that the jumps are too hard.

You manage to explain where you are coming from with the jumps and you sort've tie it back in with the checkpoints (though that switches it back to too easy again!), but for me it was a very awkward layout. Going from "too easy" to "too hard" (and ultimately back to "too easy") made it sound like you weren't really sure where you wanted the difficulty to lie, rather than making it sound like the developers didn't understand how to design a game.

It sounds like what you're really trying to say is that the designers built a game that was too hard but compensated by using checkpoints as a lazy man's fix. Or it might be that what you mean is that the difficulty level is all over the place thanks to some poor platforming sections and that developers use checkpoints as a lazy man's fix. In either case, it sounds like you should've started with that point rather than the line "the difficulty is too easy."

The last half of the review is much easier to follow, as it's the more traditional "this was good, but..." It might've been a little bit more formulaic, but it was easy to follow and I like the points you make because they seem fair and unbiased, leading me to believe that, ultimately, your review is trustworthy (and, hell, I know from personal experience that you know what you're talking about).

However, getting to that ending is a little rough. Just my thoughts.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Yeah, I too didn't particularly care for "The game is too easy", followed by "The platforming is too hard."

But I was able to brush that aside at least to some degree for a couple of reasons: I did get the impression the check points were indeed a lazy fix. Also, you mention that the player would be at a disadvantage with a smaller TV. Okay, I'll buy that.

Again, my main problem is given the subject matter of the game, Jedi Knights, most Star Wars fans would expect them to breeze through just about anything. It's almost as if you put too much effort into addressing the average gamer and not the Star Wars fan. I mean who is really going to be interested in this game besides people who have watched the movies several dozen times and can quote all six cannon espides frontwards and backwards?

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It doesn't matter that you're playing as an all-powerful Jedi. As we know from the films, Jedi warriors die, particularly against the enemies that they're facing in this game. If the game is not difficult--and it isn't--then that's out of line with the reality that Lucas and company presented in the second and third episodes (and likely the cartoon series itself, which I've not seen).

The jumps that I mentioned aren't really difficult at all because the game ensures that you never need to make more than a few at once without a checkpoint. I fell into pits with some frequency, for the reasons mentioned in the review, but I wasn't going back and forth on difficulty in my review. Perhaps I need to make that clearly, but my intent wasn't to contrast anything. The jumps are difficult to judge but they don't make the game itself difficult because death is frequent and meaningless.

I thought about BioShock in this case, but honestly BioShock isn't really a fair comparison because BioShock was a compelling game with plenty of remaining difficult despite the vita chambers. Star Wars is not compelling and there's no difficulty, not even a real penalty for dying. If it weren't for a few puzzles throughout that require occasional ingenuity, a blindfolded chimp could probably beat this game.

I didn't want to go too deep into a lot of the points mentioned in this thread because even though I could, the review would have drug on forever. This is one of those bad games where a person could feel pages, but I was trying to keep length down to a lower number and I also didn't have much time to write it. Thanks for reading, and I'm glad that ultimately my points came across. My goal wasn't necessarily to make you agree with me or my general concept on the game's difficulty. Rather, I was trying to give the reader a feel for how the game plays so that he could make up his own mind. From what I can tell, we all three agree that I've done so.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Well, we sort've agree. The end result is good, as a whole, but I still think that particular grouping of paragraphs is awkward.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

It doesn't matter that you're playing as an all-powerful Jedi. As we know from the films, Jedi warriors die, particularly against the enemies that they're facing in this game.

Yeah, but at the end of Episode 2, they were friggin outnumbered like a 1000 to 1. In Episode 3, the Clone Troopers turned on them without warning. Remember the line in Episode 4 about how Han Solo mentions the living are much more dangerous than remotes? Living Clone Troopers are far more dangerous than droids, especially when they have the element of surprise.

Given normal, usual circumstances, the Jedi kick ass. Yes, I realize I sound like a rabid Star Wars fanboy here, but I'm proud of it. :D

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After reading the review, I don't see an issue with the parts about difficulty. It sounds like the game is insultingly easy, but there are some jumps that can kill you just because of bad design. Those are times when I prefer to use the word "challenge". A game can be difficult but not challenging, usually as the result of poor design.

Regarding the Jedi bit, the Jedi knights kicked ass because they were masters of their craft. If a Jedi leapt into battle with droids and failed to use any of their super-awesome abilities or attack methods, and just swung blindly, they'd most likely die. It's like the strongest of the feudal samurai; they were masters of their craft, but they had to always be on top of their game or even a lowly bandit could cut them down.

Even the more challenging foes can often be killed in a hit or two if you jump onto their backs and press the 'Triangle' button, or if you rush in and swing your lightsaber like a man possessed.

It sounds like this game doesn't expect players to fight intelligently in the style of a Jedi master; people can simply run in like a loon who got his hands on a lightsabre.

As an aside, I thought the Jedi massacre in Episode III was really lame. Even caught by surprise, some of those deaths were pathetic and made the Jedi look weak!

//Zig

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Spoiler: the new star wars movies were terrible.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Episodes 1 and 2 could've been better. Episode 3 is awesome. The Clone Wars is good for what it's worth. Yeah, The Clone Wars is not a great movie, but it does have a lot of action and the Jedi kicking ass, which is all that matters in my book.

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