Star wars: Republic Commando

Here Defender, I uploaded the first part of my attempted Assault ship run because I think you can see how you can quickly get past the door in the beginning part which saves ~1-2 seconds and can be done with a few tries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo4G6HKg0j0

I won't be completing the rest of this run. I've got a contract with the Navy for the rest of the year, so I'm dropping this speed run attempt. If i don't get enough verifiers in the next few days this run won't go up on SDA as I need Nate's mailing address and I cannot get that until there are enough verifiers.

Cheers anyway, good luck Defender if you choose to finish your run. I hope you find every bug and glitch you can to save time.

Edit: I'm going to post up my comments since they will likely not be seen on SDA. They were written for a broad audience at the time. Feel free to watch them with the youtube run.
Comments:

Prologue: Hi, this is my Republic Commandos speed run of Geonosis. First a few self-imposed questions, why did I stop after running Geonosis and not do the last two chapters? (Assault ship and Kashyyyk?) Answer: After undertaking the run I soon felt that I wouldn't have enough time to pour into making an entire run. Geonosis is a good compromise.

Why did you want to speed run Republic Commandos in the first place? Answer: While playing it, I felt like I could speed run it one day and so I decided to, first it was for my own glory, and then I focused on the idea that other people would like to watch a republic commandos speed run too.

I choose Easy difficulty based on the recommendation of Defender who is doing a full speed run of the game on medium difficulty. After trying out the first level I decided that easy difficulty is great that while the enemies still pose a challenge it allows for quicker route planning and shorter times all round without having to plan around them as much. The segments were rerun many times to achieve the results. The AI is very good in this game and that leaves for a lot of room for error and random quirks.

Republic Commandos is an interesting game and can be very entertaining. It revolves around four squad mates, Fixer, Sev, Scorch, and you, Delta 38. Scorch is the sarcastic comedy relief, while Sev is the macho warrior and growls when he talks. Fixer is the smart guy (somewhat), and is the technician expert, Sev is the sniper, and Scorch is the demolitions expert.

Being a Star Wars game, Republic Commando already has much back story and you can instantly recognize a lot of the animations, armor and enemies from the movies. Battle droids are clumsy and do silly animations while they die, Super battle droids (SPD's) are tough and even kill the regular droids off-hand like in the movies. The developers really put a lot of effort into making this game and I believe Star Wars fans will especially enjoy the traditional Star Wars orchestra numbers that are featured.

Introduction: The first in-game scene brings you from your childhood as a clone trooper into adulthood with your squad.

Geonosis: Extreme Prejudice
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g3ymL1wxXhw
You start docked in a Republic assault ship being deployed in an Republic attack gunship. During this scene you are tasked with eliminating the Geonosian leader Sun Fac. After that I hit the ground and no matter what I do at this stage there is no rush as there is a timer before I am injured and must use bacta. After proceeding onwards through a couple clone troopers I encounter a wall intended to prevent you from moving on until all battle droids are eliminated in the area. Instead I found a nice crevice that even allows me to gain momentum while jumping over top. When you meet up with Scorch you can optionally run along the left hand wall and bypass the bridge but you need to trigger a meeting zone with Scorch beforehand so I can only go the long way. Scorch is obedient here and doesn't waste any time when I order him to demo the bunker.

While running this area I accidently hit the button for night vision once. I liked the ambience it added to the scene so I kept it in.

Geonosis 2: Into the Hive
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QBFtJSjkGn4
I travel along until I meet up with Fixer, who has an impressive introduction as they all do. This area also boasts his hacking ability, but unfortunately all hacking times are the same for every squad mate. I hack through the terminal myself and through many more doors in the future to save time. We spot some Geonosian fighters and are ordered to take them out. The amount of time that it takes before the destroyed Geonosian fighter wreck vanishes depends, I've examined this and I found that it's randomly timed with perhaps a slight dependence on if anything is shooting it. Only once in many attempts has it ever exploded away from the boxes leaving me free to get by without being an obstacle.

As a speed runner you get the opportunity to see how the game you run fares under quick pacing and possible glitches, in this game you will see many times where character dialogue overlaps each other, hear misplaced comments about who did an certain action, and see enemies spawn right before your eyes. During loading screens the game records your mouse movements and key strokes. So, when it loads you can start with the correct grenade type, weapon and direction to be pointed in. I use this a couple times to be pointed in the correct direction but keep my grenade switching transparent for the viewer to see. Republic Commandos is quite a solid game and doesn't house many exploitable glitches.

Geonosis 3: The Strength of Brothers
We repel from the ledge to witness an acrobatic Sev leap down from an incredibly small rock outcropping onto a Geonosian and then vault over to kill the next, dodging two staff swipes in the process. It may be astounding to consider the idea that he stayed up there for hours just to impress us when we arrived. After giving us the trademark okay sign I break through the glass quickly, as that is the trigger point, and run along a box of grenades along the way to the door. At one point in this area the game glitched and the doors were stuck half-way shut, it might have allowed for some interesting maneuvers, but unfortunately I didn't save in time nor reproduce it again.

I must get my squad mates to the second door quickly as I cannot breach the door myself. Sev takes down Sun Fac in his fighter while I heal up the rest of my squad. They'll need the health because they're all going to die in the next segment.

Geonosis 4: Infiltrate the Droid Factory
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iom-HoS4rF4
After the briefing is over I storm through the rooms to access the jamming device console. My movements and commands help to ensure that there will be a squad member near the console device when I give the command to place an explosive device on it. I might be coldhearted here, allowing my squad mates to get swarmed as I get out alive. Squad mates that are knocked down spawn in the next stage with one-third health. Interestingly the game makes me pause at the end so that I cannot move, once I had an armada of battle droids hitting me with shots while the advisor briefed me on my next task.

Geonosis 5: The Heart of the Machine
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vZSiGd6842Q
Having all squad mates at low health made it very difficult to get the cover fire that I needed to protect me in this part. I set up two sniping positions and manage to get 62 at full health. "Geonosian filth...” I mumble as I fiddle away on an explosive charge as my squad mates die.

It's easy to get your health whittled away to nothing fast in this areas if the elites focus on you, but I'm blessed to not get one scratch. 62 gets on the sonic turret at full health which helps me tremendously as usually most of my squad mates are dead or at low health at this point. The falling pillar is very dangerous because the collision box is a bit too big and will kill you if you are too close when it falls. I stand back somewhat until it's settling in the ground.

Geonosis 6: Destroy the Factory
The bridge that I walk on had a strange A.I. bug happen on it once, I called "form up" way too late along in the ventilation shaft and 62 and Sev didn't make it. I gave the command a few more times and 62 disappeared from off my HUD, when I went back down to investigate Sev was floating a foot and a half to the left of the bridge trying to run his way over to me. I'm not sure what happened.

Explosives are inconsistent in this game. Sometimes the explosive radius is very large, sometimes it's negligible, sometimes it deals a massive amount of damage and sometimes it doesn't. Here I can press up against the grate with no damage.

After hacking the console, the advisor won't let me proceed until both SPD's are destroyed. It is only good to toss one EC detonator here because while the total damage done is cumulative, the rate of damage done isn’t; therefore I finish them off with a thermal detonator and some knifing. I heal myself, 07 and 62 and don't worry about 40 here because nothing transitions to the next level.

The room of battle droids do activate, so I destroy them all with a grenade to get the squad mates through quicker. An impressive alternative to this is to run down the left hand row of them, slicing them down one-by-one with your wrist blade. I hoped to have it in the final run but it wasn't as efficient. The rest of the level runs very well and I do not die near the end.

Geonosis 7: Advance to the Core Ship
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Kg_KRufUY
The whole squad is fully healed and stocked with ammunition at the beginning of this level. My mission here is to head to the Core Ship to retrieve the launch codes. I enjoy fighting some Geonosians in the canyon as I have to wait until the briefing ends to be able to place the demolition charge. After it blows I jump over some wreckage and get around the bend where I task 62 as a sniper so that I can survive placing an demo charge.

Geonosis 8: Canyons of Death
My goal here is to get to the gateway quickly while trying to retain my health and the squads. After a Geonosian lands on the ground they choose to do a few things, either squeal at you, jump to the side, leap over you, or attack you. In this case a Geonosian jumped to the side and couldn’t be hit by my knife attack.

Geonosis 9: To Own the Skies
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mZG5JZuqUuw
The beginning needs to be precisely executed, two sonic grenades at the feet of each SPD and one in the middle is enough to kill them both and in just enough time to reach the demolition spot when it is made available, two squad mates heal up in the mean time. I am careful when throwing grenades at the SPD's feet as if they are thrown too close they dissappear.

I hesitate to blow up the ammunition racks here. If you blow the the charge too quickly the doors take longer to blow in, if you wait a few seconds they are blown in much earlier.

After we shut the two windows there is an odd trigger which doesn't allow you to place the explosives if you are infront of the ammunition loading area too early. Here it is timed correctly and I wait for just enough time after the last window is shut to be able to place it right away. Failing to do this timely caused the failure of many runs in this part as there is no redemption if you run too early. If you are attentive, you will hear Scortch and his Episode IV reference.

The EC detonator thrown saves much time here. The two droids are caught before they open the windows and it disables the two SPD's. I finish one off and order a door breach and heal for the next level. Sev tarries a bit, but because your squad breaches doors quicker than you do and include a grenade in the door breach maneuver it's beneficial for me to wait.

Geonosis 10: Territory
http://youtube.com/watch?v=esw35_zRsDs
This is the longest segment I do. There is a lot that can go wrong, but I am blessed and the segment plays out very well. The Spider Droid goes down quite quickly and I am hit by some missiles in an attempt to get inside quicker. After hacking the bridge console, I give the 'secure area' command next to the bacta dispenser which makes all squad mates heal themselves automatically. Sev almost didn't manage to get his turn.

Geonosis 11: Infiltration of the Core Ship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufi6OUVtGfc
This first area requires a quick run through, a bit of dialogue is intermingled and quite a bit of time is spent riding the elevators. The mayhem comes when you spike the droid manufacturing system and the facility falls apart. Near the end the SPD would have been slammed by the falling rack if I wasn't so quick.

Geonosis 12: Waking the Giant
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2lZSvjh_Hxw
I need to reload my sniper rifle in the beginning to prepare for a Geonosian elite later on. The droid dispensers are used to drop ontop a couple droidekas. The grenades I throw and rapid 'follow me' commands I use to get the squad mates through the crowd of droids quickly. A working droid dispenser falls, but isn't dangerous enough to warrant spending enough time to get it destroyed. The encounter with the Geonosian elite needed to be fast so that I can pick up its weapon quickly. Sev and 40 are vital in taking care of the two Geonosian elites that spawn when you hack the console. Stepping to the corridor's entrance triggers the arrival of the Spider droid. In most runs it's quick to kill the rear sniper position so I need to trigger it's proximity blast to keep it from firing. For some reason here it did it twice without further prompt. I'm very happy that another beam cannon is dropped right before me, and this saves much time. I secure the area around the bacta, move onward, and take advantage of the glitch which allows the elevator to depart with only yourself in it. "All aboard!"

Geonosis 13: Belly of the Beast
http://youtube.com/watch?v=86577Qbcy9I
In this level there is an abundance of DC-17M blaster clips and this allows me to exploit my anti-armor attachment for all it's worth. Droidekas can be one-shotted and the SPDS get ripped apart. Afte working my way to the bridge I run to the console and station the sniper positions. When Scorch gets near enough I switch to him. Then I participate in some one-sided combat. I head to the door before Scortch is finished hacking and run down the corridor just as the ship is being blown apart only to get rescued in the nick of time.

This is the end of my Republic Commando Geonosis speed run. I hope you enjoyed it!