This is a Jedi-free game, with the exception of a mention of Yoda at the end and a dead body with a lightsaber (that your character can't pick up). The game tells the story of Delta Squad, a group of four clone commando units fighting in the Clone Wars between Episodes II and III of the New Trilogy. Your commandos are the clone equivalent of special forces units, equipped with special bacta implants and personal force-fields, as well as the most advanced tactical weaponry the Galactic Republic has to offer.

Your squadmates each have a distinct personality. Sev, for instance, is the gung-ho, action-hero type, who revels in carnage and destruction. More importantly, they have some very good AI, useful in a game such as this where hordes of enemies are thrown at your group. Each will independently heal using bacta stations, provide covering fire, and intelligently use existing terrain cover to shield themselves from enemy fire. The enemies you fight in the game range from Trandoshan mercenaries and Geonosian warriors to super battle droids and droidekas. You have a variety of weapons that will become available to battle these foes, including numerous attachments to your standard DC17m blaster rifle, including a sniper attachment and an anti-armor attachment (a scope and explosive shells, respectively). In addition, you can pick up and use some enemy weapons, like Wookie bowcasters and Geonosian beam weapons.

As I said, the game can be punishingly hard at times, even on the easiest level of difficulty. I attribute this in part to my lack of skill with this genre, but also in part to the AI's inability to perform critical tasks without being specifically directed to do so. For example, one of the most difficult parts of the game is the several instances where your team is confined to a small space and pitted against droid dispensers that spit out super battle droids. These droids don't go down easily, unless you have ample ammo for your anti-armor attachment or a bountiful supply of grenades. You can order a squadmate to attach a demo charge to the dispenser but he'll usually get blown to pieces before the twenty seconds required to prime the charge have elapsed. The same thing happened to me (often) when I tried to simply do it myself. If you partially prime the charge, however, your squadmates will not run in and attempt to complete the activity. They will simply keep fighting, sniping, tossing grenades, and blasting at the droids until they're overwhelmed and succumb to superior enemy numbers and firepower.

An innovation that the game has involves player death mechanics. When your health is reduced to zero, you enter a state of torpor, where you are kept alive at a minimally-functional level (where your vision goes red and you can see in a very limited radius but not act in any way other than issue one of three commands to your squadmates) by your bacta implants. In effect, this means the game only ends if all four commandos are reduced to this condition. You can revive any fallen comrades using a defibrillator-type device.

As I mentioned, the story takes place prior to Episode III; it actually takes place (as you find out toward the end) very close to the beginning of Episode III. The end turns out to be a bit of a bummer, but it's still a good story, nonetheless.

Graphics are quite good, and the use of atmospheric sound and the chatter of your squadmates is uniformly good, as well. The only real quibble I have with the game is the difficulty (and that may be a personal issue).