Remembering the good old days when I played endless hours of LEGO Star Wars: The Videogame on the PlayStation 2 made me excited for the biggest LEGO Star Wars game in history. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga completes the fans’ thirst for brick building escapades in an authentic Star Wars experience like no other. With a whole voice-over cast, TT Games went on full blast with their classic LEGO humor that makes every moment hilariously entertaining.
The studio has developed tons of LEGO games, from beating up thugs in LEGO Batman to casting spells in LEGO Harry Potter. The Skywalker Saga is a culmination of all those games, wrapped tightly in a new gameplay experience and visuals. They have changed the LEGO formula to freshen everything up to pave way for more LEGO games this generation.
There have been massive changes to how the gameplay works in The Skywalker Saga. With an all-new camera system, lightsaber action has never been so fun and exciting. Slashing through droids and enemies with a lightsaber combo has never felt so satisfying. It may just be simply smashing the Square button (or X button on Xbox Series X), but the animation, plus cool quick-time events are great enough to watch the whole thing unfold.
Shooting feels natural, especially with the implementation of the third-person shooter over-the-shoulder formula that fits right well. Unlike previous LEGO Star Wars games, you can now duck behind cover, securing those neat headshots like an expert space mercenary gunslinger and pop off those LEGO heads; a nice added touch to this is the game lets you wear a Clone Trooper or Stormtrooper’s helmet and body armor — it even works like a disguise where enemies won’t even shoot at you. You can breeze through a level without getting shot, it was fun when I discovered that during my playthrough in Tantive IV with Leia and a Rebel soldier.
The addition of small-scale space exploration stretches the gameplay aspect. Space battles can randomly happen between the two major factions, you can help win the skirmish of the good guys to get some Studs. You can even destroy asteroids to get Kyber Bricks for your upgrades. You can relive some of the iconic space battles like the Death Star trench run from A New Hope and the battle over Naboo from The Phantom Menace, but some of you may be disappointed that the battle over Coruscant after the Revenge of the Sith opening crawl wasn’t in the game… because I certainly was.
The slick controls make the game even more responsive, especially at 60 frames per second. Aiming doesn’t feel dragging, starship controls are greatly polished, and lightsaber combat feels so natural even if you’re just tapping a button.
TT Games surprisingly included an upgrade tree for abilities. While they’re a nice addition to give that sense of purpose on collecting studs and specific items like datacards and Kyber Bricks, they don’t matter much if you’re only completing the story.
Core Upgrades help you get Studs quicker and even increase your health and damage. Character upgrades are locked into their specific class. There are 9 classes in total: Jedi, Hero, Scavenger, Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter, Villain, Dark Side, Astromech, and Protocol Droid. Some of these upgrades are tied to getting discounts when purchasing hints or rumors for Scoundrels, faster sprints when running if you’re using a Jedi character, and the ability to detect enemies through walls for Bounty Hunters.
The nature of LEGO games doesn’t include the complexity of ability upgrades or skill trees, but the inclusion of such game design enhances the overall experience. The days are gone when you need to be closer to the studs to get them, making the task more convenient all thanks to the Attract Studs upgrade.
The Skywalker Saga deviates from the good old days of the distanced fixed camera for something a lot more immersive. The camera now sticks closely behind the characters, showcasing how detailed each of them are, and every action they do, may it be shooting behind a cover or wielding a lightsaber battling Count Dooku on the planet Geonosis, you get to love the action you see on the screen.
The impressive visuals are showcased in every location you visit. From the lava ashes of Mustafar to the densely populated area of Coruscant, the game is teeming with life and a lot of stuff to discover. All thanks to the new camera overhaul, I’m able to appreciate all the level of detail the studio has put into the game.
It sucks that ray-tracing isn’t supported, it would have made the entire game look more catchy; but even with the absence of ray-tracing technology, the technique used to reflect the lightsaber’s glare that bounces on every object in the environment captures that Star Wars vibe perfectly.
TT Games has fully realized the entire Star Wars universe in LEGO form, and I love every single block and brick the game has to visually offer.
The Skywalker Saga wouldn’t be a LEGO game without its iconic collectibles. This is what LEGO games are all about — collecting crazy amount of Studs, finding all minikits for those micro ships, Kyber Bricks for your upgrades, and datacards for those sweet modifiers that will either enhance the experience or make the entire playthrough enjoyable. This gives you a solid reason to get back into the game, and I’m still having fun looking for all of them.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga reinvents the LEGO video game formula and revitalizes the entire franchise with something much more than what its predecessors offered. It’s crazy fun, and undeniably engaging, The Skywalker Saga is now the pinnacle of LEGO games in history.
