Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Review

Well, I’ve done it. After around 75 hours, I’ve 100% completed the largest Lego game to date. I’d say I have a pretty good standpoint to review this game; I personally, like many others playing, grew up loving the original Lego Star Wars games on the Playstation 2. I’ve also, since that time, consistently bought and played almost all Lego games released up until now, usually to 100% completion. On top of this, there is a massive amount to talk about with this game, given its galaxy-spanning amount of content.

The enormous scale is by far the game’s biggest strength. Name any planet in the main films, and you can travel there and explore its faithful, brick based recreation. You want to help Jawas fix their faulty droids? Watch the band play at Mos Eisley Cantina? Then just hop in a ship and go. Each planet has its own set of collectible Kyber bricks (Gold bricks are GONE), ships and characters, the latter of which accumulate to a whopping 320 different playable aliens, droids and fan favourites. To say TT Games had a lot of source material to work with is obvious, I mean this blockbuster franchise has been going since 1977, but the inclusion of so much does make the game seem almost endless, especially for those not going for 100% completion.

In comparison to the past few main Lego titles, such as DC Super Villains, it feels we’re experiencing an evolutionary next step. Whilst the aforementioned Batman spinoff felt very much like a spiritual successor to Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 in almost every gameplay aspect, there isn’t a Lego game like this one. It feels like more time went into the development of this than any before it, even Lego City Undercover, which is still my favourite, largely in part to the incredible open world. If you were to go back now and play those original Lego Star Wars games, they’d feel miniscule in comparison. There’s more freedom in how you approach levels, with differing paths to be taken and individual challenges for the 5 levels of each film. The interconnectedness of traversing the galaxy and entering these levels feels seamless, and while the levels in question are smaller overall (some being able to be completed in just minutes), this seems like a natural balancing of 9 films worth of story.

On the point of how TT Games pays homage to the Classic Lego Star Wars games, the little inclusions to accommodate those who remember them fondly are found throughout. Mumble mode, which can be activated from the extras menu, changes the excellent voice acting substitutes for the old-school mumbles and grunts that all Lego games prior to Lord of The Rings had. Even more of a subtle throwback is the return of game-exclusive, TT Games created character, Rebel Friend, which made me feel very nostaglic as “That’s a name i’ve not heard in a long time”. Modern star wars fans will also enjoy the internet culture references, with all the quotable and over-memed moments amped up to the nth degree, whether it’s through multiple references to Anakin’s hatred of sand, Palpatine’s repeated mention of Darth Plagius the Wise or his lust for unlimited power, the fan-wide inside jokes are most certainly honoured.

Now, this game gets a lot of things right, the small interactions between chosen free-play characters show just how much time and effort went into crafting a complete and detail-filled experience. But it is not without fault, not by a long shot. Even as a huge Lego game fan, I’m not blind to the numerous problems they tend to attract, and this game unfortunately doesn’t break the cycle. Numerous glitches, copy and pasted missions and lacklustre combat mechanics are all present. The new combat system… exists. They’ve clearly made an effort to spice up the classic formula of slapping and shooting enemies with new inclusions like class specific characters having alternate ways of fighting, but even with the new force based powers and different weapons, it’s not much different. It never feels as if you’re going to lose a fight, you can stand and take plenty of hits. It even feels as if TT games is blind to this, offering upgrades to health that are beyond pointless.

It wouldn’t be a Lego game without glitches though. My god. Whether it’s getting blocked off from completing a free roam quest, or soft-locking an entire level, the troubles add up and get quite frustrating, especially when going for full completion. The various problems don’t stop at glitches though, certain things just aren’t explained anywhere in game, such as only being able to target certain ships in a dogfight when playing as specific character classes. The lack of explanation feels almost contradictory considering the huge array of hints and rumours on offer. It does feel like they tried to make the game as accessible as possible, so when there is a clear oversight, it sticks out. The space dogfights themselves, while at first feel great with the ability to steer and rotate your ship in any direction you choose, eventually become stale, when each fight only consists of aiming the joystick whilst continuously holding down the trigger to finish as quickly as possible. Even what should be positive new inclusions, come with problems of their own. The previously mentioned multiple paths in levels sometimes mean you’re locked out of half the stage and have to restart just to find what you were looking for.

As a collectathon geek, Lego games fan, and devout completionist, I should, and did enjoy this game. It’s undoubtedly the biggest achievement TT Games have created in their long span of enjoyable franchise-based, bricky reimaginings. But perhaps due to this, reaching 100% felt like a weight off my shoulders, which to TT’s credit, isn’t always the case. I usually end their games with a sense of accomplishment, and even sadness that the journey’s over, but i think the mixture of fetch quest fatigue, accumulation of glitches and tedious space battles ended up clouding my view of this game’s strong points. Such as the diverse level designs, faithful film adaptations and trademark humour that these games are widely loved for. It’s a step in the right direction for this game series, but I do worry they’ll take a step backwards for the next game considering the level of marketing and effort put into this release was seemingly larger than any seen before. Regardless, I’ll stick by these games as I always have, and I hope TT games put as much effort into fututre releases as they did this one.

7/10