A Force for good
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
(PEGI 7) PS4, PS4, XBOX ONE, XBOX X/S, Switch, PC
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IT’S hard to believe it’s nearly 20 years since Lego Star Wars: The Video Game was unleashed on unsuspecting fans.
The combination of two childhood favourites – Lego and Star Wars – was too much to resist, the winning formula of nostalgia and cuteness making the game a surefire hit.
It was the first of six games from developer Travellers Tales, the latest of which is its most ambitious yet.
The Skywalker Saga spans all nine movies, covering everything there is to love – and hate – about the legendary sci-fi franchise.
There’s a huge wealth of content here, with more than 45 story missions to work through, and 380 characters to play as – and that’s only if you don’t add in the DLC packs containing extra characters from outside the core movies.
Unlike previous games this is non-linear, meaning you can choose which trilogy to play through first – and this is where the real test of age comes in.
As I am (coughs) years old, I decided to start from the beginning, jumping straight into A New Hope.
If you’ve played previous games in this series, then one of the most dramatic differences you’ll notice is the camera angle.
No longer offering a zoomed-out perspective, developers have given this an over-the-shoulder third-person viewpoint, which instantly makes gameplay feel tighter.
As you’d imagine, all the classic New Hope moments are there – but given that sprinkling of Lego humour.
From sight gags, like rebels in their pyjamas rushing to fight Vader’s impending boarding of the Tantive IV, and Obi-Wan grabbing popcorn when he finally triggers Leia’s message, to quips like the stormtroopers declaring “They were the droids we were looking for!”, as the Millennium Falcon escapes Tatooine, it never fails to
You have an over-the-shoulder view while playing the game trigger a smile or the odd chuckle.
The new gaming perspective makes it feel like you have greater control over your attacks, which play out depending on how your character is armed.
For those wielding a blaster, you can duck and cover behind objects or shelter behind walls to pick off enemies from afar.
Lightsabers offer oodles of fun, boomeranging them to take out the bad guys, or juggling villains in the air with a succession of sweeping swings.
Chuck in a bit of the Force to push objects, and for a second you feel like a real Jedi ... almost.
As you move through the episodes though you realise that, much like the films, they differ very much in quality.
Some, like the aforementioned A New Hope, feel like they are nicely balanced between battling and puzzling, the player flitting easily between Leia and R2-D2 as you hack terminals or deconstruct/ reconstruct objects to help you complete your missions.
Others, like The Phantom Menace, seem to have empty tasks. There are lots of times where you have to slowly follow another character for what feels like a tedious amount of time just to be given your next objective.
Upgrading your characters is done by collecting Kyber Bricks, which replace the Red Bricks from previous games. Used in conjunction with Stud currency, you can complete a character’s upgrade tree to increase, for example, the utilities of protocol droids or the abilities of melee fighters.
I found the upgrades most useful for completing the saga’s minigames, which I’ll be honest, wore out their welcome quite quickly.
Where the minigames do come into their own though, is that they give you the chance to stop and actually take in the environments around you.
You can get so caught up in the fun of playing, you fail to realise just how good looking this game is. Great pains have been taken to recreate the universe in which Star Wars exists, an even greater feat when you consider the constraints of Lego shapes.
Is this the most challenging game I’ve ever played? No, but then it never claimed it would be.
Dripping with gags, and moving at a pace that feels just the right side of rushed, The Skywalker Saga is an absolute love letter to the sci-fi giant, and every member of your family will love playing it.
Buy it:
will have fun playing this
£38.85 from shopto.net