LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – Review
After the release of LEGO Star Wars in 2005, TT Games’ direction was completely altered. For a few years now, we’ve had countless brick-based movie sequels, but it’s been a while since one of these family-friendly platformers has appeared on PS. Fortunately for the fans, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has finally arrived to fill in the gap.
In a way, it’s a mashup of Disney’s space operas and those brightly coloured Danish building blocks. For the first time in LEGO form, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker are included in this epic collection. Even though there have been many iterations of this franchise, the grand scope, attention to detail, and sweeping gameplay changes make it all feel new again.
Pros:
Nice visual style
Improved gameplay
Excellent romp through the series
Tons of content
Funny writing that elevates many moments
Cons:
No online co-op
Minor performance issues
Score – 9/10
You begin by selecting the first episode of your favourite trilogy, and the scope of the game quickly becomes apparent. In addition to the thousands of collectibles scattered across the galaxy and the many billions of studs you’ll obsessively vacuum up, there are hundreds of playable characters and ships to discover. When you first begin a new Star Wars game, you’ll notice that it quickly expands, revealing a wealth of collectibles.
One of the film stories has you controlling specific characters and leading you through levels connected by wide open spaces that are linear in their design. For example, the opening sequence of A New Hope concludes with C-3PO and R2-D2 making their way to Tatooine. Shortly after that, the story is put on hold and you are free to roam the sandy planet at your leisure.
Using both linear and free-roaming designs together helps to ensure that the game’s flow is as seamless as possible. You won’t be rushed through the movie’s major plot points; instead, you’ll have time to explore well-known locations. All of the planets have one or more sandboxes, which are filled with collectibles, which can be found in the environment, hidden behind a puzzle, or as a reward for completing an easy task. As a general rule, you are free to do whatever you want when you aren’t directly involved in the story.
Outside of the episodes, there is a sense of freedom. As long as you’ve unlocked the characters you want to play as, you can go wherever you want to go in the galaxy, flying whatever ship you have, and visiting any previously-visited locations. It creates a sort of open-world experience by bringing together everything you’ve seen into a single galactic map. Explore in free play is almost overwhelming if you’ve completed all nine films and unlocked all the locations.
Fortunately, the Skywalker Saga is brimming with personality and detail, making it a joy to discover. The typical humour is on display in abundance, with more winks and nods than you can possibly count. Cutscenes and environments are jam-packed with details that will have fans of the franchise grinning from ear to ear. Great voice acting and some brilliant visual gags. Not only does this look great, but the image quality is generally quite crisp, and the plastic sheen on figures and other LEGO structures is very convincing. For the most part, the game runs at 60 frames per second even when playing split-screen co-op mode.
The improved gameplay in this iteration of LEGO Star Wars sets it apart from previous iterations. The camera is much closer to you, and you can control it with your hands. There is now an emphasis placed on melee attacks as well as firearms, with the ability to aim and fire with a single trigger. Despite the game’s simplicity, these fundamental changes make it feel far more contemporary. Even though the game is primarily geared toward a family audience, there is a noticeable improvement in the gameplay’s flow. Even though the camera can occasionally act up, especially in cramped interiors, we can assure you that these instances are rare.
In reality, what you’ll be doing isn’t all that different from what’s gone before. You’ll be switching between a small cast of characters as you take on hordes of bad guys, work your way through simple puzzles, and traverse a few levels. With that said, there are a few unique setpieces that keep you guessing and engaged in the action. It’s impossible to have a bad time playing something so lighthearted and easygoing.
While there are some open areas to explore in between the five main levels, you can complete an episode in as little as two hours by speeding through it. Free play is the heart of the game, whether it’s revisiting old levels to find what you’ve missed or exploring the planets to their fullest potential. There is a lot to like about the game’s structure, which allows you to get what you want out of it, whether you want to play through the stories quickly and enjoy yourself, or you want to spend a lot of time finding Kyber Bricks and Datacards to buy upgrades and unlock fun extras.
Double the fun, of course, with a second player. It’s a staple of LEGO games, and it’s as enjoyable here as ever. Because of the game’s vertical split screen, you and your friend can go off and do whatever you want in the sandbox. While the lack of online co-op is a disappointment, what is available here is solid.
While the gameplay has been improved, the core of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has not been lost. Whether you’re travelling with children or adults, you’ll enjoy the slapstick humour and bright sights and sounds, as well as the elbow-in-ribs jokes. As a whole, this is the best LEGO game in a long time; it’s even better than some of the best Star Wars games.
