Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is finally here, after many years of provocative updates and crushing delays.
Developer Traveler's Tales has recreated the nine main Star Wars movies in its charming style, and we spent the weekend walking through the bricks to see how they stack up against other Lego games. There are hundreds of characters to unlock, reworked combat to master, flying spaceships to pilot, and an entire galaxy to explore. The question is, is this the Star Wars game you are looking for?
Your first decision in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is crucial: which trilogy to start with. We picked the earlier movies not because they're our favorites (thanks to the original trilogy), but because the first Lego Star Wars game covered the earlier movies back in 2005 and we want to push that nostalgia forward (and see how the games compare).
After a classic Star Wars exploration of intergalactic taxation and trade blockades, the shiny plastic forms of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn appear on screen in all their minifigure glory. From there, it's straight to what makes these games so charming: a scene that immediately made us laugh: Traveler's Tales hasn't lost any of its goofy, self-referential humor over the years.
Traveler's Tales hasn't lost any of its goofy, self-referential humor over the years.
If you know the movies, you can expect to get the game started in this alarmingly clean conference room that's absolutely not cheating. Instead, the Skywalker Saga version of Phantom Menace begins with you in full control of the Republic ship on your way to negotiations. This is a preview of how big this game is compared to the original from 2005.
After landing on the Trade Federation donut-shaped spaceship, we take a stroll through the large and eerily empty docking bay. One change that is immediately noticeable is the camera, now much closer to Qui-Gon than in other Lego games and offering a more intimate view of the action. We do what any Jedi worth his salt would do in this situation and begin destroying every inanimate object in the room with our lightsaber. A small orange objective marker tries to get us to talk to a waiting protocol droid, but those crates weren't going to destroy themselves.
Qui-Gon swings his lightsaber hard, easily disemboweling the random assortment of objects around the room; he feels powerful to play, more so than previous Lego games. Naturally, we can also use the Force to pick up the boxes and containers in the room, smashing them against the walls to burst them into a shower of colors and Lego pieces (the little plastic pegs that serve as your change). You can also throw your lightsaber at enemies (and crates), using the force to return it to your lego hook hand, making it a devastating ranged attack.
Size Doesn't Matter (But It's Still Awesome)
As soon as you open the holoprojector, you get an idea of the scale of the Skywalker Saga. This menu screen shows a map of the entire galaxy, divided into sectors. There are also tabs for characters (there are hundreds of them), ships, and abilities. It's a bit overwhelming. But, as we get more familiar with the game, all the information is useful to have at hand.
The combat overhaul makes combat feel smooth and responsive compared to previous games.
Surprisingly, the meeting room the protocol droid takes us to is a trap, but it gives us a great opportunity to destroy things defending themselves in a decidedly open manner. We use the Force to smash droids into each other, our lightsaber to slice them limb from limb, and accidentally blow ourselves up with an exploding barrel, it's ridiculously fun. A major change to combat from traditional gameplay is the introduction of a combo system that allows you to link your attacks together, rather than just aimlessly swinging your weapon around. The combat overhaul makes combat feel smooth and responsive compared to previous games.
As the last battle droid falls, we rush to the cargo bay and smuggle ourselves aboard a droid invasion ship about to descend to the surface of Naboo. Aware that we walk into the arms of everyone's favorite Gungan: Jar-Jar Binks.
A guided tour of Star Wars
Naboo hosts several domains that you will know from the movies. You can explore Gungan City, run around like Jar-Jar Binks waving your arms and wagging your tongue, hop on the Bongo ship and return to the surface of the planet dodging giant monsters, then on the capital's docks find a Great central area to explore.
The royal city of Theed is filled with giant, glittering statues, huge courtyards, and lush gardens. There are characters with little floating bricks above their heads that need tasks for them. Completing side quests, like fixing broken statues around town, will reward you with Kyber Crystals, a resource you can use to unlock character abilities. We were in a hurry to save the queen, so the Theed statues haven't been repaired yet.
The ensuing rescue primarily involves battling waves of enemy droids while protecting the queen and her entourage from blaster fire. It's an uphill battle to get to the royal ship, but we board and orbit, safely on our way to Tatooine.
Despite being mostly made of plastic, Mos Espa feels alive.
After the Trade Federation clinic ship and the grandiose Royal City of Naboo, Mos Espa and its crowded streets are a wonderfully dense change of pace. We find ourselves slowly moving the camera to capture an environment that, despite being mostly plastic, feels alive. There are plenty of little details that can go unnoticed, like the way Qui-Gon's lightsaber hilt glows as he swings back and forth under Tatooine's harsh twin suns, and the way the land and the sand of the desert planet cover it realistically. small plastic legs. . But, as minor as these details are, they all add to the scene.
As we walk through the streets of the harsh city, a fight breaks out, with green-skinned Rodians emerging from the wood to attack us. This gives us a chance to try out the new shooter combat, as Padme is a fan of the blaster. As she points her into her crosshairs, the camera will zoom in on her shoulder and a crosshair will appear on the screen. This new aiming style makes it easier to hit headshots and armor pieces.
The Lego team wastes no time in kicking off the action, about a minute after we arrive we go from buying parts for our ship to betting Anakin's freedom on a podrace. Most gamers know the story of The Phantom Menace, so the fast-paced narrative is refreshing.
However, this fast pace has its drawbacks. We'd happily spend more time racing pods, but it's a pretty short segment in the Skywalker Saga, and there's no room to breathe. It also doesn't help that the controls aren't intuitive, which distracts from what could have been an adrenaline-fueled interlude.
a real meow
The new combat system comes into play when we return to Naboo and fight Darth Maul. Not only is it thematically relevant and consistently fun, but the duel also offers a real challenge. With a mix of combo fights, fast-paced challenges, and puzzles, it's the culmination of The Phantom Menace portion of The Skywalker Saga.
Completing the story unlocks Galaxy Free Play mode, allowing you to return to planets you've explored, though you can continue the trilogy and jump right into the clone attack. As you go deeper into the trilogy, the action escalates in both challenge and complexity. As we progress through the battle droid foundries on Geonosis and into our battle with Count Dooku, we add more characters to our party, many with new abilities to learn and mechanics to master, and we face more objectives that are more difficult. anything else. We have seen. in the previous episode.
As you complete the story, you will find areas you went through before opening and they will offer you more secrets for you to discover. The space sections you use to travel between planets will become free roam areas, which you can roam around using the ships you've unlocked. You'll find Kyber Brick Comets to blast for rewards and random encounters that can yield even more loot.
There are also plenty of side quests to complete, which grant you Studs and Kyber Crystals to upgrade your characters. For some of these quests, you will need to access a certain character class or have progressed far enough in the story. For example, we met a guy named Biggs Darklighter who had a quest for us, but we could only activate him as a villain class character, and Whiney Luke didn't qualify. But, Han Solo on the other hand disjointed...
Although we've spent ten hours with the game, we've only just begun to scratch the surface of this lovingly crafted world. In addition to the many side quests yet to be completed, we have only reached Episode IV, which already added more mechanics and options from the start. There's still a full trilogy and a half to play through, more planets to explore, and a truly overwhelming amount of content to discover. We are desperate to continue exploring this galaxy far, far away. One that is packed with favorite characters, fantastic environments, and exciting challenges.
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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released on April 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and XBO.