By Josh Reilly B. and George Bate
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is finally here. The biggest brick game to date comes with an immense amount of characters to play as, along with all nine Skywalker saga films, all the way up to The Rise of Skywalker. The rise of Vader, the reign of Vader, and the legacy of Vader can all be played through in this massive and exciting LEGO game.
Initial reactions have been positive thus far, with players and critics alike praising the sheer amount of content packed into the game along with smooth controls. There’s clearly a great degree of effort from everyone at TT Games to develop the best LEGO Star Wars game to date, and this might be the case based on first impressions.
Combat wise, the level of care and attention to detail that the developers put into The Skywalker Saga is immense. Players can rack up combos with Jedi characters in a way not unlike what the Batman Arkham series did, where the Dark Knight took on dozens of enemies at once, which led to a streak that produces awards and achievements. In previous LEGO games, the combat was never emphasized to this extent, and this aspect is easily one of the early highlights of playing.
The vastness of the open world is something that LEGO have attempted before, such as in the Batman games made by TT, but nothing has ever reaching the scale seen in The Skywalker Saga. In this regard, it feels more like Grand Theft Auto rather than a LEGO one, and in a great way that shows the evolution of this iconic video game franchise. Worlds like Tatooine, which players can visit early on if they choose to start with The Phantom Menace, feel truly alive and immense. The player’s immersion in the Star Wars galaxy through these incredible in game locations is arguably unmatched in video games set in a galaxy far, far away.
As aspects like fighting and world building were heavily emphasized in this outing, puzzles are not as frequent or important in The Skywalker Saga. Previous LEGO games have often made puzzles the front and center of the gameplay, but this isn’t the case here. While it’s amazing to see such great improvement in regards to the combat and the immersive experience, the lack of emphasis on the puzzles is a slight disappointment. Because of this, the game feels slightly less child friendly than previous iterations, and this is contributed to by the fact that there is a large amount of content put on the screen at all times. Maps, directions, and more are all displayed, and there’s so much going on that it can be overwhelming, especially for a new player.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is out now.