Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

I was on copium with this for a while, but I've come to terms with the fact that it's just not a good game. It's probably the worst Lego game I've played in fact. I was incredibly excited for this game and am a huge fan of both Lego games and Star Wars, so please hear me out as someone who only wants the best for these franchises.

To start, the gameplay of the levels is completely lifeless. There are no fun setpieces to build and almost no unique and engaging puzzles, the lifeblood of past Lego games. Many levels lack puzzles entirely. And no, those braindead Hero, Villain and Astromech panels you have to do about 25 times each certainly don't count. The levels themselves typically fly by in just a few minutes. The story is padded with non-level story segments which often consist of nothing more than walking from point A to point B (sometimes your character is even forcibly slowed to a comically slow pace). In many instances, you go through several long loading screens traveling from planet to planet, resulting in no more than a brief cutscene before you have to fly to some other planet and go through the loading screen all over again. Something like this could've been a simple, concise sequence of cutscenes. But instead, these segments take significantly more time to get through than the actual levels. To be fair, sometimes there is freedom to explore the open worlds during these in-between segments, but I'll get into why that's not enough in a little bit.

The lightsaber and FPS combat is actually quite well-done and fun in a vacuum. The combo system is satisfying to pull off and feels fluid. I enjoy that many different Jedi & Sith have their own unique fighting styles, even if the differences seem to be mainly just cosmetic. Blaster combat is simple, but going for headshots and knocking off Stormtrooper helmets is pure dumb fun. Still, it almost seems like the developers used combat segments as a crutch in place of actual level design, and it gets really repetitive throughout the game's 45 missions. You end up with 10 minute segments of just shooting continuously-spawning Stormtroopers while Chewy fixes the Falcon or whatever it may be.

Still, I slogged through the campaign in anticipation for those glorious open worlds. I decided to mostly ignore the open world segments until after I beat the campaign, which admittedly, was probably a mistake. Because, as it happens, the open worlds are completely dull and lifeless too. In every world, there are tons of the same cumbersome Jedi force puzzles with the same rectangular objects, countless braindead "platforming" segments consisting entirely of quicktime events, and various other uninspired objectives which at most may involve selecting a character from one of 8 or so character classes and using their respective ability.

Speaking of character classes, they were a great idea on paper. The upgrade system is quite cool. But the problem lies in the fact that every character in each class is the exact same as all other characters in their class. Why does Rey get to glide long distances with a jetpack while Boba Fett is stuck with a quarter-second hover, just because he's in the wrong class for it? Why can't I shoot a steady stream of lightning with the Emperor? The roster itself is fantastic, sure, but the excitement of unlocking characters is completely cheapened by how homogenous everyone is. On top of that, the character select menu is also awkward to navigate to the point where the roster actually feels bloated and a chore to sift through, although I think it is a great roster and this is more of a UI issue. There is a sort of "favorites" menu for characters that can be customized, thank god. But as someone who wants to switch out characters all the time so I can experience them all, it doesn't solve the root of the issue. On top of all that, switching between characters takes an absurd amount of load time, but I bought this game for Switch so that one's probably on me.

The Lego humor is wonderful as usual, at least. Leia force-pulling a fishing rod to reel herself back onto the ship in Episode VIII was one of many humorous highlights. I also really enjoyed how scenes in the sequel trilogy poked fun at common fan complaints. In one Episode VII cutscene, after *spoiler* Han Solo dies, Chewbacca cries loudly and runs toward Leia for a hug. Of course, just like in the movie, she completely ignores him and hugs Rey instead, as he comically runs past her. As a whole, I had a ton of fun watching these cutscenes.

Still, at the end of the day, I'm honestly baffled by the positive reception this game is getting everywhere, especially while other, far better Lego games get mostly middling reception these days. Maybe people are just so starved for good Star Wars content that they'll gladly take any game where you can play as all the characters and visit all the planets and all that good stuff. I mean, that's what I was so hyped for after all. It's also what makes it so sad that this ended up being such a slog to actually play. Yet, considering the circumstances surrounding its development, I really shouldn't have been surprised this game feels far more like a chore than anything resembling a labor of love.

After putting in an ungodly amount of time to 100% this game, I have mixed opinions. I do miss the style of the original games but the hybrid level/open-world design of this one is admittedly cool, and when you play each episode you basically get to experience the whole story (whereas the original games could only show you so much). The gameplay is fairly standard as far as Lego games go, but the combat was surprisingly different and actually pretty fun (if not still very easy).

Really my only complaints with this game are that the gameplay loop can get pretty stale pretty quickly (not much variety through each level, and some of the "levels" are like 2 minutes long!) and that getting 100% completion is a nightmare (to be fair, it's that way for any Lego game, but this one has a shit ton of fetch quests and generally boring tasks). But overall, this is a decent little game for Star Wars fans.

I'm not one to completely shit on a game, but I legitimately derive nothing from this game. The best time I had with this was watching youtube shorts about the cool references and interactions made a couple days after the game came out. Other than that, this game is a slogging, boring, confusing, and frankly insulting mess.

To start with some praise, the visuals look incredible. Obviously, this is the most visually stunning Lego game to ever come out. The comedy in the cutscenes is well balanced and pretty funny. The aformentioned references and interactions are also a nice touch.

On the flip side, this game fails in possibly every other way.

(Before we get into my criticism, I'd like to clear up some things. One, I won't be judging the story of this game, since that would be judging the Star Wars series more than the game itself. 2, the only other Lego Star Wars game I've played is The Complete Saga, so pretty much all of my comparisons will be drawn from that, as well as some other Lego games.)

Let's start with the core gameplay. This game is incredibly boring. Every character feels the exact same. Mowing down a group of enemies gets very boring very quickly, especially if you're stuck with a blaster character. The puzzles are mindless and the "platforming" is so hand-holding it's laughable. The fact that they removed actually platforming sections just to have a "Press A to jump from block to block" shows how they looked at this game. The lightsaber combat is cool for a while, but gets incredibly repetitive after an hour or so.

Secondly, let's cover the structure of the game. My childhood was filled with licensed Lego games. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, you name it, I played it. And every single one of these games had the same structure. A basic hub world, and a level selection that went from movie to movie, and had certain scenes to choose from. The Skywalker Saga ditches this premise to make an "open-world experience" for the player. This is one of the worst ideas ever put in a Lego game. One game that I didn't have as a kid was Lego Marvel Superheroes, and that game seemed to perfect the open-world in a Lego game. And that came out nine years ago. This "open-world" feels claustrophobic and limited. You can visit other planets, which house different "levels" of the game. These levels feel the exact same as just dicking around in the open world. I never knew that I was playing a "level" untli the ending screen showed up to say how many Kyber bricks I got. Frankly, this game just had an awful structure. I honestly don't get what's so wrong with a hubworld type game, especially when used to adapt a set of movies.

This game just felt awful. Trying to ride the success of a game like Mario Odyssey is fleeting, and doing so in a linear set of levels is just embarrassing. Getting rid of red bricks only to put in kyber bricks was a terrible choice, and the gameplay was so mind eroding that I couldn't make it past A New Hope. I honestly wish and pray that the next big Lego game returns to the classic formula.

(I forgot to mention this earlier but I got TSS on my Ps4 and it crashed and glitched more than any game I have ever played. Stop releasing games early please)

At first glance the game looks amazing visually. It encapsulates such a unique feel that is the essence of Lego. However once you've looked past the glamor, the overall game is a bit formulaic.

Presentation wise, it focuses more on visuals rather than substance. This feels like an idea that hasn't been fully fleshed out, it's essentially meant to be played in Free Play mode despite there being a "story" for all 9 episodic movies. However they're incredibly bland you can complete most story missions within minutes. It relies too heavily on the hubworld system, so its greatest strength ends up being its greatest weakness. It nails the Lego humor quite well though, and knowing they had to work overtime and crunch so many hours just to even release this is evident enough on no matter how well intentioned, things can go out of hand when not coordinated.

Overall you'll get some enjoyment out of it, but don't expect anything more than the shiny gimmicks.

This is probably the game that I have anticipated the most so far in my life. Well, maybe aside from Crypt Underworld but at least we got a build of that back in 2020 to quench that thirst. The first couple LEGO games (the holy trinity that is LEGO Star Wars TCS, LEGO Indiana Jones, and LEGO Batman) made such a huge impact on me as a kid, and were the earliest video games that I can actually remember playing. Of course as a kid I also played some of the ones that came during the early 2010s such as LEGO Batman 2 and LEGO Lord of the Rings, and while those games improved upon many aspects of the LEGO formula, those OG three games still occupied this very particular niche in my heart. Clearly, I'm not alone in this feeling considering just how many people my age were anticipating the release of this game because of how fondly they remember the original LEGO games. Despite this, it's very hard to really pinpoint why it is that those games were so impactful. The humor? The mumbling? The custom characters? I think everyone you ask will point out different things, but for me it was how it really sparked my imagination with free play mode. I could go back through the levels and find these little secret areas and create these stories in my head about the characters in some stupid situation that involved a milk truck in the Tantive IV, or a fight between some weird OC I made as a custom character and the Emperor, or any other thing a kid might come up with. It was really a truly free experience, and even upon revisiting TCS a few years ago (albeit on my phone instead of the Wii since its disc reader is busted) despite not having that same child-like instinct to roleplay in the free play mode it still felt fun and really free.

I feel like I have to preface my thoughts on the game by addressing what went on leading up to its release. It's no secret that the developers of this game had to endure a lot of crunch in order to get it out when it did earlier this month. Some of those who worked on the game left TT studios, some are still with them. Though to everyone who built this game, thank you for your work, and I truly hope that you will not have to suffer such abuse again.

One thing that is immediately apparent with this game is that it's different. It's certainly worlds apart from those original games from the 2000s, but as far as I know from what I've seen people say it's different from even the other recent LEGO games. The combat took a surprising leap from what it was before, allowing more depth than just "press B to win" like it has been in previous iterations. I never thought I'd see the day where I'm doing air combos in a LEGO game but here we are. The lightsaber duels are pretty engaging as well, and take a massive departure from how they operated in past games. They've got their ups and downs, but I'll touch on that a little more later. The story mode experience is very polished and streamlined in this game, and while the episodes go by very quickly it almost never feels like there's a dull moment. Story mode in this game intersects with the more open hub worlds, and while playing through it you'll have specific events that will happen in the hub worlds. This of course doesn't mean you can't take a little time between chapters to do some side missions, you're absolutely free to do that, and in some instances you'll just find yourself stumbling into a side mission and getting a kyber brick (this game's main collectible). It's clear that aside from the story mode, the main focus of the game is the expansive hub worlds. There's so much crap to do hidden away in every corner of these maps, doing little puzzles and fetch quests to unlock kyber bricks, or side missions to unlock characters or vehicles. There's plenty of civilian characters to talk to either just to hear some stuff about the place you're in or to get hints about certain missions or puzzles. This system is clearly intended to be what collecting minikits throughout the levels in the original games were. Yes, there are still minikits in the levels, but this is so transparently the main collectible and you'll find yourself doing similar things that you would have done to get minikits in the original games to get kyber bricks in the hub worlds in this game. And of course, the worlds themselves look great. Barring maybe the Jundland Wastes on Tatooine which feels a little cramped, the worlds and cities feel really huge and are nice if you just wanna wander around. Of course, not every hub world is completely great or unique but that fault can't really be attributed to this game (really, JJ? TWO more desert planets?) and even then the great variety of locations far outweighs the locations that might feel a little redundant. Plus, even though you might be going through missions on one planet you might not find too interesting, you might come across a side mission that calls for you to travel to another planet. The side missions might not be the most thorough things in the world, but there are certain chains of side missions that tell their own little stories. All this put together really makes me feel like this is the definitive way to experience Star Wars through the video game medium.

Though with every praise I sing for this game, it's still far from perfect. Honestly, in many ways my feelings on this game are very conflicted and that all has to do with how this game handles freedom. Obviously, the hub worlds are very expansive and free and feel great to just be in, but the same cannot be said for free play during the levels. As I said before, the story mode experience is incredibly streamlined, but that design really handicaps the free play mode. What is probably the biggest reason for why this is the case is how the game uses quick time events. During story mode, these QTEs feel natural and non-intrusive and fit in nicely with the other gameplay mechanics, but their fatal flaw is that they become integral to the levels during free play. This might not sound too bad at first, but the thing is, the QTEs are specific to certain vehicles or characters. For example, you can only play as Anakin's podracer during the Mos Espa podrace because otherwise you can't do the QTE where he has to fix his sabotaged pod. This also sneaks its way into the other character-based levels, particularly for the lightsaber duels. While using a non-jedi/sith character is feasible in the game, you might run into certain roadblocks where suddenly your opponent just isn't taking damage. This is because at certain boss health percentages there is a scripted QTE that you MUST do in order to progress through the fight. Sometimes it'll even force you into a specific character in order to do the QTE, and sometimes the game will bug out and force you into a specific character even if you're using one that wields a lightsaber. During the General Grievous bossfight in freeplay, I was using Christmas Vader, and I completed the little puzzle you have to do in order to get him down from the rafters. Though once he jumped down, it forced me into being Obi Wan so it could spit out a voice line. This usually doesn't happen and was very apparently a glitch because once that happened, Grievous was frozen in place and completely invincible. I was able to play the level again and complete it, but the fact that the glitch even happened at all is really representative of how free play was a sort of tacked-on addition. The cutscenes even play by default, meaning you have to manually skip them. It was never intended to exist within the clearly defined game design approach this game takes, but the designers must have felt like they needed to have a free play mode, even if just in name only, because that's something one of the main demographics of this game remember from their childhood, and because of the simple fact that it's a staple of LEGO games. I'm sure if the designers had no pressure from that demographic they wouldn't have even included a free play mode.

In a lot of ways, the game really feels targeted towards people my age even over the usual child demographic most commonly associated with LEGO games. There's nearly an overabundance of references to in-jokes and memes, mainly from the prequels, which I'm sure a 7 year old would get but it's painfully obvious that the target demographic for those references are teen/adult Star Wars fans. In addition to that, there's plenty of references to pop culture that would go straight over a kid's head (Taken, Better Call Saul, Red Dead Redemption, and CSI just to name a few). The devs are also clearly aware of the memes surrounding LEGO Star Wars TCS, specifically the obsession with the GNK droids. The GNK droids are this game's main dibby and have a few extra features dedicated to the GNK droids, and even an entire chain of questlines focused around GNK droids where the final reward is unlocking the GNK droid as a playable character as well as a giant flyable GNK droid. They even included Rebel Friend as a playable character, who was originally included in TCS in the mission inside the Tantive IV as a sort-of throwaway co-op character. All this fan service isn't a bad thing, the opposite if anything, but it does beg some questions. Mainly, do they really understand the appeal of their own game to their audience beyond the surface level? For me, and likely many others, the restriction in free play is sort of the antithesis of what I loved about the OG games, that freedom and the absurdity that can come with it. Thing is, the game makes too much sense. In a sort-of downgrade from LEGO TFA, you can now only use vehicles in space instead of on planets. This also means the only playable vehicles the devs included were ones that "made sense" to work in space. This was an incredible disappointment to find out while playing the game, since I was excited to be able to fly around in Zam Wesell's airspeeder, one of my favorite Star Wars vehicle designs, but since it's not "made for space travel" you cannot use it despite there being a model for it that they used in the first level in Attack of the Clones. Same thing with any of the podracers. I always thought it was funny to use Sebulba's pod to go through the battle above Coruscant as a kid in TCS, but that just isn't something you can do here. That was part of what made the original games so appealing, that you could do stupid funny things like that, and it fit more in line with the goofy LEGO humor as well. I don't think any kid (or adult, for that matter) is going to prefer using a First Order transport shuttle to engage in dogfights to a podracer or something. Where's that classic LEGO absurdity? There are a number of character exclusions in the game that seem to come at the expense of a lot of random rebel/resistance pilots, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering there are probably more people who would want to play as Agen Kolar, Saesee Tinn, or Stass Allie (all characters with very distinct designs who have minifigs, I might add) instead of random Resistance soldier #27. They also seem to come at the expense of multiple frankly useless skins for the main cast. Same thing even for the Classic Character DLC pack (I know, dick move to complain about what you get in DLC but this is the nitpicking section anyway) where you can play as yellow-skinned Leia or Luke, but you don't get the classic Boba Fett with the square helmet mold, or Yoda with the old and frankly better head mold. Though I think the biggest indicator of that certain disconnect is that despite everything they've done with the GNK droids, they don't use that original model. They use the weird brown one made of various bricks that quite honestly doesn't even look like a GNK droid. The classic GNK droid, the one that was literally just a mailbox with a print on it and legs, was what so many people remember from the original game. That strange and absurd hilarity that came with enabling Super Gonk, watching this literal walking mailbox jump around and run at ridiculous speeds. I feel like this, despite being a nitpick, is really representative of what this game gets wrong.

Obviously, this is still a very good game, and provides a much more consistently engaging experience than the originals as well as providing an immense amount of content. I might have come across as overly negative in this review considering how much more space I dedicated to my criticisms and nitpicks, though that's mostly because of how self-evidently good this game is. There's not much to talk about in the way of why this is good other than, well, it's just nice and fun. About as brainless as LEGO games have always been, but still fun like they've always been. But for as good as this game is, I'm hard pressed to call it a better LEGO game than the originals. Its game design is fundamentally worlds apart from those original games, and abandons certain elements that I held dear to my heart from those games. It's a good game that I enjoy a lot, but perhaps not the LEGO game I thought I was waiting for during these past few years.