Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga preview – the most impressive follow-up since Mass Effect 2
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is one of those rare leaps in quality – the Mass Effect 2 of Lego games. As fun as TT Games’ Lego titles always are, the improvements between launches are usually barely perceptible. This time it’s all you can see. Brick by brick, the entire concept of a Lego game has been rebuilt.
Gone is the mindless one-button combat, replaced with a simple combo system that allows for juggles and aerial attacks. Keep spamming the same button and enemies will wise up and block you. It’s not quite Devil May Cry, but it’s a massive improvement. Keep your combo gauge up and you’re rewarded with more studs to spend on characters (there are over 400 of them).
Gone is the low-impact shooting, replaced with a free aim and a cover system akin to a proper third-person shooter. A shooter with destructible cover, different damage outputs (complete with little RPG-style damage numbers) and enemy reactions depending on what body part you hit – ping off a stormtrooper’s helmet and headshot them for a quick takedown, or shoot their knees out to knock them to the floor.
Gone is the distant camera, replaced with a more intimate, close-up view of your character, making you feel more like a part of the action than ever. Since you’re in control of where you look, you’re free to grab most Lego objects with your force powers and freely move them around or throw them at enemies.
In fact, the only thing that’s not gone is the series’ signature playfulness. In my hands-on, I got an hour with A New Hope, one of nine story campaigns making up all three Star Wars trilogies. From the subtitles translating Chewbacca’s roars to Han Solo throwing his blaster at Greedo, it’s packed full of little moments that will make even a casual Star Wars fan smile. It’s so self-aware that I’m half expecting a character called Maclunkey to pop up.
This sense of character isn’t just restricted to cutscenes either. Throw a bomb at someone’s head and it sticks with comical force, rocking their head back before exploding in slapstick violence. Accidentally hold down the interact button as C-3PO and he’ll detach his legs before hopping around on his torso – a seemingly useless skill until you detach him while playing as another character and throw his body at an enemy.
There are just so many more options than usual here. Even the level design is more open, and not just in the many, detailed hub areas. When playing as Princess Leia at the start of A New Hope, you eventually come to a crossroads. You can build a turret to shoot through a wall or construct a fire hose to put out the flames and take another route. As C-3PO and R2-D2, enemies don’t automatically attack you because you’re not seen as a threat, but you can hack into security systems to ping alarms or turn turrets on your enemies.
Remember when I said Force-powered characters can freely throw and move objects? This extends to your droid companions, too. Can’t reach a Kyber Brick that’s stuck on a high ledge? Force-lift your droid.
It doesn’t spoonfeed you solutions, and there’s usually more than one. It’s a big step up from “smash everything in every room and hope there’s something to build by the end of it”. Each level also has three unique challenges – along with Kyber Bricks (which you can use to unlock skills such as fast sprinting) and mini kits – giving you even more reason to play them again in free-play when you’re done with the campaign.
The world feels much more alive, too. On Tatooine, civilians dance around a busker, ships fly overhead, and your characters get covered in sand as you explore (we didn’t get to test this with Anakin, sorry). There are speeders to blitz around in, rontos to ride, and plenty more to discover in every nook and cranny of every hub and level. And outside of that, you’re also free to fly around local space, heading off-world to explore solar systems, even flying between planets. That’s free-flight as well – you can perform barrel rolls and other evasive maneuvers when in control of a ship.
It just feels, looks, and sounds better than any other Lego game. You can tell it’s an absolute labor of love from TT Games. It’s almost as if the developer has something to prove. It’s not too complex to be enjoyed by young children, but it’s just engaging enough for an adult to come along for the ride – which is likely how I’ll play it, in co-op with my kids. After spending an hour with A New Hope, I know I’ll love every second of it.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga launches on April 5 for all consoles and PC. They really should have just delayed it to May the 4th – not because it isn’t ready, but for the memes.
Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.