Exactly 17 years ago, the production of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game hit the market , which surprised everyone with its penetrating humor, attention to detail and interesting adaptation. People from all over the world collected more characters, unlocked different levels and waited for more. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga tries to provide even more fun, it’s a pity that it is not always successful.
New hope for Lego
I’ll start with a thick pipe. Yes, the new adaptation of Star Wars in the Lego world is more of the same and a lot of news. Once again we will try to find minikits, destroy a lot of blocks, build new platforms, jump on them, have fun with funny cutscenes and collect new interesting characters. After all, as many as 380 unique heroes can be unlocked in the game! Of course, the title can be played in two-person cooperation on a split screen. Network mode is not available, but Playstation Remote Play or Steam Remote Play Together allow you to cheat this limitation.
Interestingly, this is not the end of attractions; Apart from the refreshed graphics, the title has new, surprising mechanics. Now each character has an assigned class. I will not list each of them, so as not to take away your fun. However, it is worth highlighting the three that are most important to the plot and gameplay. Figures such as Luke Skywalker have fallen into the Jedi category – this is the only class that can use powers, lift items at will and control the minds of opponents. The collector class can create, for example, a hang glider, thanks to which we get to previously inaccessible places. On the other hand, the astromechanical droids will open new passages for us with a small mini-game. For each class you can unlock new skills that, for example, will allow you to move faster. Upgrades require coins collected in the game and kyber bricks. Each class has a separate type of weapon and can be used in various situations. The production also includes a holoprojector, which serves as our dietary menu. This is where we find a minimap, a galaxy map, bonuses, upgrades, characters, ships, side quests, challenges and … a moment. It all smells like another game from a French company!
Unlocking the upgrades will allow players to complete the game much faster!
Ubisoft’s Revenge
The budget for this game must have been really high. Traveller’s Tales focused on quantity in terms of content. I don’t mean even the sheer size of this production and the quality of the animation. At this point I am referring mainly to the user interface. The first time I launched Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga , I got scared. A huge arrow appeared in the center of my field of view, pointing to my destination. A large part of the screen was occupied by a minimap, and while the blocks were levitating, another indicator showed me exactly where to put them. I felt like in this famous meme from the game Elden Ring , i.e. What if Ubisoft made this game. Fortunately, here it is also worth highlighting a huge plus, all this annoying information can be turned off and you can explore the game freely, coming up with your own puzzle solutions. Unfortunately, they are usually too simple, but more on that later.
This is what an unexplored location looks like – as you can see, there’s a lot to do here
I mentioned the open world earlier. If you’ve played previous Lego games, you probably know there was a hub in each of them. Inside, we had access to a selection of levels, additional content and various types of challenges. This time the creators went all the way and we do not have access to one large hub. In this part of the game, we have the opportunity to visit as many as 24 planets! Each next one is different from the previous one. On all of them, we have a choice of several locations that we will later explore. These are these hubs! In addition, players have access to space flights, diverse planets and side battles with other interstellar ships. This is a huge area to play and in each of these places, when completing side quests, you will unlock more kyber bricks. There are as many as 1166 of them in production! Wait did I mention side missions? Yes exactly! InLego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has tons of side quests. Some require you to choose a special class, others aim to hunt characteristic thugs, and yet the next tasks just tell you to go to the right place. Missions do not expand the narrative world, but they will certainly make a few people laugh.
Side characters will tell players some stories from a given place
By the way, many supporting characters have something to say to the player. Some curiosity about their lives or some kind of rumor that will help in solving the puzzles. Thanks to this, we always have something to do in each location, sometimes even too much. This is where the problem lies – it’s all been in other AAA games, and even in previous Lego games. At the same time, if someone chooses to skip all side quests, they don’t lose anything of the plot, but can knock out the experience of everything the game has to offer. The main part of the production are side activities. The developers respect the players’ time in this matter. When I discovered the skill tree, I figured that a faster sprint, or searching for kyber blocks, or ultimately a larger health bar, was just an aid. It turns out of course that it’s true
Adaptation strikes back
The story of Star Wars doesn’t have to be liked by everyone. In this adaptation, however, she was rendered amazing! At the very beginning of the game, I required something more, I was annoyed by too short cutscenes and too many things to do in open locations, but after completing the title and returning to Lego Star Wars: The Complete SagaI realized that luckily it was just nostalgia. The story characters are amazingly played out. Expression is in tune with the figures and the humor is not over the top. The right jokes come back at long intervals and remind you that this is a Lego game all the time. Traveller’s Tales hasn’t forgotten how to spell such humor, and it’s very good. The jokes about the strange plot solutions of the last three parts of the series are really good. The comedy whole should appeal to every age group, and the grotesque spills out of the screen.
The mapping of the plot itself is, of course, a bit too general, the most important plot moments appear, but people who have never watched Star Wars can get a little lost. This is not certain, of course, as the game tries to maintain a linear whole. Unfortunately, open locations along with side activities can disturb the perception of the story. The cutscenes also look really good, everything is at the level of full-length productions. Playing with sharpness, lighting, close-ups on the characters, emotions, cuts – all this was rendered at a high level and you can feel the high production budget. I didn’t even have a problem with the human voices in the English version, and although in my opinion they didn’t match Lego games before, they work great here. InLego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga let’s hear tons of movie quotes. The most popular ones will appear most often. Fictional games that refer to older games from the Lego Star Wars series are also entertaining . Stormtroopers in bathing pants are the perfect easter egg and you don’t feel like they’ve been forced into it. This is one example among many. The player will also be amused by the interactions between the characters.
In the game, players will meet their favorite characters
What is most irritating in story missions is the lack of serious music. I mean, she’s there, but in the background and very quiet. There is often a situation where a cutscene ends with a great drama, and then you only hear the usual soft playing of thematic music known from Star Wars . This is really sad because even games like Star Wars Battlefront II had an amazing soundtrack in the single player campaign. Gordy Haab created some beautiful songs back then, and it’s a pity that he didn’t show up on that production.
Dark dubbing
English cast of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagadid a really good job. There are times when the tone of the champions may not fit, especially the side characters, but the overall performance is pretty good. Unfortunately, the Polish language version is poor. You can hear that the actors just had to read from the page. They certainly didn’t see what exactly was happening on the screen. I tried, believe me, I tried to play the Polish version for a long time, but it was impossible. The worst moment was this: fear, terror, terror showed on the face of a certain character in the cutscene. The Polish actor read it calmly, as if nothing bad was happening. Then I decided to run away from Polish. The plus is that you can switch languages at any time in the game menu, so everyone should be happy. I think the youngest will not feel much discomfort. Especially since the translation is not that bad,Star Wars . For older people, I highly recommend changing the language.
The last fight
Coming back to the gameplay, the game features a revolution in combat mechanics! For the first time in a long time in Lego games, what we press can make a difference! Only maybe, because after unlocking certain skills, the fight is still limited to hitting two buttons in a circle. This time, we have some kind of combos in production, which only affect the multiplier of earned coins. Yes, exactly: by attacking our opponents, we can gain more and more currency. It is also great to stick to the details. During shootouts, hitting different parts of the opponents’ body will cause them different reactions. For example, when a blaster shell hits the stormtrooper’s head, his helmet may fall off or twist around his head. The opponents, although they are not very wise, try to make up for it with quick action. When we destroy the opponent’s cover, he will start to rebuild it quickly, when we get closer, the enemy will stop shooting and start hitting us with his hands. The shield mechanics were advertised before the launch, and honestly, apart from the special tests, I used it about once during a turret skirmish. It does not change much, but it is an interesting diversion. During hand-to-hand combat, we have quick attacks, attacks from above, tossing the opponent and a counterattack, which is always associated with sweet animation. Different enemies have different health bars, but stay the same throughout the game. They never scale, so as we grow stronger the game just gets easier. during a skirmish with a turret. It does not change much, but it is an interesting diversion. During hand-to-hand combat, we have quick attacks, attacks from above, tossing the opponent and a counterattack, which is always associated with sweet animation. Different enemies have different health bars, but stay the same throughout the game. They never scale, so as we grow stronger the game just gets easier. during a skirmish with a turret. It does not change much, but it is an interesting diversion. During hand-to-hand combat, we have quick attacks, attacks from above, tossing the opponent and a counterattack, which is always associated with sweet animation. Different enemies have different health bars, but stay the same throughout the game. They never scale, so as we grow stronger the game just gets easier.
Probably the most interesting change in the combat mechanics appeared in the case of the bosses. The battle itself always starts with a short approximation of the great opponent, on which we can see his name along with a short description in Aurebesh. The translated descriptions are often fun. Most often, when fighting with lightsabers, the camera locks on the opponent and we gain access to a typical set of moves: attack and dodge. It all looks very soulful, as if it doesn’t fit Lego games. However, the worst thing is to place an dodge. It is under the same button as the jump, so most of my dodges resulted in a dash attack. It is very frustrating and it would be enough to change the button to something else. Especially that with the next improvements, our health bar grows and we are always able to survive most of the attacks. Death in these fights, as in the rest of the game, is temporary and the only thing that causes you to lose a few coins. Sometimes, during the fight, quick time events are added, which can even be turned off in the availability options. I don’t think I need this mechanics.
The boss frames are really interesting
Awakening the mechanic
In addition to combat mechanics, new mini-games have also been added to the game. Stormtroopers, Heroes, and Droids get access to a few of them. They are very simple and mainly involve pressing the right button at the right time. Some try to make it harder for no reason by adding more circles to a turn, for example. This is strange because there are no reasons to increase the difficulty, and the difficulty is not permanent, and sometimes the player may turn eight wheels at a time, and four a minute later. Other mechanics, such as climbing or cutting wall passages with a sword, are a nice diversion in the linear story gameplay. The game also allows you to choose how to build a given device. This allows you to create two different paths, but we always come back to where we started. Some of the buildings are humorous. To this day, I remember a boxer glove attached to the drill that worked! Side quests that unlock access to previously unseen planets or to kyber bricks are also interesting. Random conversations with the inhabitants of a given location are a pure attempt to simulate the real world, which of course failed. In this matter, however, you can see a huge jump compared to previous games in this series.
The new building mechanics are interesting, but only the first three times
Return of bugs
Lego games have always been technically unequal. It’s similar now. Sometimes a boss gets stuck on an item and we won’t be able to finish the level until the game is loaded. Other times, the frame rate and resolution will drop so much that the game will be rendered unplayable. The worst planet in this respect is Coruscant, where the frames are crazy and the resolution drops very often. The shortcomings in terms of the geometry of the terrain also hurt. I did not fall under the map, but sometimes jumping on terrain not built of blocks is very uneven. The player character falls and slides. The mission selection system also annoys, as it displays literally all available. This is an understandable game, because you can buy gossip for coins for each of them. But it seems to me that a much better solution would be to add the option to filter missions in the context of the currently active ones. At this point, however, we have to look for our tasks or gossip for a very long time. In the handy map, it drives me crazy to need to use the exit button four times to get back into the game. All because with each click we move to different layers of the map. It would be enough just to add the option to hold the button to turn off the holoprojector.
I played the Playstation 5 version myself and was very disappointed with the lack of full support for the DualSense controller. I know it’s more work, but the new games have already got us a bit used to it and the potential is huge. Instead, we get the usual simple vibrations known from the previous generation of consoles.
The title allows us to choose two graphic options. 60 FPS runs productions in scaled 4K and tries to keep 60fps equal, sometimes of course it doesn’t work out, but for most of the gameplay it was fine. In the 30 FPS version, the game is more often in 4K resolution and at the same time has nicer textures. There is no ray tracing in the production, Lego bricks would perfectly reflect the lights of lightsabers.
Nostalgia. Revival
If anyone expects something completely new from Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagayou will surely be disappointed. The title copies a lot of solutions from other titles and almost always does it worse. However, it is worth remembering that this is a Lego game. And works of this type did not have such solutions before. In this series it is a novelty that, although it may be rejected at the beginning, players will get used to each other over time. Many new solutions are a plus for the player here. Access to the entire set of heroes from anywhere on the map will allow for various combinations of skills and interesting solutions. The difficulty of the puzzles does not exist, you just have to look at the given problem and you will know the solution in a second. At the same time, because it is an open-world game, you can try to solve them in a more creative way. I tried to do as much as possible and the fun was much better. Accessibility options and the freedom to distribute skill points allow you to set a difficulty level that fits everyone. A lot of heart was put into the production of the game, which can be seen in extensive animations and a huge number of characters from the entire canonStar Wars . This is a game for everyone; Interesting adaptations will be interesting, collectors will be attracted and fans of cooperation will be cheered up. New additions introducing stories from the canonical series have been announced, and very good. This offers great potential for development. It’s not a perfect production, but by today’s gaming standards, it’s actually really good overall.
Darth Vader and his friend Droideka and friend Lando look at the beautiful scenery. Yes – Lego Star Wars is back
