LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

When The Skywalker Saga was announced, I was excited, but I was a little wary of the possibility of going back through the same levels I've played dozens of times already in The Complete Saga and the original two LEGO Star Wars games. As soon as screenshots and footage started appearing, all of those fears were gone. I still didn't know much about it at the time, but it certainly wasn't just an expanded version of the game I've played to death. Now that I've played it, I can gladly say that the spirit of those older classics remains but the play-experience carves out its own identity, creating something familiar, yet refreshingly independent.

The Skywalker Saga marks a major evolution in the Traveller's Tales LEGO formula. The world is still highly destructible, studs are still the main currency, and there is still an intense focus on collectibles and unlockables, but the gameplay itself has experienced a significant shift from the previous twenty-or-so mainline licensed LEGO games. The most immediately noticeable change is the updated perspective. The previous games typically had an overhead view, often with a fixed camera. The Skywalker Saga instead has the free-camera third-person perspective found in many shooter games, which helps make the world and levels feel more immersive and less like a movie set. The new camera does even more than expected by also complementing the overhauled combat.

While it is still possible to button-mash your way through most fights, players are encouraged to strategize a little more thanks to the new combo system and the enemies' ability to block. Characters are no longer relegated to a single attack type anymore, instead having heavy attacks, light attacks, counters, and potentially a projectile option. The combo system rewards players with studs for using a variety of attacks in quick succession, although I never paid it too much attention, since studs are so common anyway. More encouraging for me to branch out was the fact that enemies can punish players for repeating an attack too much by outright blocking it. Blocked attacks do no damage and feel like they slow combat down, reminding me very quickly to mix up my assault if I want to keep progressing. These major adjustments to the combat are made to feel even more robust due to systemic changes in how characters are handled in this game.

Like previous games, the different characters are divided into classes that have different abilities. Different classes fight differently and have puzzles tailored specifically for them. The difference here is that each character's class is explicitly stated, and class abilities can be upgraded. The upgrade system was one of the game's biggest surprises to me, and I really enjoyed the sense of progression that comes with strengthening my characters. Throughout the game, you'll earn kyber bricks by completing levels and solving puzzles, which you can then use to purchase upgrades. Upgrades can improve attack strength, unlock new moves, increase rewards for certain actions, and more. There's an impressive amount of variety to match any kind of play style, no matter what classes you prefer.

With as many changes as it makes to the familiar formula, I'm surprised at how much The Skywalker Saga still feels like a LEGO game. The developers seemed to take seriously every complaint aimed at the franchise throughout its long and repetitive history and made the perfect follow-up that everyone was asking for. The Skywalker Saga captures the joy of playing the original LEGO Star Wars duology for the first time while still feeling like a new and modern experience. My biggest complaint is that there is just too much to do if you want to play everything the game has to offer, but the world of Star Wars is massive, and this is an impressive interpretation, I just couldn't find the motivation to explore it as thoroughly as is possible. In the end, I think Traveller's Tales was able to do justice both to the Star Wars film and LEGO game franchises via The Skywalker Saga, and it has my hearty recommendation if you are a fan of either.

The game is available for Steam here (as of 2/13/24): https://store.steampowered.com/app/920210/LEGO_Star_Wars_The_Skywalker_Saga/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 2/13/24): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 2/13/24): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga/9NJN1MC1X5FK
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 2/13/24): https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga/

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