PLATFORM: PC, SWITCH, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: 5TH APRIL
After what seems like one of the longest waits in recent years (having been revealed in 2019 and announced for release in 2020 before being repeatedly delayed), Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has now finally arrived, giving players chance to experience the entirety of Episodes 1-9 in a whole new way. Each in-game episode closely follows the plot of its big-screen counterpart, although many liberties are taken in order to add plenty of the trademark slapstick Lego humour into the mix, resulting in a light-hearted re-telling of some of genre cinema’s all-time favourite stories.
Traditionally, Lego games have been based around exploring small spaces to smash things up, build objects, solve puzzles and collect studs and bricks and hidden things, usually in that order. This formula is very much intact, but you’re now playing in much larger areas where you’re free to either follow the story or break off to hunt around for all kinds of hidden bits and pieces. On your first playthrough, you’ll find lots of situations that can only be tackled by characters that you haven’t unlocked yet, so your best bet is to play through the entire saga, unlock as many characters as possible, then play through each episode again in free mode (where you can explore each area with any of your unlocked characters, without needing to worry about getting caught up in story missions) to find all the secrets. Between unlocking new ships and characters, finding minikits, completing level challenges, taking on side missions, piloting vehicles (both on land and in the air), solving puzzles, taking part in trials and fighting enemies with crazy combo moves, there’s a crazy amount of things to do across the game’s 45+ levels.
The Skywalker Saga takes you to all the locations you’d expect to visit (there are over 20 planets to explore) and features a gigantic cast of nearly 300 playable characters, so whoever your favourite is, there’s a fairly strong chance they’ll make an appearance. As an added bonus, many cast members from across the Star Wars galaxy reprise their roles, so there’ll be plenty of familiar voices, and the all-important iconic music and sound effects are here in full-force too. With its vast amount of content, upgradeable classes, secrets, surprises and multiple routes through each area, it’s one of those games that will certainly keep you going for a fair while. If you’re into Star Wars, beating things up, collecting things, solving puzzles and having a good old laugh at the same time, this will be right up your street. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga sets a new bold and ambitious benchmark for Lego games, and treats its source material with a level of respect and reverence that can’t fail to please fans of the films.
