Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga takes the old strengths of the series and puts them into the biggest and best Lego game ever made.
Everyone loves Lego, and everyone loves Star Wars. Right? Well, the latter part is not as clear-cut nowadays. But hey, no one can say a bad word about Lego. That's one of the reasons why the original Lego Star Wars video game from 2005 was such a huge hit. It spawned not only several direct sequels, but also many other adaptations of famous franchises, like Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Batman.
These games all followed more-or-less the same formula, and while that is always good for a bit of lighthearted fun, it definitely got a tad repetitive. Developer Traveller's Tales needed to change and expand the beloved formula, to keep these games fresh and exciting. And that's exactly what they did with The Skywalker Saga, making it one of the best Lego games ever.
The Skywalker Saga Review | The Biggest Lego Game Yet
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga adapts all nine mainline Star Wars movies, having you play through the stories of these (mostly) beloved movies. That means that this is the first game, which allows you to play out the events of Episode 8: The Last Jedi and Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. That is not just super exciting, it also means that this game has even more content than any other Lego game before. And that's not only true because you have nine movies to play through here, it's also due to the full-on open world nature of The Skywalker Saga.
There are 24 levels in this game and each one of them is a tightly packed open world, full of collectibles, story and side missions and other different activities. These worlds are wonderfully made and make the new, stronger graphics engine shine. The Skywalker Saga is a beautiful game and one of the best ways to experience the Star Wars stories as a video game. Exploring these worlds is even more fun than it has ever been and while there is still a bit too much to collect (there are literally thousands of collectibles), it's a blast to explore these areas from beginning to end.
The Skywalker Saga Review | A New Type of Gameplay
These games have always been huge collectathons, mindless Action-Adventures with not too much of an emphasis on action. But it's not just the bigger, open-world approach that is new with The Skywalker Saga. For the first time in a Lego game, TSS is a full-on 3rd person action game, with a fully controllable camera, a proper combat system with combos and special attacks and even a light RPG systems. You now have space combat as well, so basically a Lego-version of the awesome Star Wars: Squadrons. These new systems are very well implemented and make the gameplay loop a lot more engaging and motivating than in past Lego games. As usual, you get a lot of different characters, almost 400 of them actually (I told you, there is a ton of content here), and just like in the old games, these characters are split into different classes. So you have tons of variety in almost every mission as well.
One big downside to the actual gameplay of The Skywalker Saga is the multiplayer though. Playing through these games with a friend was always a staple of the series, and you can still do so in this new entry. But thanks to the new perspective, you can only play locally in splitscreen Co-Op, and this mode is unfortunately not a lot of fun. The sections of the screen are just too small, making the game much more confusing and difficult to control. This problem could be solved with online Co-Op, but that is completely missing from the game. Even if there was online, it wouldn't mitigate the fact, that there are basically no special interactions for multiple characters. The game very much feels designed as a singleplayer experience, and while that experience is wonderful, it's a shame that the multiplayer is lacking in comparison to past games.
The Skywalker Saga Review | Still Brimming With Charm
While this game is more fun to play and bigger than its predecessors, there is one thing that is just the same as before: it's goddamn charming. If you have ever played one of these Lego games before, you know how good the developers are at infusing their little blocky figures with a ton of character. And that still works a treat in Skywalker Saga. Throughout the entire game, the game consistently brought a smile to my face. Every cutscene is a delight and chock-full of hilarious sight gags, slapstick moments and funny lines.
One thing the game kind of stumbles on though, is the fact that it has done a lot of this before. While it is cool to have full voice acting (and it is mostly pretty good), some scenes from the original trilogy of films lose a bit of the charming humor from a game like Lego Star Wars 2. Still, The Skywalker Saga again manages to be an absolute feel-good-trip, and seeing the Star Wars stories rendered in this fashion will probably never not be joyous and funny.
The Skywalker Saga Review | Verdict
I love Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Part of that is my love and nostalgia for the old games, back on PS2. Because this new interpretation of the source material manages to capture the same joy, charm and fun. But another part is the fantastic job the developers have done in completely revolutionizing the way these games work and feel. Implementing the new gameplay systems, graphics engine and open world revived the tried-and-true formula and made for what is possibly the best game in the franchise. It stumbles upon a few issues, like the disappointing multiplayer, and some parts of this game can't help but feel a bit too familiar. Still, it is once again a playable delight and a very fun action-adventure game. And until we finally get that Ubisoft Star Wars game, it will most definitely be the best open world action-adventure game set in the galaxy far, far away...
- Rating: 8/10
- Release Date: April 5, 2022
- Developer: Traveller's Tales
- Genre: Third-Person Action-Adventure
- Players: Single Player & Co-op Multiplayer
- Time to beat: 20-30 Hours
- Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC