By the time Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga came along, I had fallen out of love with Lego titles from TT Games and WB Games. The Lego Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones series got me into video games as a kid, spending countless hours of fun (and sometimes frustration) playing them with my brother.
Over time, however, I found myself losing interest in the series and becoming increasingly disillusioned with the basic open-world formula the series had settled on after great games like Lego City Undercover. I was no longer enthralled by any of the series that helped me establish my love of video games. That’s why The Skywalker Saga’s bold recent direction excites me.
Not only does it revisit the films that inspired some of my favorite Lego games, but it also builds on them with more extensive hub worlds, mission variety, and deeper gameplay than previous Lego action games. While The Skywalker Saga’s many delays and development issues worried me, my hands-on experience with an early version of the game managed to captivate me as much as the original Lego Star Wars did 17 years ago.
New hope for the series
My demo took me through the first 90 minutes of A New Hope, one of nine Star Wars films set in the Skywalker Saga. Like every Lego game before it, this segment of the game followed the events of the film it was based on. It features full voice acting (from sound engineers, not the film’s cast), though I appreciated the inclusion of a “purr mode,” which makes characters grunt and pantomime, as they did in early Lego games.
LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga – Gameplay Overview
TT Games is also experimenting with the iconic opening of A New Hope. There are plenty of jokes to keep the kids entertained, but it also intertwines with the end of Rogue One. The first character I played was Princess Leia, who has plans for the Death Star and tries to escape Darth Vader when he boards the Tantive IV. Somehow, this Lego game managed to make this oft-adapted and parodied plot point feel fresh.
This mission also served as a tutorial and a demonstration of how The Skywalker Saga differs from previous Lego games. Yes, there’s still combat, exploration, and puzzles, but they’re more complicated than before. A cover-based system has been introduced to make gunfights more engaging. Meanwhile, players can now chain melee combos with different moves and counter enemy attacks, making melee combat more enjoyable than before. The character classes and abilities also make the combat in this game more than just button mashing.
Missions often give players multiple options for completing their objectives, whether it’s due to the specific Lego structures players can craft or the abilities of their playable character. This isn’t Devil May Cry, but these deeper gameplay systems kept my eyes open from boredom within the first hour, which is more than I can say for the last few Lego games I’ve played.
The Skywalker saga made a forceful first impression on me and got me excited to see how the rest of A New Hope would play out. I was able to play as Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi, recruit Han and Chewbacca, and explore the Death Star before my demo was over. While this is the second time TT Games has adapted the material, it feels completely recent with a renewed approach to storytelling, level design, and gameplay design.
All adults
During my demo, I only scratched the surface of what the game had to offer. The Skywalker Saga feels like the most densely packed Lego game yet, as all nine of the main Star Wars films are recreated here. Not only are there linear levels based on major plot points and set pieces from each film, but there are also enormous hubs on planets and areas in space that players can explore and complete side missions.
As players complete the stories of each film and gain access to more characters, ships, and planets, the number of options they have at their disposal will only grow. The Skywalker Saga also has a progression system to support this amount of content, as missions reward players with Kyber Bricks, which players utilize to unlock and upgrade skills on skill trees.
Yes, this game has skill trees to complement the aforementioned classes — including Jedi, Smugglers, and Protocol Droids — and their abilities, which are useful both in and out of combat. Systems like this make TT Games’ Lego series more comparable to action games, and make it feel like the series has finally matured. Given that The Skywalker Saga will be the first Lego game in years to appeal to those who miss the earliest games in the series, it’s a relief to see that it doesn’t disappoint.
Sure, The Skywalker Saga will still be accessible enough for kids thanks to its graphics, humor, and accessible gameplay basics, but in the end it doesn’t feel like it’s coming at the expense of engaging gameplay for older players. While I thought I’d never like Lego games again, this demo for The Skywalker Saga showed me that I can still love these games—they had to catch up with me first.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch on April 5, 2022.
