Having played the first Lego Star Wars game back in 2005 on the PS2, and subsequently played it many times in the various forms since, played 2 on the PS2 and PSP, the complete saga on DS and 360, The force awakens on PS4, now I am playing it on PS5. I mean I even have the complete saga on my phone. I’d go as far to say that along with all of this and my physical Lego Star Wars collection, that I sometimes forget it isn’t a Lego IP and the story was always told this way. Not in big budget live action films.
This game shows how far the video game adaptions have come for Lego, and this spans the other franchises it uses as well, from Jurassic world, Batman, Lord of The Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones. Marvel, The Incredibles etc. Having a fully fleshed out galaxy with multiple hub planets, that all contain Kyber bricks, data cards, unlockable vehicles, characters and side quest to complete. There is 24 planets to be exact. There is 19 data cards which have replaced red bricks here but still unlock stud multipliers and other bonuses, and there are 1200 kyber bricks to find which are now used to upgrade your characters over all, or their individual sub class of say Jedi. Each mission now has 5 minikits to find across the 5 missions for each film as well as the three hidden level tasks to do as you go along.
The game has even spruced up combat, allowing combos now which help break the enemies defence or to get a higher string of attacks into a boss. There’s a cover and shoot system in play now, so you have more accuracy when in a fire fight. This also all comes neatly in a combo multiplier as you fight your way through waves of stormtroopers. This is another part where the skill trees come into play being able to increase your health and damage output overall.
Graphically speaking the game looks great, the facial expressions and detail on the mini figures really stand out and make the characters look individual. Not like in the originals where they didn’t even have voices they just sorta grunted and mumbled along. Which if that’s your cup of tea then you can pay 500,000 studs to unlock that mode and reminisce of easier times before bills and adulthood ruining your life. Every explorable planet hub looks fantastic and all feel independent from one another so you aren’t just trudging along looking at all the same scenery. Honestly for what it is, it doesn’t really have any right to look as good as does.
In terms of a standard Lego game though it’s huge, with 45 main missions to work through and 140 side missions, 384 characters, and 114 vehicles. Every planet area is jam packed, worth exploring every nook and cranny. Do all the activities for kyber bricks as well. I think with having so many levels this time round, some of the story ss filled in mini activities and cutscenes between missions. This however for the better allows for the levels to focus more keenly on the bigger, more memorable moments of the films.
To go along with all this there is loads of open space areas, which contain races, beat the clock, shoot the targets in the time, dog fights and even chasing down gold ships. So even just flying between planets there is stuff to be done. If you just wanna play through the missions it won’t take that much time probably around 15/16 hours maybe a bit longer if you do a bit of side stuff along the way. However trying to 100% the game which is the point I’m at it’ll easily put you into the 80+ minimum region, easily twice the length of a normal Lego game. I find that a lot of it is fun though as well it doesn’t feel too tedious and it’s most quick fun. Most of the main missions are more succinct and shorter then normal and as previously mentioned there is only 5 mini kits per level now as well. The real fun doesn’t start until you’ve hit free play and can go round with first stud multipliers as who you want. Nothing better then playing a new hope and wrecking shit as Darth Maul.
Oddly though, one feature that isn’t that prominent is the building aspect of the game. I found a lot of the time you don’t really need to build anything to by in most missions it’s very minimal. It more focuses on have the right character selected so using the force as a Jedi, or Sith. Even being a storm trooper to detonate silver blocks, or the one that pops up the most is the droid gates. So using R2-D2 or BB8 to bypass something.
Overall I’d rate this game a very strong 8/10, Highly Tasty.
The game is really great fun especially in bite-size chunks if you haven’t got the time to play for hours and hours. It looks and plays amazingly. Having overhauled the combat and added mini skill trees to beef up the character repertoire slightly. All tightly packed in fun and highly designed levels with the trademark Lego humour. All makes for a game well worth your time just a casual fan of either fandom or a die hard fan.
Released 5th April 2022, Sony Playstation 5
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