A years ago, on a game console not gathering dust at the back of my closet, Traveller's Tales released Lego Star Wars. For those too young to savor this 2005 masterpiece, you missed the very first bricky foray in to the Star Warsuniverse. If you wouldn't know from the title, the game only covered a single trilogy. But, hey, a minimum of it was the most important one: Episodes I through III!
Okay, maybe starting with the prequels wasn't what everyone wanted, but we did eventually receive a game since the original trilogy, a Lego-fied version of Clone Wars, and even a standalone title for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. By 2023, Traveler's Tales were cranking out several licensed Lego games each year, the result being market oversaturation with what many considered repetitive, cookie-cutter games.
Still, when Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. announced a brand new Lego The exorcist game in 2023, I had been intrigued. Not only did they promise a slew of refinements around the gameplay side, but the most expansive Legoseries game to date, one encompassing all nine of the mainline Star Wars films. The end result, Lego The exorcist: The Skywalker Saga, returns to the heart of the items makes them games a lot fun: exploration, humor, and an irreverent management of a beloved franchise.
When players enter this whole new management of the Star Wars universe, a number of choices appear. You can begin at the outset of each trilogy-prequel, classic, or sequel-and work through the sport in any order by which you would like. Each of the nine films has its own section, with massive hub areas to explore between missions. You will find five main missions for each film, and plenty of side content to explore in the hubs. That's 45 main missions to experience, which sounds like a great deal, but my downside is how fast parts of the storyline fly by. Story missions tend to concentrate on each movie's biggest moments, so you won't miss a podrace, trench run, or space-horse battle along with a Star Destroyer-but be ready to run from moment to moment, completing exposition quickly on the way.
Rushing from story pursuit to story mission will swallow 20 to 25 hours, depending on how you explore each level. Completing all of the optional side content and unlocking the countless minifigures, small kits, along with other collectibles will tack on several dozen more.
Fortunately, there is a wide selection of fun waiting around every corner during missions and minigames. About a minute you're ducking behind a wall (a new mechanic) picking off a battalion of stormtroopers with your blaster, and subsequently, you're throwing your lightsaber like a boomerang (also new) toward an especially stubborn enemy. And don't forget flying an X-Wing on the Death Star trench or perhaps a snowspeeder against AT-ATs relentlessly stomping toward your base.
One of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's greatest strengths is the way it shifts from one objective to another, never sticking you with one task of sufficient length for it to obtain stale. Yes, you will still be breaking bricks and collecting studs just like a schoolyard bully, but it's always in order to do something more: solve a puzzle, fight a battle, save the galaxy. Most of the mechanics will feel familiar to Legoveterans, however the new over-the-shoulder perspective makes everything feel more intimate and immediate. The view complements the game's slick graphics. The bricks look suitably plastic while the accompanying world provides a breathtaking cinematic backdrop. It is a wonderful contrast that works better here than in the past.
In relation to audio, John Williams's famous score resonates throughout, while dialog provides a mix of iconic lines and new quips thrown in to remind you not to consider all of this so seriously. Indeed, the series' spontaneity has only gotten goofier, which works about 95-percent from the time-but it is a little off-putting whenever a scene completely changes for any laugh. For instance, will it really matter who shot first if nobody is blown to bricks?
Unfortunately, not all of the game's pieces fit together perfectly. Sometimes wandering round the hubs, accepting side missions and seeking to determine what to do, becomes confusing. A much better map system could have been good, although it might have discouraged the exploration necessary to uncover all the game's secrets. You will also still spend an inordinate period of time smashing, shooting, or lightsaber-ing everything in sight in a desperate make an effort to claim every stud easy to unlock everything, a gameplay loop that may use some streamlining in the end these years.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga embraces a lot of what made earlier Lego games fun and a few that made them frustrating, while adding a brand new layer of polish and flair that's sure to please fans. Now go grab some green milk and prepare for a galaxy spanning adventure.
