LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Xbox 360)
Traveller's Tales rebuilds the galaxy far, far away with a new, next-gen set of LEGOs.
1/30/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2
What's Hot: Sharper presentation; More characters; Extra content
What's Not: Still not sure if there's enough to warrant buying the game a second time
David Chapman
Status: Going over the new site with a fine-toothed comb.
Not so long ago, on a host of consoles not all that far away, some of the brain trust at both LucasArts and Traveller's Tales came up with the idea to mix a grand space opera with a bunch of kids' building blocks. Together with the LEGO Group, the two companies put together a whole new twist on the Star Wars franchise -- and so the LEGO Star Wars franchise was born. Coming out of nowhere, the game snagged gamers' attentions by taking the stories from Star Wars movies and retelling them with the help of the LEGO blocks we all know and love. Thanks to the surprise success of the first game, the road was paved for the inevitable sequel, which revisited the original trilogy with the likes of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Now, just like the Special Edition versions of the Star Wars films Lucas fired off a few years back, next-gen owners now get to revisit the series in all new hi-def glory with the release of
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga.
First off, if you're a Star Wars fan and you haven't played any of the LEGO Star Wars games yet, you should to burn your bootleg video of the Star Wars Holiday Special, toss your 1:1 scale lightsaber in the trash, and donate your custom-made Stormtrooper uniform to Goodwill. Thankfully,
The Complete Saga is a second chance to redeem yourself to the Jedi Council and to relearn the ways of the Force. The game features simple and easy-to-learn gameplay coupled with a surprising amount of depth, all topped off with a sense of humor that has its tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Players pick and choose from a healthy dose of characters from the expansive Star Wars universe, playing through the events in the films with a variety of different abilities. Jedi characters wield lightsabers with ease and use the Force to manipulate LEGO objects in the environments. Of course, if you're looking to go the route of those with a midi-chlorian deficiency, the game also has a huge number of non-Force characters that are more than capable with a blaster and a grappling hook. This only scratches the surface of the characters' capabilities, and after playing through each level once in Story Mode, you'll have to mix it up in Free Play with characters' abilities to unlock all of the hidden goodies.
Keeping in mind the mistakes made over Greedo shooting first in the first film, the developers of
The Complete Saga were smart enough not to make any drastic changes to the basic gameplay of the LEGO Star Wars series for the compilation. It's still just as simple to jump into and get the hang of this game without having to remember a bunch of complex maneuvers. Of course this simplicity is a bit of a double-edged sword. While younger gamers and those of the more casual scene will appreciate the ease of play, some of the more hardcore crowd will feel like they're playing a basic button-masher from back in the day. The biggest gripe, though, has to be that even with all the work the developers did to bring LEGO Star Wars up to current standards, they still couldn't fix the issues with the camera. Too often, players will be forced to make blind leaps of faith, or miss key hot spots due to nothing more than some shoddy camera angles. It's not enough to break the game, but it's an irritation nonetheless.
