Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Developer(s)	Traveller's Tales
Publisher(s)	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Director(s)	James McLoughlin
Series	Lego Star Wars
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	5 April 2022
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a Lego-themed action-adventure game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sixth entry in TT Games' Lego Star Wars series of video games and the successor to Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The game adapts all nine entries in the Skywalker Saga series of films, with additional characters based on other Star Wars films and shows set to be released later as DLC. The game was released on 5 April 2022 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, with some saying it was the best Lego game ever made.

Gameplay

Unlike most Lego video games in which players had to advance through the story in a linear order, players can choose to start the game from any of the three Skywalker Saga trilogies and complete them in any order they wish. Each episode has five story missions, making a total of 45 levels, contrasting from six levels per episode in previous games. Combat has been revamped from previous titles, such as lightsaber wielders now using a variety of combo with light attacks, heavy attacks, and Force moves, and blaster characters having an over-the-shoulder camera. The game features 380 playable characters.

Much like its predecessor, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the game's hub is not a single area, such as the Mos Eisley Cantina in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, but a wide range of fully explorable planets filled with many iconic Star Wars landmarks. Planets and moons confirmed by the developers so far to be explorable in the hub include Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant, Kamino, Geonosis, Kashyyyk, Utapau, Mustafar, Yavin 4, Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin, Endor, Jakku, Takodana, D'Qar, Starkiller Base, Ahch-To, Cantonica, Crait, Ajan Kloss, Pasaana, Kijimi, Kef Bir, and Exegol. Many ships have freely explorable areas in the hub as well, such as Star Destroyers and the Death Star. Random encounters will also happen in the game's hub. For example, an Imperial Star Destroyer could suddenly jump out of hyperspace and send a fleet of TIE fighters after the player. Players can choose to engage in dogfights with them or continue onward to progress the story.

TT Games confirmed that Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga won’t include a character customization tool, unlike its predecessor, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The game also includes Mumble Mode, an extra feature allowing players to switch between the game's original voice acting and having the characters mumble and grunt, akin to the style of older Lego video games.

Development

Disney and Lucasfilm had not shared significant details of The Rise of Skywalker with the game team before the film's release. In the meantime, TT Games worked on other aspects of the game until Lucasfilm shared more details. The game is developed in Traveller's Tales' new engine, NTT (pronounced Entity).

On 20 January 2022, a report published by Polygon detailed the amount of crunch that occurred since the game began development back in late 2017, including dozens inside the company being at odds with management, due to expressing frustration over tight development schedules, the company’s crunch culture, and outdated development tools. In addition, the use of NTT was extremely controversial within the company, as many employees had been pushing to instead use Unreal Engine. NTT turned out to be incredibly difficult to use, with some animations taking hours more to produce than they would on the old engine.

Audio

Like Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga features original voice acting. Actors reprising their roles from the live action Star Wars films include Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Matthew Wood as General Grievous, and Daniel Logan as an adult Boba Fett. Sam Witwer also reprises his role as Darth Maul from the Solo film and The Clone Wars and Rebels TV series, as well as his role as Emperor Palpatine from Rebels. Other actors reprising their roles from Star Wars TV series include James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Dee Bradley Baker as Commander Cody and the Clone troopers, Tom Kane as Yoda, Admiral Ackbar and Qui-Gon Jinn, and Corey Burton as Count Dooku. The game marks Kane's final acting credit, due to a forced retirement in the wake of his stroke in November 2020.

Release

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was first teased to be in development by Lucasfilm sound editor Matthew Wood at Star Wars Celebration Chicago. An announcement trailer premiered at E3 2019 during Microsoft's press conference. A second trailer showing one scene from all nine movies was released on 20 December to coincide with the release of The Rise of Skywalker. On 7 May 2020, the release date was mentioned as 20 October 2020. through the Star Wars YouTube channel. On the same day, the original video was made private and a new video, in which the release date was cut out, was uploaded. This date was not otherwise confirmed. During 2020 Gamescom Opening Night Live, it was announced that the game would release in Q1/Q2 2021 with additional versions on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. On 2 April 2021, it was announced that the game had been delayed, with no further release window specified. On 25 August 2021, during Gamescom, a second gameplay trailer was released along with the announcement that the game will be released in early 2022. On 20 January 2022, it was officially announced the game will release 5 April 2022 alongside a new gameplay trailer. Players were able to pre-order both the standard edition, and the deluxe edition. The standard edition pre-order came with the base game, a 1999 Classic Obi-Wan Kenobi playable character, and a Luke Skywalker mini figure with "blue milk" (disc copy only). The deluxe edition included everything the standard edition has, as well as 7 character packs.

Downloadable content

On 7 March 2022, seven DLC packs were announced for the game. Of these seven character packs based on The Mandalorian Season 1, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Classic Characters, The Trooper Pack, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian Season 2 and The Bad Batch:

• On 5 April, four character packs will be released, but only three available to purchase. The Mandalorian Season 1 features the playable characters Din Djarin, Grogu (non-playable), Greef Karga, Cara Dune, IG-11 and Kuiil. Solo: A Star Wars Story features the playable characters young Han Solo, young Chewbacca, young Lando Calrissian, Qi'ra, Tobias Beckett and Enfys Nest. Classic Characters features the playable characters Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader and Lando Calrissian. Trooper Pack features the playable characters Death Trooper, Incinerator Trooper, Range Trooper, Imperial Shore Trooper and Mimban Stormtrooper, however the Trooper Pack will only be available as a pre-order bonus with the deluxe edition until 4 May.
• On 19 April, a Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character pack will be released featuring Jyn Erso, Bodhi Rook, Cassian Andor, K-2SO, Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbus and Director Krennic.
• On 4 May, two character packs will be released, and the Trooper Pack will be available for purchase. The Mandalorian Season 2 features the playable characters Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Bo Katan, Fennec Shand and Moff Gideon. The Bad Batch features the playable characters Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair and Echo.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	(NS) 81/100 (PS5) 84/100 (XSXS) 83/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	7.5/10
Game Informer	8/10
IGN	8/10
Nintendo Life
Push Square
Shacknews	9/10

Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

IGN gave Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga an 8 out of 10, saying "LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga provides some rollicking reimaginings of Star Wars’ most iconic moments and seats them inside a series of interplanetary playgrounds that are dense with discovery and entertaining diversions." Destructoid gave the game a 7.5 out of 10 and wrote, "Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga doesn’t reinvent the wheel and the subject matter is limited because the narrative mostly adheres to the film trilogies...but it’s a fun way to relive them as an adult and show them to kids at the same time." Game Informer praised the game's story-focused levels, combat, and character unlocks, stating, "While nailing the little moments, the immense scale of the project appears to have been too wide for TT Games to harness, as some of the content is uncharacteristically dull or uneven...Despite being periodically uneventful, the Skywalker Saga is a thorough and fun examination of all three Star Wars movie trilogies." Shacknews gave the title a 9 out of 10, praising its humor, combat features, voice acting, and visuals while taking minor issue with the excessive collectibles and challenges. Nintendo Life also praised its campaign, pacing, side content, co-op, humor, and music while criticizing some performance issues. Push Square similarly praised the game while lamenting occasional camera issues, performance dips, and the lack of online co-op.

External links

• Official website