| LEGO Star Wars is back...and this time it's gone old skool |
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The
first Lego Star Wars was ace. It didn't last particularly long, and those without a sense of humour needed not apply, but it
was imaginative, hilarious and really sorta charming. Who'd have thought a simple little platformy hack 'n' slash made out of LEGO by way of the Star Wars prequels could have been such fun? I loved it to death.
Still, did such a barmy, off the wall idea really beg for a sequel? Didn't we say all we needed to say with the first LEGO Star Wars? No! Well okay, in a way, yes. LEGO Star Wars II is hardly a complete re-imagining from the ground up. One that reinvigorates the much overcrowded (cough) LEGO blockbuster movie/videogame hybrid as a whole. Nope, this is really just more of the same, but with a brand new setting. If you can overlook this fact though, you'll find a fabulous bit of innocent little fun in LSWII, and one that as a nice bonus also fetches pleasingly cheaper than its peers right now.
Newness
| Playable vehicles are indeed a blast, yet only the speederbike and AT-ST prove particularly useful |
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To be fair, there
are actually one or two neat (albeit minor) new additions to the formula. Fully controllable vehicles pop up in many missions for one, ranging from landspeeders to Dewbacks to full blown AT-STs. There's also a funny new mix 'n' match feature that lets you create your very own custom Star Wars toons out of LEGO pieces.
Finally the character's abilities and general level design have also seen some pleasing improvements and added depth, by way of Bounty Hunter side missions, useable thermal detonators and even expanded implementation of The Force. Wanna choke Jabba's pig guards in the air 'til they explode into a fountain of LEGO bricks? This game'll make you a happy man then.
Far more importantly than all this though, LEGO Star Wars II's greatest new asset is merely the fact it's set in the classic original trilogy of the '70s and '80s. For people not prequel-inclined - those who found the idea of podrace mini-games and escorting Jar Jar Binks around sheer terror - LSWII is just the ticket.
No Reward is Worth This
| Overlooking the fact it's freakin' LEGO, this level is amazingly fun and creative. Just wait 'til you see the bloody Hoth battle... |
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Much like the first game, it splits itself up into three separate chapters, one for each of the trilogy. A New Hope kicks off with you playing as Leia on board the Corellian Corvette, before moving on to Tatooine for some hot Luke on Ben action, then rounding off with a triple whammy Death Star love-in. It's the same simple, harmless fun many of us grew to love in the first game - running around pretty environments whacking stormtroopers and solving wee puzzles - only made infinitely cooler here due to the much improved subject matter.
Yet don't underestimate LEGO Star Wars II. The final level of A New Hope in fact - which sees you piloting an X-Wing as Luke and ultimately blowing that grey planet of doom to kingdom come - could well be one of the better recreations of that iconic space battle yet seen. How bizarre given it's made from big blocky bricks...
The sheer brilliance of this level is a prime example of how Traveller's Tales have taken many of the original game's admittedly pleasing ideas, and sorta perfected them this time around. The space battles are now fully free-roaming for instance - as opposed to on-rails as before - and now come far more fleshed out to boot, with tons of secrets to track down and even some unlockable ships for you to mess around with (wanna try that trench run in a TIE Fighter next time?).
He's No Good to Me Dead
| Cut-scenes pay respect, yet mock their subject matter perfectly |
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Moving into Empire Strikes Back territory, things get slightly more challenging too. From the icy brilliance of Hoth, to Jedi training on Dagobah, then ending with a Vader showdown on Bespin, levels become increasingly longer and even occasionally tricky if I'm perfectly honest.
Don't get me wrong, LSWII retains the prequel's inability to truly die (infinite respawns return), but it does feature an optional adaptive difficulty setting now, along with considerably longer missions. As a sucker for tracking down every last single bloody secret and collectible on each and every level, some took me almost an hour to complete.
This is a good thing in my book, as the first title had some definite issues with its ease and longevity. Not so here; if like me you enjoy exploring every nook and cranny of every room, LSWII will take some serious time to see through. I like.
You're Gonna Die Here You Know. Convenient
| The game covers all three movies in their entirety, although events have been slightly re-jiggled at times |
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Return of the Jedi rounds things off with very pleasing glimpses of Jabba's Palace, the ability to kill Ewoks, an amazing speederbike level and a superb finale in which you get to pilot the Millennium Falcon. Don't for one second think the game ends there though. One of the game's greatest features in fact, is its sheer wealth of additional unlockable bonus content...
Brand new levels, dozens of additional characters, extra modes, new vehicles, comedy extras, you name it. There's an endless stream of this stuff to track down and enjoy here, and unlike so many other games these days, it's actually
fun for a change. There's a heck of a lot of meat to this game, and I must admit it surprised me in that regard. With the main campaign finished in fact, I'd barely hit 50% on the total completion-o-meter.
Oh, and best of all? It's funny too.
Real funny. Whether it be Han luring Chewie down the Death Star garbage compactor with a doggy bone, or Luke's show-off somersaults while walking the plank on Jabba's sail barge, LSWII is refreshingly side-splitting for a video game. Way more so than the first in my book.
More Plastic Beauty
Visually and sonically, little has changed from the previous game. For such a simple concept as plastic LEGO bricks bouncing around on platforms though, that game looked surprisingly gorgeous, and the same can be said here.
| Environments and overall visual quality remain simplistic yet undeniably beautiful. She's a looker I tell ya |
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As the first Star Wars game to hit the machine, the 360 version is the one I've been spending my time with (naturally...), but I hear the PC, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and even PSP versions stack up pleasingly well. Internet murmurings speak of unbearable horrors in store for DS owners though.
As well as Achievements, HD resolutions and all that other good stuff, for the 360 rendition Traveller's Tales have also added some sparkly new visual effects that not even the PC version can boast. Namely, there's a stunning depth of field thang going on, in which objects and buildings in the foreground and background appear soft and out of focus, giving the game striking visual depth which you would hardly expect from a bleedin' LEGO game. On the downside you
will run into minor framerate issues from time to time, but the trade-off is reasonable I guess, and by all accounts it's still the best version of the lot.
Letting it down is a conspicuous lack of online co-op, a feature which could have elevated LSWII up from minor harmless fun, to a genuine 360 great. The offline same-screen co-op remains - with its drop-in, drop-out brilliance firmly in tact - but it would have been nice to enjoy that same craziness over Live as well. A big let-down, this.
Yub Yub
| LSWII constantly retains at least two characters in your party at all times, hence a second player is always but one click away from joining in the fun |
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All in all LEGO Star Wars probably won't win over haters of the original game then, as while the formula has most definitely been tightened up and improved, it remains a startlingly similar game when all's said and done. If you dug that silly little title as much as I did though, rest assured its follow-up provides just as many laughs and just as much fun, while even having the common courtesy to provide some decent value for money this time around too. Can't complain about that.
It certainly does its film property justice, and is (for better or worse) one of the better Star Wars games to come out in quite some time I might add. Buy it. For me. And for Yoda.
LEGO Batman's up next, incidentally.