LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Feels like a joke. First episode takes like 20 minutes to finish. Open world exploration has no motivator.

I’ve been playing LEGO games for as long as I can remember, and I can’t fully articulate WHY I find them so enjoyable. Perhaps it’s because of their simplicity, as I’m (usually) able to rush through them within the span of a few days. It could also be because of their choice of licensed properties. Whether it’s Indiana Jones, Batman—or in this case, Luke Skywalker—being able to play as these beloved characters in their respective worlds fulfills what my inner child always dreamed of. Or maybe it’s because of just how endearing these games are. Though the newer games have voice acting, there’s still that goofy slapstick humor present in cutscenes, and the games aren’t afraid to borderline mock the movie(s) they’re replicating. I could go on and on about why I genuinely love these games, but the question remains: How does this entry stack up? Well strap in, because we’ve got a bit to get through.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a great game held back by monotony. Whether you’re in combat, solving puzzles, completing side content, or just exploring the galaxy for fun, it all starts to blend together. The entire third trilogy took me longer to complete than the rest of the game combined, not because the planets were larger or the puzzles were more difficult, but because I was so tired that I ended up dropping the game for a few weeks. It certainly didn’t help that the final trilogy is undoubtedly the weakest, though I’ll touch on that more later. What’s even more bizarre is that this entry is open world, similar to Lego City Undercover and Marvel Superhero’s 2, both of which I adored. So what happened?

To begin, each movie is broken up into 5 stages that take place across that movie’s particular planets. In between stages, the player is able to explore these planets and find a plethora of collectibles and goodies. This exploration is incredibly satisfying, definitely the strongest aspect of this game. The stages themselves aren’t really anything to write home about, with only a handful of them feeling like proper LEGO stages. The rest are either vehicle sections (which range from okay to mindless) or boss gauntlets, but because the “combat” consists of pressing one, MAYBE two buttons per fight, half of those types of stages end up becoming button mashing messes. This cycle of exploration followed by simplistic levels was a little disappointing, but I still adored the game. That was, until Episode 5.

Episode 5 was the point where I realized I had done everything in the game. Kyber Bricks were hidden in the exact same ways across worlds. Side missions played out exactly like one another. Levels continued to disappoint, actually managing to drop in quality towards the end. Every. Single. Aspect. I had done it all a hundred times, and it was finally sinking in that it was far from over despite the game having showed its entire hand. This greatly hampered my enjoyment going forward, as new worlds felt anything but. To add insult to injury, the switch version of this game is incredibly choppy, the load times are embarrassingly long, and it crashed multiple times for me while I grinded for collectibles, causing me to lose my progress on numerous occasions. Tedium turned to frustration, I put the game down, and contemplated not playing it anymore.

Returning after my break, I found it all easier to stomach, though as I mentioned, the newer trilogy was simply too lackluster to bring me all the way back in. It’s most likely a result of the movie’s themselves being forgettable messes, but the LEGO adaptations of these films struggle to capture any semblance of adventure like the other movies, with levels feeling completely forced. I don’t know how much better they could have made the newer trilogy levels, but at that point why bother making a new LEGO Star Wars game in the first place? The Complete Saga is a much more streamlined, consistently fun experience. This game is like if you made The Complete Saga three times longer to complete, but made it half as enjoyable.

I would recommend this game, but under no circumstances should you play this in one go. I’m sure in short, 1-2 Episode bursts, with perhaps a little time spent exploring, it would be fantastic. But for someone like me, who goes all in on games like this , no. You’ll walk away wanting to play another LEGO game to wash the taste out of your mouth.

The Skywalker Saga is an enjoyable 3D platformer that successfully made me feel nostalgic but also disappointed. The game is very ambitious and it makes a lot of improvements over the originals but it is still very much a LEGO game. It's actually possible to aim while shooting now and you can perform melee combos but the game is still way too easy (the boss fights were especially lackluster). I get that this is a game aimed mostly at kids but I've also been playing Kirby and the Forgotten Lands recently and the combat in that game feels much more rewarding. 
I have also felt let down by some of the levels. For example, in The Last Jedi there is a level dedicated to Finn changing clothes but the battle on Crait is shown in a cutscene i.e. some scenes that should've been featured were cut while some scenes that definitely shouldn't have been made into levels were made into bloated levels. Also the stuff they left out means that the story of this game makes absolutely no sense unless you've seen the movies. Playing this game without seeing the movies first would be like trying to understand the story of Kingdom Hearts.
I quite enjoyed collecting bricks in the hub areas but my OCD cannot handle how many things there are to collect in this game. I can't walk 2 meters without smashing everything in sight and collecting every last stud which I find very frustrating. That is kind of my fault but this wouldn't happen if the developers didn't reward you for breaking everything!
I completed a trilogy of movies and realised that the game had nothing else to offer so I gave up.

A breath of fresh air for the lego series. I feel like taking a step back with constant releases for lego is going to do them such a huge favour. Both this multi hub/open world game and more classic lego style games should in my opinion coexist together. A mix of some more linear lego games with open world ones would keep them always interesting. Regarding this game, it is huge. There are double digit planets to explore and 100%, alongside space surrounding each planet and even some ships to explore like the death star. Each movie has 5 levels to them, leaving a lot of replayability. I genuinely don't mind the ridiculous amount of collecting needed to be done in this game for 100% since that is why I play lego games, but my only real complaint is that certain collectibles can't be done right away. It's so infuriating seeing a planet at 98% only because to fully complete the planet you need to unlock the opportunity to get the last character or kyber brick on the planet by doing another objective on a completely different planet. Other than that major complaint, the gameplay and upgrade system is a great upgrade to these games that make this feel more like a star wars game rather than a lego game.

65/100. For how big this game is in terms of space you can cover, it's astounding how little substance there actually is. They found a way to make the story of Star Wars boring. The "levels" wildly vary in length but are also indistinguishable from the spaces in between levels, where you are still progressing the story but aren't playing a level? The only saving grace was the flying missions and they were few and far between. All in all a very disappointing experience. Also not having a main hub was a mistake. Justice for Dex's Diner.

Played on: Playstation 5
Version: Playstation 5
Edition: Digital

I had some fun & got enough bang for my buck. Lots of side content & this game could run you for HOURS if you wanted to 100% it. I just found myself to be limping to the finish line unfortunately.

After 9 episodes (some are FAR better than others) the ups & downs wore on me. Not only did I suffer through them in their film state but now I suffered with them in their game state. Yikes.

All in all, there is plenty to do, lots to explore, & tons of things to unlock but by the end of my time with the overall main narrative of Star Wars as a whole, I was ready to clock out.

Final verdict: Wait for a sale