| Product: |
Lego Star Wars (PC) |
| Date: |
05/02/07 (205 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fun, addictive, impressive sound and graphics, lots of ways to finish levels
Disadvantages: Too short, ridiculously easy to complete
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, someone had the genius idea of marrying Star Wars Episodes I-III (the prequels) with Lego and making a game out of it!
I guess that probably gives my opinion away a bit, but I think this game is brilliant!
I had high hopes for it when it came out, as it was produced by Travellers Tales – the people responsible for the excellent later instalments of the Crash Bandicoot series. Sure enough, that faith was not misplaced and Star Wars Lego is just fun, fun, fun…
First of all, the graphics and sound are both excellent. This is an official Star Wars (and Lego) licensed product, so all the sounds are exactly as you would expect. From John Williams’ rousing score, through to various pieces of music from the films, this is the sound of the Star Wars universe. Interestingly (presumably for cost reasons), the game features no speech from the key characters. Instead, they just make speech type noises – yet this proves so effective that, if you’re familiar with the film, you can hear the dialogue in your head!
Similarly, the graphics are good. The Star Wars universe is faithfully, yet amusingly reconstructed using Lego. Fans of the series will instantly recognise characters and locations and it’s good to see that such care has gone into the graphics.
Similar care and consideration has also gone into which keys are used to play the game. Keyboard controls are nice and straightforward and logical. I’m usually hopeless with keyboard controls, having been brought up on joysticks and control pads, yet I found no problem quickly adapting to Lego Star Wars. In two player mode, players are based on opposite ends of the keyboard, so there’s no squabbles about invading the other player’s space! However, if you don’t like the keys assigned, you can always change them to ones which suit you.
The game is instantly addictive with lots to do and plenty of places to explore. Levels are nicely laid out and, whilst they do lead you round a certain way and you have to do certain things to complete the level, there’s still a pleasing feeling of having the freedom to explore. As such, you never really feel you’re being forced to play the game in a certain way, nor at you at any risk of getting lost.
Gameplay is also nice and straightforward. You fight your way through various levels interacting with scenery, collecting coins, revealing secrets or freeing new characters. The coins collected on each level can be used to buy or unlock new features and characters. You need to switch between various characters to access certain areas, which introduces an element of variety. For example, some doors can only be opened using R2-D2, so until you have him available, you can’t explore certain areas; other bits can only be unlocked by a character who can use the Force and so on. However, it’s usually pretty clear what you have to do, so it’s unlikely that any of the problems will detain you for too long.
What’s nice about this feature is that the characters really do have different abilities and feel different to control. Some characters, for example, can jump higher; others can fit through small gaps; some move slowly, others are lightning fast!. You’ll probably find you have your favourite character to control – but this will differ from person to person!
Equally fun is that there are several different ways of completing the game. In story mode, for example, you run through the level as certain characters. However, once you have completed a level, you can do it again using Free Play mode. In this, you can choose to be any character you have unlocked, giving you access to previously inaccessible area. Similarly, you can aim to achieve Jedi Status (which means you collect a certain number of coins), or collect a number of canisters hidden throughout the level. This variety of challenges is fun and adds to the longer term appeal of the game.
Having said that, some levels are a little dull. In particular, those set in the Theed Palace tend to drag, so having to go back and repeat them to complete all the challenges can become a little boring. Another slight criticism is that some of the levels are quite long (to do properly, they can take 45 minutes to an hour). The only way to save a level is to complete it – there are no save points scattered through the level. So, if you start a level and don’t get chance to finish it in that sitting, you will lose your progress to date, which is a little frustrating.
Equally, the game is pretty easy to complete. In some respects, this is a positive thing, as it makes the game accessible to younger players or casual gamers. However, it doesn’t offer a huge challenge (you have unlimited lives) and hard core gamers will complete it very quickly and are unlikely to ever pick it up again. Although there are lots of different ways to complete the levels, once you have done them all, the replay value of the game is likely to be very limited.
Character Artificial Intelligence is generally OK. If you are playing in one player mode, the characters will follow you around, so you can switch your control to them, as you need to. However, just occasionally, a character will get themselves stuck, which can be very frustrating. This is particularly true on some of the later levels, where the precision jumping across platforms is required, and the computer controlled character sometimes gets stuck. The only way I have found to solve this is to go back on yourself, switch control to the other character, get them free, then go back and carry on with what you are doing. Unfortunately, sometimes, they immediately go and get themselves stuck again - very annoying!
As an added bonus, one of the characters you can unlock is Jar Jar Binks (shudder), which means you can deliberately send him plummeting to his death and listen to him scream! The downside is that since since characters can’t die, he just re-appears again. Shame!
At the end of each level, you are given a progress report, telling you how many of the tasks for that level have been completed. For example, each level has a number of minikit pieces to collect, which can be built up in to vehicles from the Star Wars universe. The end of level progress tells you how many of these you have collected and you can view the current state of the vehicles you have built! Again, it’s a nice little touch and leaves you feeling that you really have accomplished something.
Conclusion
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Overall, this is a hugely enjoyable and highly addictive game. It’s one of those where you start playing, then glance up at the clock and realise three hours has gone by! It’s great fun and the various ways to complete the game and the number of things you need to collect or build add to the fun add to the playability and appeal of the game. Having said that, it’s not going to offer any real challenge, even to relatively inexperienced gamers, and once you have completed all the tasks, you’re unlikely to ever load up the game again.
Availability
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As Lego Star Wars has been out for a while now, you can pick up a copy pretty cheap. It can be bought second hand from places like eBay for just a few quid, whilst a new copy can easily be found in most computer shops for around a tenner.
Copyright SWSt 2007
Summary: The force is strong in this game!
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