More LEGO lightsaber fun. (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2))

Member Name: butters

Product:	Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2)
Date:	22/10/06 (394 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great addictive and childis gameplay.

Disadvantages: Vehicle missions.

After the success of LEGO Star Wars back in 2005, it was inevitable the best Star Wars game would get a sequel; especially since the 2005 game was based on the bad trilogy. I have never been a fan of Star Wars but enjoyed this game.

The 2005 game was a completely original game, where you played out the later Star Wars movie in a LEGO environment and as LEGO characters. It was actually quite surprising that it was good, yet a lot excellent and a made a change to see a good platforming game get a good mark in the magazines. It was also made by Travellers Tales, not LucasArts who made the movies (LucasFilm) and some of the other star Wars games.

~Story~

It plays through the key moments of the Original Trilogy in LEGO (Episodes IV to VI) really. This follows the Attempts of Luke Skywalker teaming up with a team of Rebels to rescue Princess Leia from Darth Vader (episode IV), Yoda training Luke to become a Jedi whilst Darth Vader is tracking him down (episode V) and the Rebels attempt to destroy the Death star, with Luke trying to win back his father from the Dark side (episode VI).

To be honest though, you’ll either be a fan of the series and already know the story, or not like it and therefore not care about the story. Even I enjoyed them re-enacting some of the scenes though due to them being LEGO. Many cut-scenes dragged on far too long and became uninteresting though since LEGO people cannot talk. I was in stitched though with the cut scene of the famous line ‘I am you father’ mute version and it’s one of the highlights of the game.

Since I don’t like Star Wars its hard to say whether every piece of the plot has been covered, but everything major that I knew about was there-from the Space battles to destroying AT-AT’s. Not that it matter too much because this game if far too cartoony to be taken seriously.

~Gameplay~

A great thing about the original game was the uniqueness of dying. You can but you just pop straight back up and lose a bit of your studs, which you collect by destroying enemies, and can buy characters with and earn bonuses if you collect enough. Many would find this babyish but it reality it is not like that and just add to the gameplay. It’s not all about battling since there are some puzzles too and it just makes the game a little bit different and far less repetitive, and still hard because of some puzzles.

Adding to the gameplay and party aspect of the game is a drop-in/drop-out mode. Whenever you have a friend round just grab a remote, press start, and add them into the game controlling the secondary character that you always have with you-working together. This can always be done since there is always another character following you around for you to choose. You could be a Jedi blocking Trooper bullets, or Chewbacca with his cross-bow and being able to pull the LEGO enemies arms off.

The levels themselves are pretty huge too, with some being quite time consuming, searching for certain characters etc. and don’t really get boring because each one is so different. There are tonnes of secret rooms to find, and virtually everything that isn’t the wall is destroyable via lightsaber or blaster gun and going back to the levels and choosing character select lets you find even more secret rooms-like Storm Trooper Jacuzzi rooms for example.

However, there are drawbacks. For example-one is that your secondary character never does damage. He shoots and therefore sometimes gets some enemies off you, but with no damage done it seems a bit pointless. I’d rather have a mediocre player following me around that dies but does damage than this (my friend then).

Another major disadvantage is the vehicle missions in general. A major disadvantage considering practically the whole of episode 5 involves a vehicle. It all seems very repetitive, shooting bullets, shooting walls down with missiles and avoiding enemies and the controls confused me. Everything seemed basic considering it took up so much of the game-and I expected to be able to do a lot more twirls and flips to get me out of situations. Instead you could basically move around, shoot and do a back flip to dodge. And invisible walls don’t help. You go too far out and your ship does an automatic turn. I would have preferred it much more if you could just fly round a bit so if you fly to the left for so long you end up at the right. Plus a major annoyance is that a ship should be able to fly anywhere. So why would you need to destroy doors to a certain place, why not go over. I just found every vehicle mission tedious and repetitive-like destroying AT-AT’s. They are ok to do the first time round, but still average at best.

The on foot missions are excellent though, even if the vehicle missions were a let down.

~Replay Value~

Not as much as I had hoped actually. In the original game, I replayed through for hours on end-completing every mission over and over to get studs to buy many characters. Nothing has really changed and everything from collecting mini-kits each level to getting Jedi Status (lots of studs) and more is in each level-like finding the special block to unlock items. However, my incentive to had gone because of the mediocre vehicle missions. Why try to completely complete 12 missions when you know you don’t want to do the other 6? It means you haven’t completed the game, and that you can’t unlock every item. There’s loads of stuff to buy like extra characters and cheats but the 6 missions I didn’t feel like repeating meant I couldn’t get the overly expensive last few characters or items.

Getting the characters in huge fn though and playing as them in free play mode where you can play as many characters to find hidden secrets within the level adds to the gameplay immensely and doing this sometimes lasts longer than it originally took you to complete the level.

However, OPS2 magazine loved them, so if you do then you’ll no doubt get hours upon hours of extra time on this game than I did. And if you are a Star Wars fan then you’ll no doubt enjoy the game even more.

~Graphics & Cut scenes~

There isn’t much to say really since they are so cartoony. The in game play and cut scenes look bright and colourful with nothing to complain about really and the expressions on their faces in the cut scenes are pretty fun to watch. Some may get interest in watching muted Star Wars LEGO because of the expressions to convey emotions etc. but I found it got boring. Some cut scenes were pretty funny though, with the humour obviously added to keep our attention on the game.



~Controls~

Since I have mentioned the controls in the vehicle missions are terrible it is only fair to say that on foot it is the complete opposite. One button swaps characters and the attack button and jump button are alls that are needed for combos. What is even better is that the attack button is also used as offence-to block with your lightsaber or to dodge as a blaster holding character. At no time do you feel the controls are awkward, which is quite surprising since attack and defence is the same button. You just need to press to defend at the fight time (which stops button bashing to some extent too).

~Extra Information~

Name: Lego Star Wars II: The Original trilogy
Age: 3+
Released: October 2006
Lifespan: 10-12 hours completion time. Many more (up to 20) unlocking extras.
Price: ASDA-£29.99. www.amazon.co.uk-£17.99
Formats: PS2. Xbox. Gamecube. PC. DS. PSP. GBA. (GBA version different.)
Developer: Travellers Tales


~Overall~

Not as good as the 1st version in my opinion. It is an incredibly fun and addictive game with loads of characters and ship to unlock that will provide hours of fun, especially for Star Wars fans and those who liked the original game. However, in my opinion it is let down incredibly by the vehicle missions which just spoil the flow of the game and make some of the missions dull. Luckily though, some of the on foot missions save this part of the game considerably and the replay value also adds to the value for money.

It is a good sequel and I was hoping for it ever since I played the original and although it is a worthy competitor I think the original just beats it. It you don’t have the first I strongly recommend you get that one and this and it is definitely worth a buy, especially at the Amazon price of £17.99

I am also pleased to say it is for all ages. Too many games now are getting too violent or mediocre but this is one of the only platform games that has got good ratings and will hopefully encourage more games. Incredibly addictive and with LEGO Batman rumoured to be in production, bring on Gotham City!

Summary: A great sequel.