Many people are familiar with the LEGO Star Wars franchise, so this is just a quick review blast for Episode One from the LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga video game series. The games were originally released separately, much like the movies, and then later compiled into the Complete Saga with graphical, audio and other improvements. New chapters were also added in the new Complete Saga; such as a chase to find bounty hunter Zam Wessell. There is a game for each Star Wars episode, and chapters within each game. The more recent LEGO game is from the Clone Wars series, and has different characters from that, as well as storylines to reflect it. It is worth noting that the handheld games are different to the console and PC versions.
You can play as, and with, a huge number of the characters we know from the movies. The first episode follows the film, so the characters you control will change and differ depending on the stage of the film you’re playing. Once you’ve finished the main storyline, you can unlock and play Free Play mode, which is worth doing as you can play with other characters who unlock areas that were only available to them during the main game. You get a large amount of hours of play out of these games and will keep children, and adults, entertained for a long time. The games offer a good degree of replay value, and as mentioned, they have other modes, and on second play, you can get to areas previously unreachable with other characters.
The LEGO Star Wars games are all even more fun when played co-operatively with a friend, either online or split screen. When played with another person the fun is magnified and silly mistakes, confusion and attacking the wrong people becomes a very funny affair. You can’t die in the game, you simply break up into LEGO pieces and reform within seconds in the same place to continue playing. There is a stud system wherein you collect various studs littered around, blue and purple ones being the most valuable. These studs are currency within the game and let you buy characters and hints. There are other hidden items in the environments such as gold blocks. The studs and items don’t need to be collected at all if you don’t want to, but if you are a completionist, they are fun to find.
Episode One shows its age a bit now graphically, there isn’t as much polish, and things such as shadows aren’t as refined as the newer games in the series. Despite that, the world has still been excellently recreated in LEGO and droids, characters, and landscapes look fantastic. Not forgetting that the lightsabers look stunning! The music is the same score we all know and love and it falls right into place in the game, creating excitement and atmosphere.
Depending on the character you are currently playing you can use different devices, unlock doors or use tools and weapons to solve puzzles. Differently colored sparkles on objects mean you can use Force powers to build the LEGO pieces into something useful. You can also use your Force powers to push enemies far away.
There’s a lot of humor in these games, and during cutscenes you will see famous parts of the movies playing out and often a funny action such as someone falling over next to Darth Vader. The humor might not be to everyone’s taste but it’s designed to be entertaining for all ages.
Overall, a very fun series of games, very easy and lots of laughs with friends and family.
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