This week I tried to get into an older game that combines two of the best things in the world. I was extremely hyped to start playing this game. Lego and Star Wars in one package, what could possibly go wrong?
I wanted to like this game, I really did. But it hasn’t aged well. I’m not sure it was even good in the first place, but there’s an overwhelming number of reviews that don’t agree with me. But the more I tried to get into the game, the more I kept noticing glaring flaws in the design and the gameplay.
Graphics
My first disappointment were the graphics. I was expecting to be thrown into a Lego version of the Star Wars world. What you get are generic renders of the Star Wars universe, with only the characters, vehicles, and a few interactive objects as Lego versions of themselves.
I can’t be too harsh on the visuals, however, as they are very good for the time of release. But they’re a good reminder of how far video graphics have advanced over the last decade or so.
“User Interface”
The first thing that happens when you start a game is that you control Qui-Gon Jinn in the Mos Eisley Cantina. You can run around, jump, and interact with the environment. If you attack one of the characters running around, a bar fight will kick off.
There’s no indication of what you are supposed to be doing in this area. I was running around for a while before I figured out what doors I was meant to go through. There are six doors: one for each episode in the original trilogy and the prequels. Behind each of these doors is another room containing the different levels for each episode.
It’s supposed to be a diegetic interface, but it ends up feeling awkward to use. A simple level select would have worked better, even if they kept Mos Eisley as a hub for playing around before a game starts.
Starting a game also has an extra layer of confusion. For every menu in the game you press Enter to select a menu item. But for some reason, the level start menu and only the level start menu requires you to press Space to select a menu item. It’s an odd choice that throws you off every time you start a level.
To make things worse, exiting the game is tedious. You can’t just Alt-F4 or Quit to Desktop in this game. You have to exit the game back into the Cantina. Then you have to exit the Cantina and go to the main menu. Then you can finally exit the game.
Cutscenes Won’t Stop
The first level starts with the Star Wars crawl that is typical of all Star Wars games. It’s always a fun addition to any game, but then you realise that every single level has its own crawl. It’s excessive and feels like overkill, but thankfully these crawls can be skipped.
What can’t be skipped are the in-game cutscenes. They’re fun cutscenes, giving a fun quirky twist on the story of the films. But if you replay a level multiple times they become repetitive. There’s no option to skip these particular cutscenes, so you just have to wait.
Slow Fights
This is probably my biggest complaint about the game. It just doesn’t feel fun to play. The characters move slowly, and attack animations happen at a snail’s pace. Fighting enemies feels sluggish and it’s just not fun to engage with the enemies.
When you get characters with blasters, they do have aim assist. This is necessary due to the camera angles and limited movement in the game so I don’t have a problem with this design choice. The problem is that it is tricky to get it to work. If your angle is slightly off, or you’re too close to a raised opponent you won’t aim at them. I often found myself circling back and trying to aim in the right direction over and over.
The game has a certain amount of platforming, but jumping is extremely tricky in this game. It can often be difficult to determine where you will land, to the point that ending on the edge of a platform will cause you to slip off and die. Double-jumping is also inconsistent, and you’ll find that many times when you attempt to do this move, you won’t do the second jump.
Jedi have force power that allows them to move and build Lego. It’s an interesting mechanic that fits the game, but you’ll often find that your allies get in the way. So many times have I force pushed a droid instead of moving an object. It also suffers from the same problem as auto-aim – it’s very hard to actuall get into the right place to use your force powers correctly.
This same problem also occurs with the switching characters mechanic. There are levels where you have around 8 characters, but they tend to cluster together making it a crapshoot if you switch to the character you want or not.
While many of these interface issues would be minor annoyances in most games, the compounding effect of all of them hinders the gameplay, and gives you a feeling that developers didn’t really think through and design an interface that would actually be fun to play. As it stands, it’s a frustrating game since you have to fight the controls to get the characters to do what you want.
Crashing Out
I tried to get into this game. I tried playing through the early levels to get to know the game. I tried skipping ahead to see if things improved in later episodes. Ultimately I just couldn’t get past the poor UI and awkward controls.
At one point I ended up on a level where I managed to get 3 of my characters across a bridge. I had left my Jedi behind by mistake. No matter, I can just switch to them and use their force powers to get them across.
Except I couldn’t get back across the bridge with any other character. Which meant I couldn’t switch to them. I tried for about 20 minutes to find a solution but there wasn’t one. I was soft locked.
So I quit and restarted the level, skipping the opening crawl but unable to skip the many cutscenes. I played for a few more minutes but then the game crashed completely.
At this point I realised I just wasn’t having any fun with this game. So I’ve put this one back onto the metaphorical shelf.
