Warner Bros and TT Games surprised fans around the world when they revealed Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for the first time at the Microsoft Xbox E3 2019 briefing. The series reboot, which uses new technology to tell stories from all nine films (including the upcoming Rise of the Skywalker), is shaping up to become the franchise’s biggest and most ambitious title to date.
Rebuilding a franchise
The open-world game represents a new technological achievement for the franchise, which combines the creative whimsy of Lego bricks with the story and locations of Star Wars. Players can take the role of practically any character from the nine films to explore the galaxy far, far away.
They can also play through the films in any order using practically any character. In the demo, the developers used Luke Skywalker to visit Tatooine during Return of the Jedi.
Lego ships, people, and creatures are created with incredible details and animations in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The first thing the presenters did was blast through space in the Millennium Falcon, doing a fly-by of a Super Star Destroyer composed of over 20 million Lego bricks. The presenters explained that all the vehicles in the game are fully built from Lego. From there, they picked a planet and headed towards it.
As players approach planets such as Tatooine, they’re presented with landing options that include different cities and points of interest. TT Games promised that the game will be packed with just about every possible reference and location from the movies when it launches next year. For instance, Jabba the Hutt’s palace could be seen in the distance, and there’s a legendary story mission inside.
There’s a landing animation as the Millennium Falcon touches down on the planet’s surface, leaving players free to roam and explore. The desert planet town was beautifully animated with plastic-like creatures that moved almost naturally. At the same time, there are fine details such as dust and sand collecting on feet and sunlight reflecting off plastic surfaces.
Indoor exploration
One standout feature of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is that players will be free to explore the interiors of buildings, not just the outside. So, players will be able to check out the insides of a moisture farm while breaking everything down for parts.
The level of detail is truly amazing. At one point, C-3PO makes an appearance and breaks into two halves, so they controlled a pair of Lego legs looking for its torso. That huge roster of characters will come in handy for solving puzzles, since only droids like C-3PO may be able to talk to some non-organic speaking droids.
Interaction is also being taken to a new level. Just about everything can be interacted with and broken down for parts, and Force characters can use their powers to manipulate objects and characters.
The game will also feature custom combo moves, over-the-shoulder shooting, and body part targeting in the traditional Lego style. So, players will be free to be as creative as they want, blasting Lego legs or arms off enemies to disable them. Lastly, as with practically all the Lego games, friends can join in via local co-op, so you don’t have to travel the galaxy alone.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases for PC and consoles in 2020 from TT Games.
