When Expectations Meet Reality...

Over the past month, I have frequently lauded the LEGO game series, from Batman to Indiana Jones to their greatest culmination, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4.  With each game, I was more and more impressed with the time, energy, and effort that went into creating these fantastic worlds.

And then, there came LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga by LucasArts games - reality had to set in at some point.

Having just come down off of the fantastic gaming high that was LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, I entered into this game with the high expectations that my previous endeavors into LEGO Land gaming had created.  Boy was I ever disappointed.

I should preface this entire Blog post by saying that I am not only bored by Star Wars, in general, but that I loathe it.  Even as a kid, I never got the sense of wonder and amazement that my father or uncles got, and I never really cared about the characters, the dime store storyline, or its penchant for preachy dialogue and plot devices.  I was never amazed by the creatures in this Sci-Fi wunderkind, nor was I really compelled by its setting or its heroes.  As an entire franchise, I really just find it rather boring.

Now that I've alienated what is likely to be the entire male gamer population, I shall continue on with this week's rant.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga manages to get nearly everything wrong when it comes to creating a playable game.  Everything about it is off kilter, from its play control to its depth of view.

Play Control: 

Now, I shouldn't really have any expectations that I'm going to be playing the next generation of highly responsive controls while playing something released in 2007, but seriously...we've been at this whole gaming thing for nearly 30 years, and this is what you come up with, LucasArts?  The characters are both unwieldy and difficult to control.  Most characters are basically useless when it comes to using them for fighting, and it's nearly impossible to survive a single level without being exploded into tiny LEGO bits because you are unable to get your characters to react to the buttons you are pushing (yes...I actually invoked the "HE DIDN'T DO WHAT I TOLD HIM TO DO" argument from the days of yore).

Game Play:

The game itself plays a bit like some of the worst Doom games from the 90s.  Whereas other LEGO games would have you smash things to obtain studs (money), and even Harry Potter's characters get to "Leviosa" objects to get them, this game insists that you stop nearly every five steps to use "The Force" on everything from plant life to cups in the Mos Eisley Pub (which serves as the Hub for the different episodes...the Pub Hub).  This takes up not only value time and energy, but proves massive dangerous as enemies come at you at a nearly constant rate, seemingly without relent, and you end up getting blown up and losing more studs than you might have collected for all this "Force" nonsense.

Graphics:

While a lot of the attention to detail is there, the graphics aren't terribly inspired, as far as LEGO games go.  The worlds are rendered in a nearly impossible to grasp 3-D environment, and it is often unclear where your character needs to jump or where he (or she) will land after performing a jump.  The depth perception is incredibly awkward, here, while creates more frustration for players who are used to more clearly defined and accessible landscapes.  It's not that the levels aren't well made, rather that they're not designed to be anything more than art.  Playing in them is incredibly difficult, and this is compounded by the awful play control exhibited by the characters.

Music:

While the music is, of course, the original John Williams score, levels are often overwhelming in the amount of sound effects that are played.  It's just too much noise, damn it!  They're all true to the Star Wars legacy, and any geek who loves authenticity will love them, but it's a near constant din, making every level too loud, particularly when you have great speakers.

Story:

If you don't know the story from Star Wars Episodes I-VI, you were either born after they were released or have been living in exile in a cave for the past forty years.  That does not mean, however, that the story should not be told in the course of the game that purports to tell it.  Entire segments of the story are left out, and not much is explained in the way of the story, except at the beginning of each level by means of the classic Star Wars intro text that scrolls up the screen in yellow letters against a starry background.  This would help, except that what you do in the level has little to do with anything that was ever seen in the movies, and barely functions as a story device because the cut scenes don't tell the story any better than does the text.

This game relies almost entirely upon the legacy of the Star Wars series to get people to purchase it.  It is, however, the weakest entry into the LEGO gaming universe to date.  Without the almost assured crossover appeal between gamers and Star Wars enthusiasts, this game would likely fare poorly.  It's really just a very poor attempt to capitalize upon a franchise, and makes me think twice about even bothering with the next entry in LEGO gaming, LEGO Star Wars Episode III: The Clone Wars.   

GAMES MENTIONED IN THIS POST: