What could have been an awful marketing disaster of a game, turns out to be charming romp through the Star Wars movies.
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LSW) is one of the most addicting, collect-a-thons I have ever played. The game itself has it's annoying points (the camera is terrible), but there is no denying the charm that this game exudes. You start the game off in the cantina from Episode IV. This will serve as your hub to get to all of the levels you will play on. You then play through all of the main parts of the trilogy, Lego style. Basically, this means that you run around shooting a lot and kicking butt with your jedi. The action and gameplay are very simple, yet very addicting. Almost everything in the game can be destroyed for 'Lego Studs'. This serves as the currency in the game and enables you to purchase (at the cantina) additional characters, secrets, and other neat stuff.
The characters in the game are all very 'cute'. It's even hard to look at Darth Vader and not crack a smile. The combat itself is very simplistic to the point of this being a game aimed towards a younger audience. This isn't a bad thing, however. The combat isn't why you are playing this game anyways. You will be playing this game to collect a bunch of stuff and play through the Episodes IV, V, & VI universe. Traveller's Tales has also added quite a bit of humor to the game and it's cut-scenes. Even the most important moment in the whole trilogy (when Vader tells Luke that he is his father) is done in an amusing way that will have you laughing at your screen.
Each level also has TONS of secrets. This game has been designed to be played through several times & it shows that very quickly. The game has a few different 'character classes', so to speak. There are the 'blasters' (basically every character that doesn't fit into the next three classes), force users, droids, and bounty hunters. While playing through the story mode, you only have access to the characters that were actually there in the movie. After you beat that level, however, you can return with a different set of characters and open up a bunch of secrets. Obviously this makes the game highly replayable and you will have to do this if you want to find most of the game's hidden goodies.
And that is where the addiction comes in. The game keeps track of your overall progress with a percentage meter in the cantina. Almost everything you unlock in the game increases this meter. In another genius move, Traveller's Tales made many of the achievements tie into this and it's VERY addicting to try to get them all. They could've taken the easy way out and just plopped the 1000 on completing the story mode and some extra stuff. But since there is so many secrets and game modes (there are several you open up after beating each epsiode), making the achievements based on full game completion was a great idea.
If you only play the story mode, the game won't last you very long. I didn't keep track of the exact time, but you could easily beat it in a weekend. Like I said before, the true fun comes from using all the different characters on the levels to discover previous unlockable areas. Even though this is a great game or all ages of gamers, it does have it's annoying problems.
The camera is the main problem you will encounter in the game. For some reason, they didn't feel the need to give you full conrols over your view of the surroundings. Some of the forced views are annoying and you get blasted from off-screen WAY too much. Another problem I had with the game stems from the difficulty imbalance. In general, the game is very easy. You never really 'die' or anything. If you run out of hearts, the game just forces you to drop some cash and revives your character. The problem is that you only have four hearts and you get attacked from all sides quite often. There are parts that there is really no chance for survival no matter what you do. It's not a big deal, since you can't really die, but some of the achievements are tied to going through a level without being "defeated". Thankfully, three of the characters you can purchase are the ghost versions of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. They can only die by falling off a ledge. Which brings me to another minor problem......
The controls are very loose. This isn't a problem most of the game, but there are few parts where you have to platform jump and it can be frustrating. Even more frustrating are the re-spawning enemies. There are many times in the game where you have to build lego versions of doors or platforms to progress further in the level. Some of these situations are hindered by the fact that you can't build while being hit by enemy fire. It's very annoying when you are trying to build a door and you keep getting hit by some re-spawning stormtrooper off-screen with a blaster.
My last problem with the game is the fact that you are stuck with some very useless A.I. characters through most of the game. Now when I say "useless", I mean "more useless than any other game in the history of mankind". It's not a game-killer because your companions can't die either, but in some of the bigger firefights in the game......it's mind-boggling annoying. There is an instance where you run into a room FULL of stormtroopers (it's also a scene in Episode IV), and your other character literally just stands there watching you get fired at. And most of the time, the computer A.I. focuses it's attention on you no matter what.
Other than those minor faults, this game is great. It is obivous, however, that this was designed with the Xbox/PS2 generation in mind. The graphics aren't up to par with the rest of the 360 library of games. What it lacks in technical prowess, 'LSW' makes up for it in sense of style. The levels all look nice and are laid out perfectly to have fun in. The characters all look great and are definately interesting because......well.......they are lego characters in the Star Wars universe.
Another plus is the music and sound effects. If you have ever seen these movies (which I assume if you are playing this game that you have), then you will know what to expect here. All of it is in excellent quality and for some reason I never get tired of hearing that Star Wars theme. There isn't any voice acting in the game and that's a definate plus. Spoken dialogue wouldn't have fit in the style of this game & probably would've been horrible anyways.
If you want this game to last, it will definately take you awhile to fully complete. There are so many gameplay modes and secrets that this could have you busy for 40+ hours or so trying to unlock everything. There isn't any multiplayer, but it doesn't really need one. Like I mentioned before, this is one of the better games I have seen in the way it distributes it's achievements. And if you want to play as the characters from Episdoes I, II, or III........you can purchase these characters over Xbox Live and play them in the game. It was very fun to use Darth Maul to take on his master, Darth Sidious. Or you can just bring Jar Jar along with you to kill him over and over like they should have done in the movies.
For any Star Wars fan, this is a must purchase. There is a ton of content here, if you want to put the time in. And it's a very fun game that takes a lighthearted approach towards one of the best film trilogies of all time. Even though the game has several annoyances, there is no denying the charm that run through almost everything in this game.