In the past, the LEGO games have always tried to follow the basic plot of whichever movie or series they're trying to represent. In these titles, the story is often told through short cutscenes in which LEGO minifigure versions of the movie's characters reenact the scene's most important beats. In older LEGO games, the lack of any dialogue led to some pretty creative and funny interpretations; such as Darth Vader showing Luke a picture of a young Anakin and pregnant Padme as opposed to saying the iconic "I am your father" line. These cutscenes were always fun additions to the experience, but they were far from being cinematic masterpieces. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga might just change that.
With just a few weeks to go until LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's April 5 release, more and more gameplay previews have started to come in. A few YouTube playthroughs have also emerged, showing the first hour or so of gameplay. From what can be seen so far, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga may just be the most cinematic LEGO game yet.
A Seamless, Charming Cinematic LEGO Experience
In the vast majority of past LEGO games, the objective of a level is fairly simple; just keep going forward until the stage ends, and solve any puzzles along the way. In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, there's a slight twist on this. While the general objective of moving through a linear stage is still present, the game now makes each objective clear to the player, and gives it a narrative-based context.
For instance, in the first New Hope level, the player is given the objective, "Find a way to get the Death Star plans off the ship." Although the player is still just moving forward through the stage, having a clear narrative-based goal helps to make the experience feel a little more cinematic.
The moment to moment story of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga seems to be bolstered by the game's voice acting, with dialogue being used both to further the narrative and give the game much of the humor that's become synonymous with LEGO titles. From the gameplay available so far, the voice acting in the game sounds surprisingly great, with the actors striking the perfect balance between sounding like the original cast, but giving their own expression to the role to really bring it to life.
The last handful of LEGO games really struggled with this element, with either voice lines being ripped directly from the movie and thus sounding really out of place, or having actors reprise their roles and risk them phoning in their performance. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a pretty good example of this, with Harrison Ford's delivery of the line "Wookie cookies" quickly becoming a joke among fans.
On top of the game's solid line delivery and good comedic timing, the humor is also tied fairly naturally to the actual gameplay. In previous LEGO games, the humor could get a little grating after a while, with a multitude of jokes being forced on the player in every single cutscene. While jokes are still present in The Skywalker Saga's cutscenes, they seem to be used more sparingly, with humor now being sprinkled into the moment to moment gameplay, such as a voice over the comms system in the first level announcing "Invasion-related turbulence."
The constant smatterings of humor might still annoy some players eventually, especially if this game is as long as some fans think it might be, but its seamless implementation into the actual gameplay should keep it more charming than irritating. With some surprisingly great voice acting, and a focus on narrative-based objectives, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga seems like a pretty cinematic game.
A Big Bright Beautiful Galaxy
If there's one key aspect that sets LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga apart from its predecessors, it's the game's impeccable presentation. From all the gameplay released so far, it seems as though The Skywalker Saga will be the best looking LEGO game ever made, and by quite a wide margin.
All of the game's 24 planets look remarkably similar to their cinematic counterparts, with lighting being used to great avail to make each environment feel authentic and realistic. Tatooine is suitably bright and sand-swept, while Kamino is dark and stormy, and the Death Star is illuminated by bright wall-mounted lights. Each of the game's environments look incredibly varied, while also managing to capture the visual style of each iconic Star Wars locale, leading the game to feel extremely close to its cinematic source material.
The Skywalker Saga's traversal mechanics also look like they'll be very cinematic, with the player being able to hop in a ship and hyperspace jump to another planet, with minimal loading in between. Similarly, flying down to a planet's surface, and exploring via land vehicles is also sure to feel pretty cinematic, as the environments look pretty massive.
The cinematography in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is perhaps the greatest example of just how cinematic the game will likely end up being. Every cutscene released so far shows a variety of cinematography techniques that seem to elevate the game's presentation quite a bit. Camera pans, zooms, and fades are all used during the game's cutscenes, with even the famous Star Wars screen-wipe making an appearance every now and then.
While some of these cinematography techniques are used to set up a punch-line, by comically panning to an object or character, these all add to The Skywalker Saga's overall presentation, helping to make it look like a truly cinematic experience.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases April 5, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.