LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is the sequel to the 2005 hit. Developed by Traveller's Tales, it was released late in 2006, this time around the game was based on Episodes IV to VI, the Original Trilogy.The plot basically follows along the lines of the movies, but where they take their liberties are with those things that happen in between scenes that we don't get to see in the movies. Also, when re-enacting any of the movie scenes, they add their own comedic LEGO twist to them, so it's really fun to watch. The characters themselves never really talk, they mime what they're trying to say, and mumble a noise or two. It basically assumes you know the Star Wars stories so you can tell what's going on.
One of the great things about the game is the plethora of characters available. There must be 50 of them at least. About half of them you'll acquire as you continue along with the story, but many of them will have to be bought and unlocked through the games main area.
I think the music and sound effects would be one of my favourite things of the game. They basically used the original score in each of the levels as background music. This really added to the feel of the game, made it really genuine.
Another great thing about the game is the amount of replay value afterward. Upon finishing the main storyline of the game which only took 9.5 hours, I had only completed 50.9%. The other 49.1% is accrued by revisiting past levels with different characters who are able to unlock new areas. In addition, there are tons of hidden collectibles and mini-games with rewards to find extra content.
All that said, in the end, the game was too easy. As I said, it took 9.5 hours to complete the storyline, but it felt so quick. I suppose they can be forgiven as this enables them to cater to a wider audience, but adding difficulty settings wouldn't have hurt either.
The locked camera angle sometimes could be a pain in the ass. It can be frustrating sometimes when you're trying to jump across a chasm or a platform, only to realize your angle was wrong, and so you plummet to your death.
Lastly, the controls were unwieldy during levels where you had to control a vehicle ie. any of those flying missions. If you wanted your ship to turn, you had to rotate the directional pad angle to angle. I'd like it so that when I press up, I go forward, when I press left, I go left, and so forth. It may be because I'm oldschool, but I think it would have been easier that way. I wiped out so many times on these sort of levels.
Anyhow, despite these minor issues, LEGO Star Wars II was still a fun game. If you have kids, this is definitely the sort of game to play with them. That's it for now, later geeks!
Comments
The replay value seemed rather repetitive to me, and the characters, aside from appearances are pretty cookie-cutter.
But hey, for LEGO, it's not half-bad :P.