i really want to like this game. its a completely new take on lego star wars.

the graphics are fantastic, with light reflecting off the plastic character models and lightsaber blades blending colors as they clash.

the combat is like a simplified devil may cry with a solid third person shooter side. unfortunately, that simplification hurts my own enjoyment. lego star wars has of course always had very simple gameplay, but the combat is much more involved with a tighter over the shoulder perspective. but its simply too easy, with no chance to really engage with the combat at any meaningful challenge or depth

the format of the game is overhauled, with much wider but much emptier levels, with weird and vague sidequests. character progression also feels weird, with so many different archetypes that you level up very slowly individually. levels just feel off and uninvolved, and cutscenes have completely lost their charm, now being fully voiced straightforward reenactments of the movies

lets not beat around the bush: this game was proudly written and directed by a gamergater and it shows.

the elephant in the room is the cumans. now itd make sense that a bunch of uneducated catholic peasants would be resentful of the unfamiliar cuman mercenaries hired to pillage and murder across the peaceful countryside. but this game seems rather indulgent in having every single character loudly voice their opinion that the cumans are all godless savages, evil to the core. there is of course no effort to provide any sympathy or resolution for the cuman people at large. people love to pull the excuse of "well, [insert asian steppe culture here] isnt around anymore, so im not hurting anybody by calling them corrupt eastern barbarians" but its painfully obvious they just want an excuse to talk about how scared they are of asians.

a point of contention is that theres nothing but white people throughout the game. people love to shout about how of course there werent any black people there at the time, but whats actually relevant is that there were of course many different turkic people living in 15th century bohemia, but their only representation in this game are the foreign cuman murderers and rapists there to antagonize you the whole time.

another point of contention is the role of women. sure, you dont need to portray a world of total gender equality. but its very possible to have any sort of sensitivity, of which there is absolutely none to be found in this game. women tell you stories late at night in your bedroom of their husbands tragic death, and how good and strong you are; you rescue them from scary asian invaders; your characters mother doesnt even have a name before shes brutally killed because her husband failed to save her.

and now for things you gamers actually care about. the game is very poorly optimized for pc, with severe pop in issues and wildly unstable framerate. the game boasts of an open world full of quests, but every side quest is a blatantly half assed fetch quest. the game as a whole is a very promising immersive sim with very creative combat i guess, but most people wont like how intentionally punishing and inconvenient it is.