There's a lot of things I want to say about this game, first is that I was originally going for 100% but after doing a couple of missions on the free play and going around the hubs for nearly 40 hours (I have 55 hours of playtime in total) I realized that the game got repetitive, and the collectables were not really it for me, some of the challenges felt really awkward to do as I had to look up guides sometimes because the hints they give you in the menu aren't exactly helpful.
Now, for the actual review of the game... It was a bit overhyped and I feel like people, including myself, forgot that it was a LEGO game. A game targeted at a young audience, with dumbed out puzzles and mechanics that are not exactly refreshing nor innovative.
And, it sucks that this game tried very hard to break the mold on what a LEGO game was, adding actual combat mechanics, open worlds, plethora of voice acting and interactions only to be limited by those specific factors yet again, levels are too short, the hubs themselves are just bigger levels with collectables and side missions in them and the lightsaber combat looks complex with all these combos and whatnot but in reality is just a fresh coat of paint to just mashing buttons like always.
Now, starting my personal issues with this game is that a lot of areas in the movies that were playable in games before this one are just reduced to walking around a very open area, from point A to point B, sometimes without any puzzles or anything to do beforehand so it really just feels like walking around without much interaction from the player.
Using the star ships still is just teleporting from one place to another and not really just going around with it, at least in the hub for transportation or to go away to another part of the galaxy or even use it for transporting between planets, that would've made it way more interesting to actually unlock all of them if you could actually use them and not make them be stationary.
The combat system, while new for LEGO games falls apart pretty easily once you see the same Count Dooku fight be used so many times throughout the entire game, like I know they reused animations and other mechanics but whole fight sequences that are just mash this and this other button, make the electric ray go back to its sender and etc just makes it really repetitive to go through.
Sometimes the voiced scenes do tend to be awkward, since it's a LEGO game, of course a lot of them have to have some sort of comedy relief applied on them to get a chuckle out of the player but in this game in some cases it's just awkward, not a lot of characters have physical expressions as they let their voices control what is seconds of cutscenes before the actual level starts, which is something that doesn't happen with games that tend to take themselves a bit more seriously in context like LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
In the character roster, the fact that it's now separated between many different classes of characters, like LEGO City Undercover (which makes sense in, since all characters are just skins for what should be Chase McCain using different outfits), this sadly makes the result of getting a new character and getting to play it a bit underwhelming and predictable. All Jedi will be able to engage in fights and use the force, same applies to the Sith (but not being able to use the force on their own allies, instead they bow at you which I think is neat), Heroes can use grappling hooks, blasters and terminals that Scoundrels can't use, but they can just aim at a very specific spot in levels to make a sequence of things happen!
And it's just, I don't know, I feel like it makes it a bit weird having the option of selecting different characters with different outfits just for them to be all the same in the core.
Now, with all the cons out of the way I would like to express gratitude that at least this game came to be, sure, if you look at it like this it doesn't seem very polished but they're trying to reach out for a new style of games, the graphics are beautiful and the amount of content that you could go ahead and explore for is just great. They did pretty well, but I wish they retained what made them best, and not just five short-rapid fire levels that consist of just walking around. Hopefully Traveller's Tales will be able to shape the formula of this game fixing some of the stuff just so the next one is even better, I can picture another Marvel game (maybe one specifically based around a character's film series like Spider-Man, for example) with the same philosophy this one has.
Now, for the actual review of the game... It was a bit overhyped and I feel like people, including myself, forgot that it was a LEGO game. A game targeted at a young audience, with dumbed out puzzles and mechanics that are not exactly refreshing nor innovative.
And, it sucks that this game tried very hard to break the mold on what a LEGO game was, adding actual combat mechanics, open worlds, plethora of voice acting and interactions only to be limited by those specific factors yet again, levels are too short, the hubs themselves are just bigger levels with collectables and side missions in them and the lightsaber combat looks complex with all these combos and whatnot but in reality is just a fresh coat of paint to just mashing buttons like always.
Now, starting my personal issues with this game is that a lot of areas in the movies that were playable in games before this one are just reduced to walking around a very open area, from point A to point B, sometimes without any puzzles or anything to do beforehand so it really just feels like walking around without much interaction from the player.
Using the star ships still is just teleporting from one place to another and not really just going around with it, at least in the hub for transportation or to go away to another part of the galaxy or even use it for transporting between planets, that would've made it way more interesting to actually unlock all of them if you could actually use them and not make them be stationary.
The combat system, while new for LEGO games falls apart pretty easily once you see the same Count Dooku fight be used so many times throughout the entire game, like I know they reused animations and other mechanics but whole fight sequences that are just mash this and this other button, make the electric ray go back to its sender and etc just makes it really repetitive to go through.
Sometimes the voiced scenes do tend to be awkward, since it's a LEGO game, of course a lot of them have to have some sort of comedy relief applied on them to get a chuckle out of the player but in this game in some cases it's just awkward, not a lot of characters have physical expressions as they let their voices control what is seconds of cutscenes before the actual level starts, which is something that doesn't happen with games that tend to take themselves a bit more seriously in context like LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
In the character roster, the fact that it's now separated between many different classes of characters, like LEGO City Undercover (which makes sense in, since all characters are just skins for what should be Chase McCain using different outfits), this sadly makes the result of getting a new character and getting to play it a bit underwhelming and predictable. All Jedi will be able to engage in fights and use the force, same applies to the Sith (but not being able to use the force on their own allies, instead they bow at you which I think is neat), Heroes can use grappling hooks, blasters and terminals that Scoundrels can't use, but they can just aim at a very specific spot in levels to make a sequence of things happen!
And it's just, I don't know, I feel like it makes it a bit weird having the option of selecting different characters with different outfits just for them to be all the same in the core.
Now, with all the cons out of the way I would like to express gratitude that at least this game came to be, sure, if you look at it like this it doesn't seem very polished but they're trying to reach out for a new style of games, the graphics are beautiful and the amount of content that you could go ahead and explore for is just great. They did pretty well, but I wish they retained what made them best, and not just five short-rapid fire levels that consist of just walking around. Hopefully Traveller's Tales will be able to shape the formula of this game fixing some of the stuff just so the next one is even better, I can picture another Marvel game (maybe one specifically based around a character's film series like Spider-Man, for example) with the same philosophy this one has.