>:3 trans thoughts

While it has that lego comedic charm, it also isn't terribly remarkable. Combat is drawn out with the more important fights boiling down to mashing the attack button until something happens. There are only about 5 things to build in each level, which means that it feels less like a lego game and more like a lego looking LOTR game. The character roster is unbalanced with 3 dwarves and 15 elves. The levels are incredibly long and a lot of plot also happens outside of levels. The puzzles are fine with enough variety and silliness to make the game not a slog to go through.

The game is open world with fetch quests and collectables, the navigation is slow and would have benefited with a compass. Along with the character wheel, there is the item wheel which facilitates the new addition of mithril items which are for fun or for shortcutting puzzles.

By the end, which was glitched at 99.8%, I was glad to be done, but I didn't hate the game unlike the Star Wars titles.

This review is biased because of nostalgia, but I believe this game still deserves what score I will give it.

The game set the gold standard for what a lego game should be, a silly retelling of a story with fun collectables and interesting things to do. The character roster is classic with just enough variety for most niches, just in case you like the red battle droid over the yellow or basic ones for example. There is a fair amount of side content to do so you're not just doing the stories over and over. And there is a fun battle mode you can play if you have a friend.

That saying, there are problems. For 100%, you will have to play the full story of each movie playing each level at least 4 times. You have regular story mode, free play to finish the minikits, the super story mode (which is the full story mode in one run uninterrupted), and the special mode for 10 blue minikits in every level in a time limit too. The side content can be bland or unfun, like original pod race and gunship cavalry, and the 1,000,000 stud collecting lego city and battle mode missions are alright but can overstay their welcome.

The combat in the game ranges from easy to annoying, I would say it's inoffensive. The hide and seek bounty hunter missions were interesting but by the time I unlocked them, I just wanted to be done with the game. The 100% reward, the stud fountain, is bittersweet. At the point you get it, you no longer need to play the game for studs, but it is the culmination of your hard work so it is satisfying to see and novel for a minute.

I can appreciate the puns and witty dialogue for what it's worth, and the pop culture references are nice as well. The game also looks very visually nice and the character roster is robust without being overwhelming.

As for new concepts that have not been in prior lego games I have played, they are a mixed bag. The space travel is passible and is a natural evolution from level select, to level hubs, to open worlds (or galaxy in this case). But space combat is horrible to control and I found that not moving and shooting like a turret works better than chasing other ships around. The game added character classes and skill trees, which I thought was neat. The downside is the collectathon that is needed to get everything for these classes, 1200 bricks are needed and they are a slog to get through. The final idea that is new to lego from this game is level specific extra quests, they are vague and half are gotten on accident, but they are a fun optional things unless you want to get all the aforementioned bricks.

The worst sin this game commits is being so boring. Every quest to get bricks or characters amounts to talking to an npc, flying to a planet, loading screen, do an objective, loading screen, talk to original npc. That is completed over 120 times.

I have 85 hours in the game and not completed it. Do I recommend it? Sure, for people who want to have fun with lego star wars and enjoy humour. And I only recommend it to completionists if they hate themselves. How can I rate this game without completing it? I'm 85% through the collectathon, I don't care and my eyes hurt.