LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the preview from gamescom 2021
LEGO Star Wars
"Announced practically a year ago, and then re-launched with a teaser for the release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has been off the radar intermittently for months. Originally slated for this summer, then temporarily postponed to October, the new Traveller's Tales game should finally see the light next spring, and not only on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Switch, but also on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. "If this introduction seems strange to you, like a déjà vu, it is perfectly normal: this was how we started our preview last year, on the occasion of the first, long trailer shown during Gamescom 2020. The story yes repeats in 2021. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has returned to show itself, but there is no official release date yet, and there is talk of a generic spring 2022. It is clear, at this point, that the guys from TT Games have had quite a few of difficulties, and not necessarily related to the health situation, while developing the most ambitious LEGO licensed title in their history.
Something, however, has been shown: let's discover the news in the preview of LEGO Star Wars: The Saga of the Skywalkers from gamescom 2021.
What We Know
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Kylo Ren in a scene from Episode VIII TT Games has been developing licensed LEGO games for fifteen years. His first title was LEGO Star Wars: The Videogame, which was followed by numerous tie-ins that, starting with Star Wars, have touched the most disparate licenses, from Indiana Jones to Harry Potter, passing through The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, DC comics and Marvel comics, etc., etc. Churned out practically annually, these productions literally describe the evolution of a genre in their own right, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga promises to be the culmination of this journey.As the title suggests, the new LEGO Star Wars will embrace the entirety of the main cinematic storyline: the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. The spin-offs Rogue One and Solo seem to have been tied to DLC, as well as the TV series, including Star Wars: Clone Wars, to which TT Games actually dedicated an entire game back in the day, but it's unclear if they will include. entire stages or just the characters.
Warning, though: the new LEGO Star Wars will not be a compilation, much less a remastered version of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga of 2007 or the titles that followed, for example LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens from 2016 which signed the TT Fusion subsidiary. TT Games has done it all over again, and perhaps not only in terms of graphics, but also in terms of kinematics and level design. If the first trailer had already suggested it in the short gameplay glimpses revealed, this second roundup would seem to confirm our suspicions, showing some game sequences already belonging to previous titles such as the clashes with bosses of the caliber of Darth Vader and Darth Maul.
What catches the eye the most, however, is the direction. The movement of the camera, much closer than in the past, enhances the action even more strongly, even and especially when shooting from behind cover, as Leia and Finn do in some scenes of the trailer.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker in a scene from Episode V Every time LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga shows up, it gets better and better. Net of a dubbing that does not seem to employ the original voices of the films, the cinematics also appear convincing, although British humor does not always translate well on the screen. It is true, the characters are stylized minifigures with essential expressiveness, but the new effects are very accurate and TT Games must have studied a way to mix in a more convincing way the realistic components of the scenarios with plastic LEGO bricks.
We still don't know how much this search for detail has affected environmental destructiveness, which has always been a fun feature of LEGO video games, but the trailer would seem to confirm the presence of vaguely open world-style macro-zones in which we can wander around using mounts or jetpacks to move faster and reach previously inaccessible platforms.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Luke Skywalker and the Porgs in a scene from Episode VIII The map that appears at some point in the trailer , divided into galactic regions and planets freely selectable among those unlocked, it would seem to belong to the so-called Free Mode that will allow us to explore the stages and scenarios already visited during the campaign without constraints of characters or means of transport. If each planet will be a gigantic map in itself, or a kind of mini-hub from which to access different thematic missions, it is difficult to say, but for sure this could be the richest LEGO video game in minifig and collectible that TT Games has ever. realized: basically it has nine films to draw on and a practically boundless imaginary. The only problem, however, will be finding content that they don't know already seen.
Even enough with Star Wars?
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Darth Vader in one scene Episode III LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is one of the games we can't wait to get our hands on in 2022, but we have to admit that the trailer both excited and worried us at the same time. We really liked what we saw very much, with a view to a reinterpretation that will also allow new generations to relive the film saga in LEGO sauce and with a technical sector of excellence. However, except for the stages inspired by The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, we recognized a lot of situations and circumstances that we have already experienced in the previous TT Games tie-ins. The fight with Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace? Done. Luke vs. Darth Vader in the presence of the Emperor? Of course. Qui-gon Jinn slicing droids in the gardens of the royal palace of Naboo? Been there, done that. And so on. It will be great to replay these stages, for heaven's sake, but LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga would seem to have really included everything, without missing anything, and so we ask ourselves: what could come next?LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker saga, Rei vs. Kylo Ren in Episode VII Continuously postponing the release for nearly two years, TT Games has already lost the advertising momentum of TV series such as The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Bad Batch and the next. Boba Fett's book. There won't be any more movies on the horizon for years, so this would be a great time to hang up your lightsaber and think about something else. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is sure to be a hit - it's basically one of the most anticipated titles of the year by both audiences and critics - but repeating the "next gen" experiment with spin-offs would be absurd.
At the same time, we wouldn't mind at all if the same treatment was given to old LEGO titles that really deserve a brush up. The first that comes to mind is LEGO The Lord of the Rings, one of the most complex and inspired productions of TT Games, if only for the careful miniature reproduction of a practically open world Middle-earth, which for 2012 was not certainly obvious.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the iconic finale of Episode V LEGO version If it is true that LEGO video games are all a bit alike, it would be dishonest to claim that TT Games has always rested on its laurels without groped some innovation. Already the aforementioned LEGO The Lord of the Rings had tried with an interesting RPG component, but we had tie-ins like LEGO Harry Potter where the British developer had ventured a fun gameplay dynamic linked to the movements of the sticks that simulated those of the magic wands . LEGO Indiana Jones, on the other hand, literally belongs to the prehistory of the genre and could take advantage of the new film coming out for a sound update.
In short, we wouldn't mind TT Games working on brand new licenses, but the modernized makeover of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is too greedy to give up on something similar towards the best tie-ins LEGO we played. We therefore hope that it is a forerunner, as well as a solid basis for the future of the franchise.
The new trailer for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga would seem to confirm the technical and content goodness of the new work by TT Games, but on the other hand after all these postponements the British developer begins to walk on eggs. The game will need to be flawless and represent the potential new course for LEGO licensed video games. Unfortunately, spring 2022 is not exactly around the corner, but the Force will help us overcome these months of waiting.
