LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga XB360 Review Cary NC

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When it comes to videogaming, Star Wars fans have had a pretty nice run for a while now. There hasn't really been a whole lot of groundbreaking stuff associated with Star Wars videogames, but there has been a lot of general all round good quality that did enough to extended the series beyond the theatre screen and into the interactive world. While gamers still eagerly await LucasArts' next-gen Star Wars effort, another developer has been taking on the name for the 'next-gen'consoles, but in a far less serious way. I of course refer to Traveller's Tales and their LEGO Star Wars series, which is back again in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and copious amounts of fun ensues.

For those that have played LEGO Star Wars before, not a whole lot of surprises will be found in how The Complete Saga is setup. What we see this time around is basically the same tried and tested gameplay but rather than focus on a few episodes from the Star Wars storyline, this version focuses on every episode from The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi giving you the complete experience all inside the LEGO universe. This alone makes for the best version of theseries because everything previously on offer and more is here.

Obviously the best way to play the game is to start from Episode 1 Chapter 1 all the way through to Episode 6 Chapter 6 but you don't have to - Episodes can be played in any order you wish although Chapters inside each Episode naturally have to be done in order the first time you do them so the storyline makes sense. Speaking of which, the storyline of the Star Wars universe is played out nicely in this game with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever - all you have are a bunch of LEGO figures thatlook like Star Wars characters using visuals such as facial and body expressions to tell the story and it surprisingly works well despite also being very compact and brief. It would definitely help being a fan of the franchise but even someone like me who isn't so big on Star Wars found the storyline not only easy to follow but also quite humorous without a single word being uttered.

Once you do happen to finish a Chapter/level, from then on you can reload it for 'Free Play' which allows you to take any unlocked character of your choice and redo the level again. Almost every level in this game will feature sections that can only be accessible by certain characters so you can only rarely truly finish a Chapter the first time you play it, which includes finding various objects and LEGO pieces to build level specific structures, as well as collect in-game currency which is scatteredaround or earned by using and destroying objects. The game achieves all this by utilizing some of its gameplay mechanics to create puzzles and no one character in this game can do everything - for instance, a Jedi character with a Light Saber can use the force to move objects around to create stairways etc but only non-Jedi characters with guns can access areas that require the use of a grappling hook. Sometimes you'll just see areas behind locked doors that can only be accessed by a particular charactertype as well, such as a Bounty Hunter.