LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

In theory, the LEGO Star Wars franchise is for kids. It’s cute, it’s got pretty simple game mechanics and it’s based on a wildly popular sci-fi/fantasy property. So why oh why did it take me a half hour to beat the tutorial level?

It wasn’t exceptionally difficult, after all, it is at its core a hack and slash platformer. Maybe it was the fact that it is primarily based on the Clone Wars animated series (which I haven’t watched at all) and I wasn’t familiar enough with what was going on in the game? No, after futilely swinging my lightsaber for entirely too long, I realized what I was missing, what I was eagerly waiting for... a little direction.

For all it’s cutesy kid appeal, I’m not sure how LEGO Star Wars III would play with the intended age group (and I have no idea what that intended age group is). I eventually figured out what I needed to do in the tutorial, but I discovered it on my own with dumb luck. The lack of hand holding isn’t only in the tutorial level either. Many of the levels had similar objectives that weren’t immediately apparent, or goals that you’re never quite sure how to accomplish so you try everything and see what sticks. It got to the point where I could only play the game in short bursts because I would get so frustrated with the level that I’d need some downtime.

One of the culprits, I suspect, is the fact that you can play the various levels in whatever order you want. There are three paths you can choose from, each of which follow stories from the Clone Wars. But not all of the missions are your straight hack and slash. Because it’s Star Wars, space battles have been thrown into the mix. The space battles switch between flying an attack ship and landing to complete some ill-defined objective.

But what seems like a radical departure from the LEGO series is the simplified real time strategy levels. Here like in your standard RTS, you farm resources (in this case, LEGO studs) and build troops, cannons and vehicles to destroy your enemy’s own troops, cannons and vehicles to capture their areas of influence or destroy specific targets. The RTS levels certainly give the game a sense of scale and grandeur a game about intergalactic civil war should have and they’re pretty fun to boot. But again, the first time I encountered one of these levels, there wasn’t any clear instruction on what to do. I eventually figured out it was an RTS, but I wonder how someone would fare if they hadn’t played an RTS before?

Like with all of the other LEGO games, collection is a big part of replayability factor of LEGO Star Wars III. There are a few dozen of characters and ships to unlock. Some are fairly cosmetic changes while others allow you access to alternate parts of the levels. You’ll be compelled to play the game over again just to explore the levels and find all the stuff that was inaccessible the first time around. If you’re looking to get the most out of your gaming dollar, you can’t go wrong here, since this game is as densely packed as I’ve ever seen.

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