LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Better than a lot of the Lego games that followed

(Originally posted by me on TA)
After a flurry of other Lego games ranging from good (Indy & sequel), average (Harry Potter) & downright awful (Batman), Traveller’s Tales have brought us the next instalment in the Lego Star Wars series after a four year gap since 2007’s Complete Saga. I bought the first Indy, maxed it in a week, then traded it in for profit. The subsequent games on the other hand, were borrowed from a relative who buys any Lego game without hesitation. Thus sparing the money buying them and removing the impetus to hurriedly max a game while the trade-in price is still high.

In contrast, LSW III had me wanting to buy it on the strength of the demo alone. Admittedly, I didn’t rush out and buy it on day one, rather waited until I found a copy for less than £30 ($50). Step forward Sainsburys. Anyway, enough of my cheapskatedness causing procrastination.

Based on the first series of the Clone Wars animated series apparently, this game has a far darker tone than previous Lego games with a sprawling hub area not unlike that found in the Harry Potter incarnation. As opposed to Hogwarts, you unlock incidental characters and the omnipresent red power bricks across two capital ships, one of the Republic (populated by Jedi, clone troopers and what you might deem to be the good guys) and one for the Separatists (with Sith, bounty hunters and bad guys, natch).

You have the same character classes as before (Jedi, Sith, bounty hunters, blaster wielding, clone trooper, astromech & protocol droids, high jumpers & midgets) with the addition of what can only be described as walking batteries & enemy droids. All of which are needed to complete levels to 100% in freeplay mode.

Existing classes are given additional abilities such as Jedi who can now cut through certain doorways with their lightsaber and in keeping with existing mythos, throw their saber in a crunchingly satisfying arc to slay enemies or destroy scenery.

The level structure is similar to that found in the previous Star Wars games with twenty two levels in which you unlock True Jedi status (collect X number of studs) and collect ten capsules per level for a bonus character in each (Lando Calrissian or Boba Fett for example). On some missions you can switch from one character to another in a completely different area. To put it in the context of a scene you’ll probably know, sending an assault group to Endor to take down the shield projector, then you can switch to Lando in the Falcon and fly in to the reactor to deliver your payload of retribution. Or commit mass murder, depending on your viewpoint. There’s more than one given angle to any one given scene of course.

One criticism would be that some of the capsules require an entirely arbitrary task to be fulfilled which you’ll never manage to do, requiring you to dip into an FAQ to even stand a chance of finding them. One of the first red power bricks you’ll want to unlock is the capsule detector as it makes this task far easier. I’d recommend having a laptop beside you to help with mopping up any you miss though. You won’t have any trouble achieving the stud limit though, as you can get power bricks for 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, & 10x multipliers making the normally stringent stud targets a doddle.

Also every level you achieve the goals on nets you a gold brick from a total of 130 in the game. You can also get bricks from completing bounty hunter missions where you have to find a certain character within a strict time limit. There’s also space battles between the two hub capital ships to unlock more gold bricks as well as ground battles on both the Republic & Separatist side (more on them later).

One large departure from the previous games is the spaceflight missions are much more freeform and now allow you to touch down on landing pads where available and activate switches or in the case of one mission, put out fires. A big improvement on the forced perspective isometric missions like the Death Star attack or Hoth in previous games.

Another significant addition is an RTS-lite mode penned Ground Battles in which you build bases to defeat the incumbent enemy forces. They include a rudimentary tech ladder which you can only access by holding one base for each step, the first granting gun emplacements, second light air support, third barracks etc.

In short then, definitely a return to form of sorts. If you enjoyed the other Lego games then this is definitely for you. Even if you didn’t, you’ll probably still manage to garner some pleasure from this.

With regard to achievements, it's the usual grindy effort to 100% you've encountered before, the ground battles being the main ball-ache.