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I knew I was getting a copy of LEGO Star Wars Episode III: Clone Wars from LucasArts, even after my less-than-enthralled review of their last major release, Force Unleashed 2. An act of pure kindness on the part of LucasArts, but with LSWE3CW (that's a hell of an acronym) the anticipation was high. So when my 10 year old told me in the car on the way home from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practice that I had a package from LucasArts waiting for me on my desk, I was about as giddy as he was pretending not to be.
Sadly, the game was received on a Tuesday so we had to wait until the weekend to play. Even for new releases that I get free in the mail, the house rule still stands -- no video games on school nights for any of us. Finally on Friday night we got to crack it open and pop the disc in the Xbox 360. The wait for a new LEGO Star Wars game was over. We were playing it. It was on. The LEGO dudes were eating ice cream.
Immediately the humor that we all love from the LEGO video games was right there. It's cheeky, it's a bit irreverent and it's always fun and wildly entertaining. The game opens in the Geonosis arena, where Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan are chained to columns, awaiting their doom at the jaws of fierce creatures. You may remember this scene from the second prequel episode, Attack of the Clones. The crowd is eating ice cream, watching you make your eventual escape. First thing I noticed was two major new features of the franchise.
Since I was playing multiplayer, I was expecting the normal confusion of having two people on the same screen heading for different parts of the map. Well, instead I was faced with a different confusion. If you move to a different area without your co-player, the game switches seamlessly to a split screen. However, unlike traditional split screens, this one is not static. Based on your movement in relation to the movement of your partner, the split screen slides from vertical to horizontal and everything in between. It was a bit disorienting at first, because if you then cross paths, you're on the left side instead of the right and so on. Says the 10 year old in reference to the split screen, "I kept looking at the right, meanwhile I'm on the left -- but otherwise it's great."
Well, I played a little further and discovered the other major change in the game, which seemed to clash with the split screen. They added some seriously epic battle scenes. In one, you have to seize control of enemy bases across the map, while protecting your own -- then building up your defenses by building weapons, calling in reinforcements and commanding air support. It adds a strategic dynamic to certain portions of the game that were not there before. Here's the thing though: along with the split screen this can cause viewing issues. You have these major battles, things firing at you from all over the map but you can't see what's off screen if your partner is wandering around somewhere else on the map. So you absolutely have to work together. Teamwork is the solution to a lot of puzzles within the game.
Speaking about the puzzles, they almost all involve some sort of teamwork -- to the point that the game makes you split up and head off in different directions to solve a mission. This is an interesting use of the split screen and improves the game ten-fold. In previous versions, you were forced to stay on screen. Now you can complete simultaneous missions at the same time. If you are playing by yourself, the A.I. is much improved as well. You don't have to wait as long for them to step on a button, or build something or pull a lever. Though after playing by myself for a bit, I wondered, why would you want to play by yourself? It's much more fun with two people.
Your arsenal is upgraded as well. My favorite was the Clone Trooper Commander being able to command the troops to fire on a particular target using the new targeting system, which is also used by the Jedi to toss their lightsabers. Other lightsaber abilities include cutting through obstacles and climbing with them. The plethora of characters you can play as over the 20 story missions and 40 bonus levels have expanded abilities as well. From grappling to freaking rocket launchers for some of the Clone Troopers, who are very accident prone in the cut scenes. With humorous results of course.
Even after you manage to roll through the story missions, there is still the free play and using particular characters to discover and capture all the hidden treasures throughout the game. You'll notice these in the story missions, things you just can't get to but know you could if you were using a Sith character or a small character or even (ugh) Jar-Jar who is able to jump higher than any other character. When it comes to characters, just like the previous iterations of the game, there are a ton of characters to unlock and buy using the coins you collect. There is also a good selections of ships as well, which you can take on a cross-country tour across the galaxy. I think when it comes to the massive battles, the ones in space are most entertaining.
As for the look and feel of the game, it's even more vibrant and active than before. A brand new game engine powers the dynamic environment and if you have a nice HD Television to play it on, it's totally worth it - and of course I was wearing my Gunnars. Yes, it's LEGO and very cartoon-like, but at the same time the environments are lush and interactive. It's a source of constant entertainment to destroy everything that is destroyable and "find out what that does."
WIRED With the massive battles, split screen and constant humor and engaging puzzles, this is probably the best LEGO Star Wars game to date.
TIRED The split screen (which it turns out you can switch off in the settings) can get a little confusing at times, and a bit frustrating when you have targets across the screen, but the game overall is too much fun to really care about this.
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LEGO Star Wars III: Clone Wars is available for the Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Windows PC and PSP Portable.
