Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

I was a huge fan of Lego as a child, and I have been a fan of Star Wars games for years, so when I started playing _Lego Star Wars III_ I realised how much I had missed out on. It took me back to playing with actual Star Wars Lego when it first came out in 1999, and I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t played the previous two games. But while I criss-crossed the galaxy for several hours, as my plastic Jedi bashed through countless blocks of Lego, the nostalgia faded away and my inner games critic struck out.

_Lego Star Wars III_ is a game that has been given a lot of love and attention; the characters and environments are wonderful adaptations of the on-screen world and the visual style is very endearing. It is an innocent parody of the _Star Wars_ franchise that follows the plot of the _Clone Wars_ animated series, but knowledge of the show is not required to enjoy the game as each level is introduced with the traditional fanfare and yellow letters floating in space. Cutscenes rely entirely on visual humour and gestures to convey the plot, as the characters do not speak but make cute noises instead.

However, when playing the game for any length of time, _Lego Star Wars III_ can easily become a chore as various frustrating design flaws become apparent. The game roughly divides into three modes: platforming, real-time strategy and space combat; all three have the same simple controls that are easy for young and old to grasp. The platforming that makes up the core of the game is smooth and fun: you run, jump, attack and solve puzzles. There is plenty of variety as each level is a new episode, and whilst some are grander affairs than others, they are all fun in their own right.

The strategy element is the lauded new feature in which you build bases and charge around the battlefield on vehicles, crushing droids and blowing up enemy buildings. It is very simple to grasp and easy to beat, but has an epic feel about it; there are often hundreds of units on screen all moving around and shooting at each other with colourful explosions and fantastic physics. The space combat has an equal appearance of scale, but lacks depth compared to the platform and strategy. Instead of freely moving around and shooting down the enemy, players are restricted to narrow flight paths and spend most of these levels pressing switches aboard large frigates and nearly zero time doing any space shooting. These space levels are just too simplified and restricted when compared with the battlefield strategy or platforming sections.
Despite the excellent presentation and a variety of game modes, when it comes to actually playing _Lego Star Wars III_, a huge flaw becomes apparent. A game with no script and a minimal amount of text is reliant on visual feedback to tell the player what is going on, and L_ego Star Wars III_ lacks this. I had to reach for an online walkthrough more often than I dare count, but I wasn’t getting stuck in complex situations, just with puzzles that lacked feedback and logicality.

In addition to poor puzzle design, _Lego Star Wars III_ occasionally becomes trite despite its eccentric style and humour; there are very few surprises. When unexpected events do happen, they are often unwelcome. In one space level I thought I was done after having destroyed two enemy ships, but instead two more appeared and I was forced to destroy those, following an identical and repetitive sequence of events. In one strategy stage, I had wiped out the enemy when another wave appeared; this alone is acceptable, but the game also reset the map, instantly erasing many of my bases and units and forcing me to start again. From a game that brings such joy elsewhere, moments like this are very difficult to overlook and forgive.

The main campaign of _Lego Star Wars III_ is of a reasonable length and can be played co-op, with a second player free to drop in and out of play at any time. The replay value here is phenomenal; any level can be replayed and all of them have areas or objects that can only be accessed if you have a certain kind of character and there are hundreds to unlock. This is in addition to new campaign modes and custom character creation.

There are lots of pretty things to look at and missions to do in _Lego Star Wars III_, but not everyone, myself included, will have the patience for it.