Pre-E3 2006: Hands-on with LEGO Star Wars II

May 2, 2006

It's no secret that the editors here at IGN (myself included) absolutely loved last year's multiplayer hit, LEGO Star Wars. Fun for gamers of all ages, it managed to take a license that had been done to death a million times over and do something new with it without losing its identity. Not only did the game accomplish that impressive feat, it also set a new standard in terms of unlockable features and replay value for family-oriented titles. No seriously -- there was an unheard of amount of characters, hidden areas, special bonuses, cheats, and other goodies that added so many more hours to our playing experience that it was ridiculous.

Almost immediately after playing LEGO Star Wars we called for a sequel, and thanks to the powers of the force and some enthusiastic retail sales, LucasArts has granted that very wish. What makes us happier about LEGO Star Wars II more than we already were, however, is the fact that developer Traveller's Tales is doing its best to take the series to the very next level. And while gamers won't have the inclusion of any kind of online multiplayer content, they're getting just about everything else.

So what does "everything else" really mean? Well to start, LucasArts hasn't forgotten that more than a million people bought the first game and it wants to reward them for it. With that in mind, players will be able to carry their saves over from the previous installment (on all four supported systems, Xbox, Cube, PS2, and Windows PC) to automatically unlock any of the unlockable characters from the first go-round. When counted with all the characters already in the sequel by default, there are more than 100 playable characters (54 from Episodes 1 through III and 50 from Episodes IV through VI). Just about every A and B-level character imaginable is in there -- be it Lando, Greedo, the Jawas, Luke and Leia, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader himself. Gamorrean Guards are even playable and the team is even considering throwing Hammerhead in there as well.

But let's pretend that for some weird reason, you don't want to play as any of the characters from the previous six episodes and would rather play with somebody much more fitting to your style. Well guess what? You can do that! Using one of the game's most exciting new features, players can create their very own character from scratch by mixing and matching various parts from other characters.

The level of customization available to you here is actually pretty impressive. Hands, arms, feet, legs, torsos, heads, hats, capes, weapons (these determine your fighting style), and other bits and pieces can all be individualized with a quick flick of the stick. Needless to say, we created some weird-looking creatures with this tool (we put Yoda's head on Slave Leia's body and the result was... disturbing), and it was great to know that we could import several of our creations with no problem for play in Free Play Mode (which allows you to use any character, original or otherwise, in any situation you want).

The surprising thing about the character customization is that it isn't LEGO Star Wars II's only creation mode. Players will also be able to build their own vehicles (including AT-STs, speeder bikes, landspeeders, and more) and they'll actually be able to use them to move around various levels.

Luckily, vehicle building isn't as straightforward as it sounds as there are essentially two different types of construction. The first is done in-level and requires players to assemble scattered LEGO pieces for vehicle creation. What makes this interesting is that not all the pieces are right next to each other -- some are located several screens away within the same level.

This new twist makes the "building puzzles" a lot more complex than they used to be and allows the designers to create vehicle-specific barricades and obstacles. In one the chapters we played, for example (the Mos Eisley Space Port), we used Luke, Obi-Wan, C-3PO, and R2-D2 to create a giant AT-ST to help us blast through a steel fence that was hindering our movement. We also had the option to use a landspeeder from earlier in the level to do even more cool stuff, but we had too much fun crushing our opponents with our scout walker feet to bother. Oh and before I forget, you no longer have to rely solely on Jedis to do your building for you. Sure, there are still "Jedi-only" force puzzles that players will have to solve, but now any non-droid character can build stuff.

The second type of vehicle construction in LEGO Star Wars II is related to the ships that are built using the hidden model kit pieces in each of the 18 different chapters. You see, instead of just looking at the kits as if they were visual extras as in the last game, players can now use their specially-acquired models in several vehicle-specific stages. Unfortunately, the E3 version of LEGO Star Wars II (which is the same one we tested) won't include any of the vehicle-based stages -- those are coming in a later build. So sadly, we can't tell you much about those yet.

Another new aspect of LEGO Star Wars II that we really appreciated is that there is now "adaptive difficulty AI." One of the few major criticisms of the first game, is that it was a little on the easy side. Now, the CPU will automatically adjust itself to your play style to keep things more challenging. This means that for veteran players that blow right through the first stage with almost no problem will be met with a lot more force later on in the stage. Of course, it works the opposite way too, and if you're getting beat up too much by the AI in the early going, it will scale back to keep you in it. After spending more than an hour on the Mos Eisely level alone, I can tell you that the balancing is great and should give fellow veterans like me a lot to contend with.

But wait, there are more new features to talk about other than what's listed above. Character-specific gameplay, for example, has been tweaked and modified so that there's a lot more variation between combat types (there are still repeated styles, but they happen less frequently). A good portion of your alter egos will have special moves unique to them too (Chewie rips arms off, Vader chokes, etc), and if players hit the attack button at just the right moment they'll be able to dodge an enemy's assault with the newly-included evade move. Other important fixes, like larger level designs, more enemies to fight, and better camera functionality (you can walk away from a partner at a farther distance than before without getting stuck and can enjoy some limited perspective control to boot) already makes for a better overall experience. Users can even hop on the saddles of Tauntauns, Dewbacks, and Banthas to reach areas they otherwise couldn't.

As you can tell from my rather exuberant description, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy brings some serious business to the table. Even at this early stage, it maintains and expands on the undeniable entertainment brought about by the first title and left us wanting more. Hopefully we'll have our chance to get just that at E3, and if LucasArts throws in any last-minute surprises for the show floor we'll be sure to tell you about it.