LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Aug 21, 2006So far, we've taken you through the first
Return of the Jedi
Chapter 1: Jabba's Palace
Playable Characters: Princess Leia (Boushh), Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker (Jedi), R2-D2, C-3PO, Han Solo (Skiff)
This level begins outside Jabba the Hutt's massive palace on Tatooine. At first, you control Leia and Chewbacca as they infiltrate the palace to find Han Solo, who was frozen in carbonite in the Empire Strikes Back portion of the game. Inside, you'll encounter the fierce Gamorrean guards who can not only block your blaster fire, but also take more hits to kill. An effective strategy is to distract the guards by building piles of stray LEGO bricks into a radio. The guards will be too busy rocking out to the music (complete with using their axes like guitars) to attack you.
Eventually, you'll find Luke, R2 and 3PO. You'll need all of their unique abilities to work your way through the palace. There are some places that only bounty hunters can access, so keep an eye open for helmet dispensers, which will place a Boushh mask over Leia's head, completing her disguise. When she's wearing the mask, she also gains the ability to throw thermal detonators -- a move that's unique to bounty hunters.
Once you free Han, the game alters the movie's storyline a bit. After Jabba catches the gang freeing Han, he tosses all of them down into the Rancor pit (well, all except Leia, whom he has other plans for). To complete this stage, you must figure out how to defeat the giant creature.
Chapter 2: The Great Pit of Carkoon
Playable Characters: Luke Skywalker (Jedi), Lando (Palace Guard), Han Solo (Skiff), Chewbacca, Princess Leia (Slave), R2-D2, C-3PO
When you need something digested, and you only have 2,000 years to get it done, there's only one place to go -- the Great Pit of Carkoon on Tatooine. There, the mighty Sarlacc will get the job done in half the time. With his beloved pet rancor dead, the extremely cheesed-off Jabba has loaded up his prisoners onto a skiff and taken them out into the desert to toss them into the Sarlacc's gaping maw. Luke, however, has other plans, and after a hilarious opening cinema, he and his pals fight their way to freedom.
During the first part of the stage, you work your way across the skiffs, fighting off guards both on the skiffs and firing at you from Jabba's luxurious sail barge. As you work your way towards the sail barge, you'll have one last face-off against the dreaded Boba Fett (Boba Fett? Where?). Onboard the barge, you must battle your way through the interior and up to the top deck, where you can take control of Princess Leia in all of her blocky, metal bikini-clad glory. Find the main cannon on the top deck, and use it to blow the barge to pieces.
Chapter 3: Speeder Showdown
Playable Characters: Luke Skywalker (Endor), Princess Leia (Endor)
From Tatooine, the action jumps to the forest moon of Endor where you control Luke and Leia during their high-speed chase with a group of scout troopers. This level switches between on-foot segments and vehicle portions where you ride Imperial speeder bikes through the dense forest.
The ultimate goal of this chapter is to bring down a shield that is blocking your way to the Imperial garrison set up on the planet. To do that, you must take out a few mini-shield generators and wipe out a whole lot of speeder bikes. During each of the vehicle segments, you race through a looping track full of downed logs, ramps and laser turrets. There are a set number of scout troopers that you must take out before switching back to an on-foot segment. Here, you'll have to dodge Imperial troops and hijack an AT-ST in order to destroy the generators. Then, it's back to racing.
Once the shield is down, you can proceed further into the level. We won't spoil what happens when you reach the garrison, but it's one of the coolest and most surprising segments of the game.
Chapter 4: The Battle of Endor
Playable Characters: Han Solo (Endor), Princess Leia (Endor), Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Wicket
This chapter's title might make you think that you'll be fighting the space battle over Endor, but this stage is all about the ground battle. Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids are joined by that lovable little Ewok, Wicket, as they make their way through the puzzle-filled Ewok village down to the ground below. Now, you have to get the gang to the Imperial shield generator that is projecting a protective barrier around the new Death Star that hangs in orbit over the forest moon. Unfortunately, an army of Imperial troops and AT-STs stand between you and victory. Once you get inside the generator, things don't get any easier. There's a relatively involved puzzle sequence to complete before blowing the thing sky high.
Chapter 5: Jedi Destiny
Playable Characters: Luke Skywalker (Jedi), Darth Vader
With a large battle taking place on Endor's surface, this chapter deals with a more personal battle inside the Emperor's throne room on the Death Star. In order to keep the "two players at all times" system in place, the game fudges the movie's storyline a little. Darth Vader now senses the goodness inside him a bit earlier and helps his son destroy Emperor Palpatine in the epic lightsaber battle.
As the fight progresses, the Emperor moves all around the throne room, forcing Vader and Luke to give chase. Palpatine's favorite move seems to be his powerful Force lightning, which he'll shoot at whichever character you're controlling. The Sith Lords in the original LEGO Star Wars performed similar attacks, and the lightning can be dodged as easily as those moves were. Simply let the Emperor target your character, and wait until he is about to shoot the lighting. Then at the last second, switch to the other playable character. Palpatine will harmlessly blast your partner, allowing you to hit him with a quick swing from your 'saber.
After defeating the dark lord, you'll witness the surprisingly poignant LEGOized redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Who knew that plastic bricks could emote so?
Chapter 6: Into the Death Star
Playable Characters: Millennium Falcon
The game's final level once again places you in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as you battle to destroy the second Death Star. Before taking on the fully armed and operational battle station, however, you must knock out a few Star Destroyers that stand in your way. To do this, you must destroy the two shield generators atop the crafts' bridges. The Falcon's standard lasers aren't up to this task, so you must swipe some proton bombs from the many TIE bombers that are flying around. Just blow up a bomber and fly over the glowing orb that it leaves behind. The stolen weapon will trail behind the Falcon, allowing you to launch it at the vulnerable generators. Destroy both of them, and the entire vessel goes down.
After wiping the Star Destroyers out -- all of them -- it's finally time to head into the Death Star. As you weave through the claustrophobic interior of the Death Star, you'll be forced to fend off attacking TIE fighters. Take note of the bomb dispensers that are conveniently stationed at a few key locations as you fly down into the station's core. You'll need the bombs provided by those machines to blow up barricades that impede your progress. The core won't be easy to destroy, however. A barrier surrounds the Death Star's vulnerable bits, and that must be taken out before the final shots are fired. Once the battle station starts to blow, it's a race against the explosion as you fly the Falcon back out into space.
We Do Need That Scum
After you've completed all three segments of the game, the fun still isn't over. LucasArts has revealed a special Bounty Hunter mode that becomes available once you unlock all of the game's bounty huntin' characters. There are ten of these levels total, and in each one, you scour a level to find a specific person. Finally, we have a video game that uses Bossk to his full potential.
Like all the other Xbox 360 titles, LEGO Star Wars II supports achievements. Not only will you earn the coveted awards by completing each of the three episodes, but you'll also earn them for finishing each stage without dying. The game also keeps track of what percentage of the game you've finished, and for every 20%, you earn an achievement. There's even more incentive to track down every last gold brick in the game.
From what we've played so far, LEGO Star Wars II takes all the great ideas from the original game and greatly improves on them. We'll have a full review of the game in the upcoming weeks, but for now, just dump a big pile of LEGO bricks on the floor and start building a scale model Super Star Destroyer. That should help the time fly by.
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