| Author | Review |
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HWNDarkside
569,462
TA Score for this game: 1,584
Posted on 31 March 11 at 22:35, Edited on 01 April 11 at 22:05 |
This review has 47 positive votes and 23 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is another Traveller's Tales venture into the Star Wars universe, this time covering events from Season 1 of the The Clone Wars TV show. If you haven't seen it I would suggest tracking it down (it's a damn sight better than most of the prequel crap) but I doubt it really matters, this is Lego after all.
Lego games are made for kids who don't care about achievements. My 5 year old boy thinks this is absolutely the best thing ever (but then he said the same of Ben 10: Vilgax Attacks).
I, on the other hand, do not.
The main story is extremely well done. TT have pulled the main story threads from the TV series and crafted something that works better, IMO, than the previous Lego Star Wars games. It'll take around 7/8 hours to complete, unlocking the obligatory "Free Play" mode as you go to grab all the mini-kits and red bricks (sic cheats). Personally I thought this was too short given the crap they've shoe-horned in to pad out the game-time, but more on that in a minute. Graphically it's about as gorgeous as a Lego game can get and the sound is Lucasfilm spot-on.
Those familar with Lego games, and the completion of said games, will be ready for a deludge of collecting crap. 176ish characters and ship/vehicles to unlock, 130 Gold Bricks to earn - check out the requirements here:-
There are 2 main hubs - a Republic ship and Separatist ship to explore as well. When I say explore I mean trudge endlessly back and fore through to find the characters and unlock vehicles and ....yawn...
Okay, so all you would expect from a Lego game then? Hell no. Previous Lego outings have relied on revisting levels over and over to unlock everything. This time though, quite literally, it's war. War of the worse kind. A war against all-out freaking boredom. Someone in the TT ivory towers wanted a new USP...."what can make this game stand out from all the other games we've made?" Some drunken arse in the corner pipes up "let's chuck some freaking RTS in there! That'll be cool!" And so we get "Ground Battles" - yay!
These feeble "battles" pop up in story-mode first. There's only a couple of them to start and you think, this is good, it's good to try something new. Beginning with one base, you build some stuff and go on the attack grabbing enemy bases as you go. But wait, is it me or are they just a bit...dull? A bit too fiddily? And WTF is the camera doing? I can use a lazer sword but I walk with the pace of disabled snail??? And then you realise, as they pop up again and again, they are not just a mini-game. They ARE the game!
Not only are you going to have to replay these missions again for the collectibles, but you've got another 32 of them to complete to unlock the Gold Bricks. THIRTY TWO!! And they are BORING AS HELL. We're talking 15/30 minutes a pop if you want to do them properly and they become even more pointless with the cheats turned on.
There's also "Arcade Mode" where you given the oppourtunity to bore the shit out of your friends in a local splitscreen Ground Battle if you so wish (fortunately not linked to 100% completion).
There are 10 hours of a 5/5 game here, but it's brought down kicking and screaming to 3/5 by the inclusion of Ground Battles and an 8 hour storymode that is unforgiveably short given there were 22 episodes in Season 1 to choose from.
I'm obviously not the target market for this game. At 38 I still think Han Solo shot first and that Jabba was a fat bloke wearing a husky-skin gilet. This game will no doubt please the new generation of Star Wars fans who aren't under the influence of gamerscore. But for our little community of uber-scorewhores it's nothing more than a rose-tinted grindfest of RTS pointlessness.
3 out of 5 stars.
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CheneyHeadshot
168,212
TA Score for this game: 1,584
Posted on 22 July 11 at 09:22, Edited on 22 July 11 at 09:47 |
This review has 18 positive votes and 10 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
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.
To any negvoters: try contributing a review or solution yourself sometime.
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Legohaulic
23,085
TA Score for this game: 907
Posted on 30 July 12 at 16:02 |
This review has 2 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, a Travelers Tales production.
Like the orignal Lego Star Wars, Lego Star Wars III is yet another great installment in a ever expanding series. The main story content is taken directly from the Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the first 3 seasons to be exact.
Playability:
As a Lego fan and a Star Wars fan this is the best of both worlds! its relatively relaxed during campaign, unless Achievement Hunting, it will be a casual play rather than the intencity of Gears of War or the repedative, beaten to death Call of Duty series. Improved action skills such as Dual Saber and Super Cut red power bricks(See Cheat! Achievment) make your already powerful character more powerful. A defanite attraction for gamers age 7-25, I give it a 5/5
Story:
Unless you are an fan of the CN television series you may be lost, but as Tt has done is the past, crude humor and sudtle hints in character expression make the story fun and captivating, for me I will give it a 4/5 simply because being a game the needed to scale down certain cut scenes and character "dialog" which leaves out some key part to the story.
Achievements:
All the achievements are excting, relatively easy, and fun to earn. Having personally used TA for guides to several already I can confirm that site members, facilitators, and even the random spammer have done a good job in provind correct information for you, the consumer, to fully enjoy the product. Simply put, a 5/5 for achievement hunters, gotta catch'em all! err..... earn'em all!
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