LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has rightly earned itself a lot of excitement due to its major changes to the LEGO game formula. Combat is much more complicated in the upcoming game, with both melee and ranged characters getting new playstyles while enemies behave more diversely than ever. Exploration also promises to reach new heights because of the map's sheer size. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga players can expect to spend many hours looking for collectibles across the Star Wars galaxy. However, there's not a lot of signs that another major facet of LEGO games has changed: building things.
Although Traveller's Tales might just be saving some surprises for The Skywalker Saga's release, it seems odd that there's no sign of changes to the LEGO game building system. Everything else is changing so much that the building mechanic is at risk of feeling out of date by comparison. There are certainly ways that the LEGO Star Wars series could innovate on the mechanic, either through Star Wars' special traits or with more general skill tests, any of which could go a long way to make the games more engaging. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga really ought to jump on the opportunity to change how building works in LEGO games.
The Skywalker Saga's Impact on the Franchise
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga isn't just setting out to be different from other LEGO games from Traveller's Tales; it's setting a new standard for the franchise. That's a good thing, considering how the game's changes target gameplay facets that could get criticism previously. For instance, there's a case to be made that LEGO games had pretty weak combat before now, with enemies running mindlessly at the player and all attacking in the same way. The Skywalker Saga's more complex combat, as well as its rich overworld and a long, slow development that will hopefully smooth out the bugs that LEGO games are known for, could make The Skywalker Saga a strikingly good game.
The changes seem meant to improve The Skywalker Saga across the board, which is great, but it doesn't seem like Traveller's Tales is actually intent on changing everything that makes a LEGO game. Namely, there's no clear sign that building—a core mechanic that sets LEGO games apart from competitors—is getting freshened up in any major way in the new game. Trailers for The Skywalker Saga have put such a heavy emphasis on the game's Star Wars aspects, namely exploration and combat, that the LEGO aspects seem to be taking a backseat.
For a long time, building things in LEGO games has amounted to breaking objects in search of parts, then assembling those parts by holding the right button for a few seconds. It's a simple mechanic that does its job well, but it's not always rewarding or engaging. If Traveller's Tales wants to change this status quo, then there's no better opportunity to do so than The Skywalker Saga. The upcoming LEGO Star Wars game will likely be the standard that many future LEGO games are held to in all departments, including building, so Traveller's Tales had better have something up its sleeve for this side of the franchise.
How LEGO Star Wars Can Improve Building
Previous LEGO games have tried new angles on building with bricks before. For instance, The LEGO Movie Videogame made some characters require instructions on how to build objects, while Master Builders could simply pull components out of their environments to effortlessly build something new. The Skywalker Saga would be wise to borrow that approach and try it from a few different angles. After all, Star Wars is full of unique skillsets that could impact building, and LEGO games in general are no stranger to giving each character a unique function.
The Force is a valuable power that has obvious potential in the LEGO Star Wars building system. Force-sensitive characters might have a special knack for building things out of bricks that are charged with or connected to the Force somehow. Traveller's Tales could take that concept further by tainting some bricks with the Dark Side of the Force, requiring a Sith's skills to assemble. Aside from these supernatural abilities, Star Wars characters with engineering knowledge like Han Solo and Anakin Skywalker might have a special talent for assembling machines that help solve puzzles.
The Skywalker Saga doesn't have to rely on Star Wars staples to make building things more interesting. For instance, it could introduce a simple skill test that goes further to capture a player's attention better than holding a button. A simple quicktime event where players push a few prompted buttons in quick succession would go a long way to make building more engaging without making building things take longer. Traveller's Tales doesn't have to go far to push this mechanic's boundaries.
Making a Well-Rounded LEGO Game
It makes sense that The Skywalker Saga's trailers and other advertisements have focused on the flashier improvements to the game. The light and strong attacks for Jedi, the over-the-shoulder camera for blaster wielders, the game's plethora of vehicles, and the convenient new galaxy map are all very charming broad improvements that make good use of the Star Wars world and how that world works. Even so, The Skywalker Saga isn't just a Star Wars game. It's a LEGO game too, which means the LEGO mechanics deserve to get refurbished just as much as the Star Wars elements do.
There's definitely still hope that building things in The Skywalker Saga is more complicated than usual. The Skywalker Saga's long journey to release means that there's been plenty of time for Traveller's Tales to contemplate this crucial mechanic and figure out what it can do differently this time. Fans will just have to wait and see what Traveller's Tales came up with if anything. One hopes that news about The Skywalker Saga is only a few months away, considering the game's fast-approaching release window. It'd be great to get some detailed gameplay trailers around the start of 2022, setting more concrete expectations for the game. There's still a lot to learn about this revolutionary LEGO title.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases in early 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.