Lego Star Wars II (PS2)
This fun lego based action/adventure game, and a sequel to
the best
selling original, is good in some aspects but disappoints in others.
Gameplay: 84%
The
best part of the game is the gameplay, which like the last one is good fun,
and has eighteen different levels from the three original Star Wars films
(Star Wars - A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi).
Each film episode has six levels, so you get to play in all the most
memorable scenes from the three films. You start at the Mos Eisley Cantina,
and from there you take your group of characters (only controlling one at a
time) and work your way through the levels, blasting away baddies, and also
working through puzzles in order to proceed.
After completing each stage you can unlock new characters, and as you work through the game you will encounter all the famous characters from the films, such as Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo, R2D2, Chewbacca and many more. You can also ride one some of the well known vehicles such as Landspeeders.
Unfortunately they haven’t expanded very much on anything in this game compared with the original, it’s just the locations that are different, plus the new characters. One new thing that they have done well though is that you can build your own character, and this is great fun because you can morph different characters together which looks funny, e.g. putting Princess Leia’s head on Chewbacca’s body.
Graphics: 69%
Although the
quality of the graphics in a game shouldn’t make or break it (gameplay is
more important), the quality of the graphics in this game are too similar to
the first one, with the same lego streets and lego people, (it's just like a
lego-land but in a game format). With these graphics I could easily say to
you “see Lego Star Wars 1”. Other PS2 sequels have been able to improve on
the previous game graphics, so it is disappointing that they don’t seem to
have done that here.
Sound:
65%
The sound is
reasonable, but not spectacular. Although you will hear
the original Star Wars music in the background, the general sound effects
could be better, although a light saber does sound good.
Value:
68%
Although the
gameplay is good, the game wears out its popularity very quickly for me.
Although set around the original films that tend to be more popular, there
are not enough new features, and the game is completed at bit too quickly
for my liking.
Conclusion:
Although the
game is fun, especially if you’re a fan of the original Star Wars films, I
think that it could have been a lot better as they haven’t really improved
on anything from the first game.
Overall Score: 72%