TT Games promise more freedom and a move into RPG territory as combat receives a huge overhaul.

Game director James McLoughlin has assured the Star Wars community that the upcoming LEGO Star Wars game will be vastly different from the last, with brand new visuals and AI technology taking centre stage.

It might come as a surprise to you that the first Lego Star Wars game released over 15 years ago on Game Boy, and it has come so far in such short space of time!

Lego Star Wars was a big part of everyone’s childhood, and soon gamers will be able to revel in the nostalgia of it all.

Continue reading as we take a deep dive on the new combat, galaxy map and visuals that will feature in the Skywalker Saga.

Combat

It’s not all style and no substance.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn’s stunning vistas battle it out in this stunning shot

Combat combinations, for example, are now a huge focus for the game, and players are even given the option to create their own to build on a sense of unity with their character.

Combat moves vary and will carry different degrees of strength, so the levels of customisation are pretty much limitless.

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Enemies will now have health bars, as shooting different parts of their bodies will have different damage scored attached to them, so you’ll need to be a little more precise with your weapons than in previous editions.

This was all confirmed by game director James McLoughlin in an exclusive interview with Variety, where he explains that the Skywalker Saga “isn’t an HD remake” now that they have new AI technology, new camera systems and “new combat”.

An open-world exploration

The gameplay shown at E3 2019 opened in space, with the player piloting the Millennium Falcon. Tatooine was in view, offering a selection of locations to land.

The Millennium Falcon, taken from gameplay footage

After landing near the Pit of Carkoon, the galaxy map indicated where the next step in the Return of the Jedi episode would be – Jabba’s sail barge.

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The Skywalker Saga is an open-world game; players can go anywhere on the planet, or blast-off into space to visit any other planet that has been unlocked.

Talk to different characters to get various side quests, explore to find collectables, and simply take in the Star Wars galaxy at your leisure without starting the next step in the story progression.

Previous Lego games have used hub worlds to navigate discrete missions, but The Skywalker Saga opens up all of Star Wars for the community to enjoy.

TT Games’ outstanding relationship with Lucasfilm has given the development team more freedom than ever before, and they have utilised this freedom by exploring the epic saga in a humorous way.

Visuals

The camera has been brought in closer to the characters, heightening the sense of scale and giving you a better view of the vistas’ clunky yet crisp aesthetic.

BB-8 flees from a group of Storm Troopers

The environments you interact with also have unique impacts on the characters; sand can cause wear and tear on the characters and get their clothes full of dirt and dust.

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It’s a level of detail that we have not seen in a Lego game before, but it goes to show just how much the gameplay and graphics have evolved since the last game released in 2016.