LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais something of an outlier in its franchise. Although Traveller’s Tales’LEGOgame franchise historically isn’t known for being particularly prone to change,LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais rich with innovation. Traveller’s Tales has rebuilt all kinds of core aspects of the game, from introducing a far more detailed combat system to adding RPG-style skill trees that allow players to unlock and upgrade abilities for different types of playable characters. It’s not every day that any given franchise gets such a revolutionary entry, so it’ll be interesting to see how the nextLEGOgame incorporatesSkywalker Saga’s innovations.
LEGO Batmanseems particularly poised tomake use ofThe Skywalker Saga’s changes. A skill tree sounds like a great way to giveLEGO Batmanplayers more control over Batman and Robin’s gadgets, while combat enhancements will make battling Gotham’s biggest supervillains much more interesting. Above all, though,The Skywalker Saga’s level design sounds ideal for the nextLEGO Batmangame. Usually,LEGOlevels are linear, but inThe Skywalker Saga, players can choose paths that vary between action and stealth. These two-level options are perfect forLEGO Batmanbecause they line up perfectly with some of Batman’s biggest skills.
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The Skywalker Saga’s Branching Paths
InLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, players will apparently have multiple paths to choose between when completing some story levels.The Skywalker Saga’s gameplay overviewsuggests that one of the path archetypes is a high-action path where players will confront lots of enemies and make progress by force. That sounds like pretty traditionalLEGO Star Warsfare. In mostLEGOgames, players constantly run into hordes of enemies in between solving puzzles and completing platforming segments. It’s no surprise thatThe Skywalker Saga’s levels will still allow players to solve problems with their lightsabers.
In contrast, the trailer also states that players can seek out stealthy approaches to levels, showcasingPoe Dameron sneaking past some First Order stormtroopers. It’s not entirely clear what these stealth segments inThe Skywalker Sagawill look like, but odds seem good that they’ll emphasize LEGO building and puzzle-solving instead of combat. While the stealth path will likely cause players to end up in the same final location as the high-action path, it’s still a compelling addition. A stealth-focused path givesThe Skywalker Saga’s levels much more replayability and creates an interesting opportunity to see the hidden far corners of famousStar Warslocations.
LEGO Star Warsfans don’t know exactly how and when they’ll know when these branching paths will open up, or if low-action paths are all stealth-centric. Still, stealth alone is already a valuable alternative to traditionalLEGOStar Warsfare. The gameplay overview shows thatthe player’s LEGO building choiceswill sometimes determine the path they take, but it’d be great if some optional paths were a little more hidden in order to encourage exploration within levels. All in all, the new branching levels seem like a priceless addition toThe Skywalker Saga.
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LEGO Batman Has Stealth Potential
LEGO Batmancould easily adaptThe Skywalker Saga’s style of level design and make great use of it. Naturally,the nextLEGO Batmangameought to let players simply barge into the lairs of supervillains if they so choose. The originalLEGO Batmangame offered players plenty of opportunities to storm their way through famous Gotham locations while beating up the Riddler, Penguin, and Joker’s minions. If it has branching levels,LEGO Batman 4should always have at least one path that’s packed with enemies so that players can put the Caped Crusader’s fighting skills to good use.
At the same time,LEGO Batmanis the perfect kind of game to offer players a stealth approach. Batman is famously stealthy, constantly appearing in unexpected places and attacking villains from the cover of night.LEGO Batman 4could have some fantastic stealth sections byfollowingThe Skywalker Saga’s lead. Instead of charging into battle head-on, players might have the option to sneak past threats and find ways to attack them indirectly, dropping objects on enemies from above or using silent takedowns to pick off enemies one by one.
Beyond stealth,LEGO Batmancould even innovate by having level paths that are particularly heavy on platforming.LEGOgames generally have at least a little platforming involved as players construct platforms that help them navigate levels, butLEGO Batman’s story levels could have certain paths that emphasize Batman’s agility as well. Gotham is full of tall buildings that are great for climbing and jumping between, so instead of chasing a villain down onthe streets of Gotham, players could quickly scale nearby buildings in order to cut the enemy off in a different part of the city.The Skywalker Sagacould have platforming segments like these first, but they’d still be perfect forLEGO Batman.
The Next Big LEGO Project
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais very important for theLEGOgame brand because it majorly raises the bar for whatever Traveller’s Tales makes next. Another licensedLEGOgame will need to be just as ambitious to stay out ofThe Skywalker Saga’s shadow. Ideally Traveller’s Tales will develop the next game a little more patiently too;The Skywalker Saga’s innovations are great, but it’s sad to hear thatTraveller’s Tales developers have suffered from crunchbecause of it. The studio ought to carefully examineThe Skywalker Saga’s features before trying to adapt them. Historically, that kind of patience is the best way to produce a high-quality game anyhow.
When looking at the innovations thatThe Skywalker Sagahas to offer the next bigLEGOgame, it’s clear that Traveller’s Tales has a lot of options. Out of all the IPs it could revisit with those features, though,LEGO Batmanreally seems like an ideal candidate. Aside from beinga fan favoriteLEGOseriesand a great target for a combat overhaul,LEGOBatmanis ripe for branching levels that let fans choose between a sneaky approach or raw force. Traveller’s Tales ought to take the nextLEGOgame slow, but hopefully, it’ll at least let fans know what franchise it wants to freshen up next.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagareleases April 5 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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