Lego Star Wars 2

[Duncan]

Here's a secret unlockable thread for the three, four Thumbers who played this game. If that many. For some reason, miffy is coming to mind but no one else.

Here's the thing. This is easily a better game than LSW1, if only by virtue of an extra layer or two of collectable shit/customization/interactivity. The vehicle levels, for a change, are not terrible (except for one, not coincidentally the closest in design to LSW1.)

But I liked the last game more.

It is not rational. Objectively, LSW2 is the better game and I would easily recommend this one to anyone who hadn't played either. I think the problem is that I played the last one.

LSW1 was new and exciting and this one isn't. And no, that isn't really fair, especially for a sequel which is only trying to improve on the first game. But there it is. It's why I'd recommend playing 2 first.

It is staggering to me that they could make all these miniscule improvements but not even touch the co-op camera or the single-player AI. This may not be accurate but the camera seemed WORSE in this one. And it's these two things which make for an incredibly frustrating game. And these were both problems with LSW1. But I could forgive that, because, hey, it's the first game. In LSW1, the cool new stuff was enough to outweigh the bad. In LSW2 it's not new anymore. It's slightly improved. And that doesn't forgive the same bad stuff.

And I have a NEW problem. I think I hate the cutscenes. Using the Sims-style "dialogue" is a massive cheat, and it doesn't even seem particularly necessary. The "comedy" is pretty fucking tortured. Trying far, far too hard for what came naturally in LSW1. And I really think that this game does a worse job of actually representing the movies than the last one. The pacing on ROTJ is bizarre. For adaptation games like this one, even if the story is well-known, I think there still needs to be a concerted fucking effort on telling the actual story. (I complained about this a year ago with King Kong, too. At least I think I did.) You don't get from this game that Luke and Leia are siblings (spoiler alert!) and you don't know Yoda dies until he shows up as a ghost at the end (for some WAACKKY comedy.) The way the game tells you that Vader is Luke's father is so obscure I didn't even get it at first.

The game is mostly improved, I have to say. I mean, the gameplay is what it is, and people who didn't like one game aren't going to like the other. I like it, though. The unlockable stuff is better. Practical, even. I would not be going through the whole thing to try for 100% if it wasn't for some of these extras. I thought it was great that you finally get to use the minikit vehicles from the last game, even if it is in an uninspired minigame. And I'm at like 90% completion right now, and I have to say, the reward for 100% better be fucking worth it. I am really working for it. I don't even want to tell you how many hours I've put into this game. If you've finished it, please tell me if it's worth it. The reward for 60/99 gold bricks was most definitely NOT worth it, in case you're wondering.

Also, you don't have to write a post this long.

[miffy495]

Yeah, 2 definitely did grab me less than 1 did. Like you, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Thing is, I played the first one obsessively, trying to unlock everything that I could, until I was sure I had 100%. With 2, I stalled around 70% a few months back and really haven't gone back except for an hour here and there to see if I could grab something extra. The levels seem unnecessarily long, for one thing. Luke's jedi training in particular dragged for quite a bit. I would've preferred that the chapters were shorter, and maybe a couple more per film. Objectively, 2 was the better game. Just seemed less enthralling though.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to what Traveler's Tales can do with the Batman franchise...

[Roderick]

Whatever it is, I hope this time they make a decent DS game of it. I only played SWL2 on the DS and it sucked enormously. Buggy as feck, audio skipping, characters getting stuck, blinking or disappearing and... yeah, even unplayable.

[Aussie Ben]

Yes. The DS version made me sad. I really wish that Lucasarts hadn't pushed all the versions out to coincide with their DVD release. Christ. If a game ISN'T FINISHED, DON'T PUBLISH IT YET. Not apparently genius.

I did play all the way through the 360 version though - got all the achievements and everything. Loved every bit of it. Well, except for the wonderful bug that freezes the game in Return of the Jedi, with Lucasarts not even acknowledging the bug's existence. And it occurs across EVERY CONSOLE VERSION (even the PC release!). Turn off that rumble! Turn off the music! Lower the visual quality in the settings! Walk past the river as R2-D2 reeeealllly sloooowly!

[Duncan]

Well, except for the wonderful bug that freezes the game in Return of the Jedi, with Lucasarts not even acknowledging the bug's existence. And it occurs across EVERY CONSOLE VERSION (even the PC release!). Turn off that rumble! Turn off the music! Lower the visual quality in the settings! Walk past the river as R2-D2 reeeealllly sloooowly!

That sucks; what's the bug? I haven't had any issues actually.

It's really too bad that the DS version blows, 'cause as far as I remember it's the only one that allowed up to 4-player co-op. Your party gets large enough pretty often, it would rule if you weren't just dragging around three other characters who don't do anything. Though the camera is bad enough with 2 players sharing a screen, 4 players would be a fucking nightmare. Wifi or online would be the way to do it.

In other news, I am one gold brick away from completion. I couldn't help it. I have to win. All that's left is powering through ROTJ on super story mode. Ohh Lego Star Wars you are making me work for this. Don't let me down.

[Roderick]

Oh, I forget of course than more than three characters on screen causes huge lag on the DS. Ahhh, how to rush out a game and ruin it.

[Aussie Ben]

Basically, when you're playing through Endor in Return of the Jedi, there's a river that you have to cross (there's a tractor on the other side). If you try and cross this river, the game will freeze. Happens most often on super story mode (and remember, this is about FOUR LEVELS IN!), but I've also seen it happen through regular play (it happened while a friend was playing it at work). If you do happen to make it through that crash, there's another delightful one that happens right as you're escaping from the explosion of the Death Star II. So, the game could crash RIGHT BEFORE you finish the Super Story, which takes a stupid amount of time to complete as is!

So yeah Duncan, you're at the same level I was. I had not encountered ANY bugs, and that Super Story was the last thing I had to do. So, when trying to get this last gold brick, it would crash at the river crossing in Endor EVERY TIME. To avoid Maximum Frustration, you might want to try doing the following when playing ROTJ Super Story:

- Turn Rumble Off

- Set Music to Zero

- Set all graphical detail to lowest setting

- When you get to the river in Endor, wait for all your characters to arrive, switch to R2-D2, then very slowly cross the river

Keep rumble off for the rest of the Super Story, as apparently that's what causes the crash in Death Star II. And keep in mind that this bug affects all console versions (including the PC version!).

[Duncan]

If you do happen to make it through that crash, there's another delightful one that happens right as you're escaping from the explosion of the Death Star II. So, the game could crash RIGHT BEFORE you finish the Super Story, which takes a stupid amount of time to complete as is!

Hahaha. Oh man. I am so glad I found out about this now. I didn't think this super story challenge could get any more frustrating.

[Duncan]

Now, I may be the richest man in this Dickensian hamlet, but what good is my money if it cannot buy happiness?

Here's a little story. The completion/reward system in LSW2 goes like this. You get 100% after you have completed everything, unlocked everything -- characters, cheats, hints. You collect studs (money) to unlock things. For each "achievement" you also get a gold brick, and these go toward building secret things. There are 99 bricks in total and basically they build two things. At 60 bricks you unlock one thing, at 99 bricks (in itself not 100%) you unlock another. The reward for 60 bricks is a tedious scavenger hunt, the reward for which is a bonus 100,000 studs with every additional gold brick.

There are a couple of items on the unlockable menu which are well out of your price range -- like 20, 30 million. One pass through a level might net you something in the high five figures.

When you've got all 99 bricks, these items are the only things left before you are done with the game. What's the reward for 99 bricks? It's a fountain of infinite studs! Well I never! Now it is relatively easy to raise the cash to buy these last items!

But what are these last items? They're stud multipliers. And they get ludicrously high -- almost 4000x at the end there. In five minutes you can make more money than you ever had in the whole game. Too bad there's nothing left to spend it on. Maybe, though, it'll tie in to whatever the reward for 100% is.

And what is that reward?

NOTHING

[ice9]

thanks so much for the info on the bug.....been driving me mad. thought it was my xbox because i've had such trouble with it and i'm on my 3rd. tried to finish that super story 4 times in the last 2 days (2 hangs at the river and 2 at the very end). gonna try and follow your suggestions and finsh tomorrow for brick 99 i hope!

thanx

[ice9]

I have sent this in to LucasArts.......

there are 2 places in the Return of the Jedi SuperStory that have bugs and cause the game to crash. This makes it impossible to attain the 99 gold bricks and also leads to immense frustration as it takes appox 45 mins to get to the fist bug and over 1 hour to reach the second.

it is well documented on the web that these 2 bugs exist on all console versions of this software and also that there has been no admission from you that they exist.

the first bug occurs as the team attempts to cross the river in Chapter 4 in Endor.

The second occurs seconds from completing the story as the falcon is racing to esacpe the death star.

I have attemped to finish this 5 times and have had the bug bite twice at the river and 3 times at the death star.

My blood pressure went through the roof each time. I only discovered that it was software related after the 4th time when I did some research online,

I was given some advice - turn off rumble, sound and set graphics to the lowest level. It stil did not help and the game crashed again.

To not admit that this issue exists is damaging to your reputation.

What do you expect me to do? Would I recommend this game to others having had this experience? How many others feel the same as me? Check the forums!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game that has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I'd like you to admit the issue and advise if there is a fix that can be obtained.

Thanking You

-Conor

[DanJW]

And I have a NEW problem. I think I hate the cutscenes.

It might be that the Episodes 1-3 were easier to make fun of. I mean there are parts in the films that are unintentionally hilarious. There were parts in LSW1 that were faily vicious in the contempt for the prequal trilogy, but maybe that's just my own bias shining through. It's less easy to turn the original trilogy into comedy because people actually like those films.

I do know what you mean in general though. I think it's just because it's a sequal, and to be honest it's essentially more of the same. If the original trilogy game had come out first I expect we'd have enjoyed it more.