LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
A fun and easy romp through the worlds of the Star Wars franchise.
It can be played just for the cute and funny story, but I suspect that many players would be drawn to its expansive open-world play. The amount of puzzles, collectibles, side missions, and challenges is astounding. Sure, many of these are just filler—repetitive, menial tasks—but a surprising number is delightful and satisfying. And even the menial tasks can be enjoyed for the journey itself. It's nice to just spend time in this wacky, beautiful game world. I only really started to get tired of it when I approached 80 hours of game time.
It's indeed remarkably beautiful. You would think there's not much potential in brightly colored LEGO blocks, but here they are placed in realistic terrains, and even the blocks make use of superb lighting and material effects. You really need to experience this game in HDR if you can, as the implementation is often breathtaking.
It's not all gravy, though. The UI is very cumbersome. The controls and camera usually work well, but they can become frustrating in puzzles that require precision 3D platforming and/or speed. Load screens between planets are long, which is very annoying when working through the many multi-planetary side missions. It's also just ... too easy. If you understand how the in-game "money" system works, you can early on become rich enough that you don't have to think about it anymore. And combat is so trivial that it's likely you will never die. Indeed, weapon upgrades are unnecessary for survival, they'll just make encounters end sooner. Finally, the mission tracker turns most missions into brainless follow-the-blue-light experiences. That said, I did enjoy the many puzzles, which require some logical thinking and observation skills. I really wish the game focused more on puzzles than combat.
But what I really wish for is a challenging, serious Star Wars open-world RPG with the scope and beauty of this game. Still, this game scratches some of that itch as it's loyal, in its own way, to the Star Wars universe and its tone. And it's also loyal to LEGO. It's very funny, very lighthearted, and very easy. If you come into it with the right attitude it can be a good time for many hours.