LEGO Star Wars is just around the corner, and many fans are excited to finally return to a galaxy far, far away—but this time in brick format. While there were previous LEGO games in the franchise, this time, it’s all re-created from the ground up; every Skywalker movie, Episode I-IX. Players will have a lot to look forward to when the game finally arrives. Not only will there be a massive amount of story content, but also about 300 different characters to play as.
When it comes to what the gameplay will look like, there will be all the lightsaber duels and blaster fights one could desire from anything Star Wars. Not only that, but all of the planets seen throughout the films will be explorable.
However, while it had previously been reported that the game would be fully open-world, it seems like that might not be the case.
LEGO Star Wars' 'Open World' Gameplay
In the past, various outlets have stated that the LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga game features open-world gameplay.
In a report from PC Magazine, the site directly mentioned how the experience “is an open-world game.” Inverse revealed that the various levels have an “open-world… design.” Eurogamer went further, saying, “there’s space-based exploration in starships,” and the various planets have plenty of sidequests.
Thanks to a new YouTube video from AshnFlash, it’s now been revealed that the much-touted open-world experience may be a bit more confined than originally thought.
In his video, he revealed that on a planet such as Tatooine, players are unable to just take a speeder on their own and venture around the entire planet. All of the various areas, such as those of the famous sand planet, are not naturally connected.
Instead, one will have to go to specific fast travel points, like a landspeeder on Tatooine, to take a pre-programmed route into a loading screen where players will then load into the additional area chosen.
There are areas seen in previous footage that have not yet been uncovered, so it is possible that these pathways lead to the other areas like Mos Eisley and the Jundland Wastes.
Therefore, there is a chance that the landspeeder is simply a means of fast travel on the planet and the world is interconnected, though this is unconfirmed from TT Games.
Open World, Or Almost Open World?
What this new information confirms is how the game’s idea of open-world gameplay doesn’t look like one massive map for each planet. Instead, each planet will have several sizeable areas which players can openly explore while doing missions; but to cross between the two, one will need to take that special land speeder (aka, fast travel).
It looks to be a system similar to the recent Pokémon: Arceus, which was touted as the first open-world experience for the franchise; but the world was split into various areas the player had to fast travel between.
Roughly speaking, the philosophy and intent behind open-world gameplay are likely in full effect. After all, it would be quite difficult to make a massive world map for each planet—one that’s accurate to all the landmarks and cities mentioned throughout Star Wars.
Hopefully, this news doesn’t sway anyone from choosing against purchasing the game. The attention to detail, passion, and love put into this project is clear as day—so make sure to pick out up when LEGO Star Wars releases on April 6.