2 Hour Review: LEGO Star Wars II

If I had to chose to take it or leave it, I'd still take it. And even
though that might involve keeping the stray puppy even when it pees on the
floor, you know it's still cute and cuddly. Puppy dog eyes exist for a
reason.

And this puppy is shiny cute. "Polished" is a word that comes to mind. But
we're talking all graphics, sound and story here. The desert and starship
locations are just as you would hope they would be an the 360 and an HD
screen. The black metal floors of an Imperial Cruiser are fantastic.
Reflections are clean like mirrored glass. There are no pixel jaggies
anywhere and the camera creates a beautiful in and out of focus effect
(probably the only thing the camera does well, in fact). The new character
animations are also top notch and true to the LEGO Star Wars
tongue-and-cheek style.

The sound, oh the glorious sound, is only being held back from my
exaggerated comments because I'm missing two surround sound speakers. Had
I have them installed, I know I'd be in Star Wars heaven. All the
different blaster sounds, character battles and LEGO peices exploding are
crystal clear and fluid. In a shooting match with Luke, Obe-Wan, and some
Tuskan raiders, you think you were geek dreaming to be in the movie.

The controls get the first negative marks on the game. Mostly due to poor
implementation of the camera, controlling in two-player mode (cause that's
how we do it) involves a lot more player drop outs than before. I had read
that the camera had been improved this trip around, allowing for further
zoom outs for players to split apart. I don't see any evidence of this.
Last night, while driving around two land speeders, I jumped out and
walked around and Nicole got stuck behind a house. Then all of the sudden
the screen zipped up to a previously visited island that you can only
visit with the land speeder by herself. There was no way off the island
without a speeder and no way for me to re-join back in and drive out to
get her. True Jedi status be damned. And if controlling a Halo Warthog was
difficult for anyone, try controlling a Land Speeder or AT-ST. It's nearly
impossible to play two-player with one person in at AT-ST without crushing
your teammate. The camera gets so stuck on the huge machine, if meatlegs
doesn't run a good clip ahead of your stomping metal paws, a Jedi pancake
they will become.

The other negative mark is going to fall on the collectables. Holy cr4p.
There are a lot. Usually three trips through a level in Free Play mode
would get us all the mini-kits and studs, but now we're going to have to
wait to unlock all the characters and just go through once toward the end
of the game. Half of the first chapter's mini-kits are nowhere to be seen
and the Easter Bunny himself must be hiding those damn red bricks. Nicole
and I are pretty thorough, but we just don't see how or where to finish
our collections.

But in reality, we have a freakin' long way to go. So I'm sure the game
will not only surpase the first game, but make up for these two little
thorns in our side known as the camera and collectables with witty Star
Wars humor and quality time with Nicole. We love the levels. We love
blowing up and building LEGO structures (AT-STs!!!). We love the
characters.

So, okay...I guess we can keep her.