Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars

[Sonygamer455]

I didn't see any threads on this game, so I decided to make one for it because I feel this game deserves its own discussion. It's disappointing to me how there isn't much discussion on Lego Star Wars games in general here on GTP. Like my other threads I made, this is the place to discuss anything relating to the game.

I got this game for the PS3 back in 2011 and played it for a few months until I beat it. (well, sort of, I never unlocked Bossk and he's the only character I'm missing) I haven't touched the game since 2011 though and I have considered going back to it for a while now. Despite getting the game on PC in recent years, I have yet to even play it. With the Skywalker Saga coming soon, I think it's time I finally wipe the dust off of this game and play it again since it's hasn't seen the light of day in almost 9 years.

 

[Sonygamer455]

So, although I created this thread 5 whole years ago, I finally made my way back to the game recently since I've been on a Lego Star Wars run this year.

That said, while I haven't beaten the game yet, some tips I want to provide are:

1. When you start the game, save up your studs for the x4 stud multiplier extra, which is 2,000,000 studs, and don't get anything else until then. Once you get that, then get x2 stud multiplier for 500,000 studs. Something I learned from my playthrough of this game and LSWII is it helps to go for the bigger multipliers first and then get the smaller ones. Stud magnet is also one I recommend as well. You'll have little issue maximizing the stud bar and affording the things you need afterward, apart from the really expensive extras.
2. At some point, get the glow-in-the-dark extra if you intend to play Lair of Grievous, Malastare Assault, and especially Legacy of Terror. These levels are pretty dark in some areas, especially that last one and this extra will help you get around so much easier since it provides a lot of extra light. I don't remember how much it is, but it's not too expensive from what I recall.
3. If you want to grind for studs, the solution is simple, just pick any assault map in story mode. Geonosis is a good one, and if you're further in the game, Zillo Beast is even better. These maps have objects spread throughout the map you can destroy for studs and they respawn infinitely at a decent rate. On the Zillo Beast level, towards the end when he's throwing objects at you, a bunch of studs come out of them when they hit the ground and you can get a lot by collecting them, just don't let them hit you in the process. With these in mind, you can earn studs indefinitely on these maps.
4. Speaking of assault maps, if you're going to do the ones outside of story mode, save yourself the trouble and get the super speeders extra before playing them. Yeah, it's very expensive, but with it, it makes the speeders blaster bolts much more damaging and you can destroy anything that isn't shielded with ease. With that said, since speeders are very fast and this extra buffs the blasters significantly, you can breeze through the assault maps fairly quickly.
5. Also, to unlock Grand Moff Tarkin, it requires you to beat every assault map outside of story mode with the Separatists. Although I think you have to play some Republic assault missions and do some other things to unlock a few of the Separatist's levels, the point is, focus on the Separatist missions above all else so you can unlock him. (it's required for 100%)

Hope this helps anybody who is considering playing this game. If I think of anything else, I'll share it here.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Well after starting this game again on the January 31st, I finally beat it on the 25th after about 41 hours and 30 minutes, according to the in-game timer, and I must say, I had more fun with it than I expected! Lego Star Wars III is an interesting game for me because I bought it back in June of 2011, played it to near completion until July of that year, and didn't touch it again until 2022, which I only played for a short period since I was only there to get that last character I was missing. So Lego Star Wars III was a game that while I played it right much, I didn't play it for long compared to the other games in the series, and it ended up being the one I was the least familiar with. While I was not too amused with it at first, it was nice to rediscover it after all these years, and I now have a renewed interest in the game, thanks to this playthrough. I think it helped I learned from my experience with Lego Star Wars II and bought one of the bigger stud multipliers

Some thoughts I had along the way:

Spoiler

1. I love the addition of rocket launchers and miniguns in this game, it adds some extra variety to the blaster characters, and it's fun to just spam the rocket launcher in free play and just blow up everything.
2. Not a fan of how they handled the C-3PO panels in this game. While it's not as bad as what they did with The Force Awakens, making it a puzzle just feels like an unnecessary inconvenience to something that was fine the way it was in the previous games. Fortunately, there are not too many of them compared to the previous games.
3. The game's economy seems better than Lego Star Wars I and II because I didn't need to grind for studs as much as I did with them. And I am really glad this is the case because the previous games were a bit miserable to grind for if you want to get everything.
4. They really dropped the ball in terms of sound design in some places because the Battle Droids for some reason still have the wrong blaster sounds like they did in The Complete Saga and LSWII and Cad Bane's blasters don't even that signature sound from the series it's based on and I am sure I could name more. While I imagine the issue with those 2 games was an oversight, I don't know what TT's excuse for this one would be, but I really wish they had blaster sounds that actually fit the characters.

However, my biggest issue with this isn't even the characters, it's the ships. Most of them have Tie Fighter engine sounds for no apparent reason, which would be fine if they were Tie Fighters, but they're not, so it's a little weird they did this. Not only that but things like the Vulture Droid and Slave I have the Tie Fighters blaster sounds, which don't suit them in the slightest, and it just feels so off hearing the wrong sounds being played constantly from vehicles they don't belong with. I am not sure why they let this slide because they could've very easily just recycled the audio from the previous games, and for some of them, especially Slave 1, it wouldn't have been perfectly fine.
5. I love the addition of ground battles. I found them to be pretty fun to play since they break the mold of what I typically expect from these games, and it is something that I wish they would reintroduce. However, something I didn't love was just how many of them they made you do outside of story mode. They honestly gave the player way too many to do in order to get Grand Moff Tarkin and Chancellor Palpatine for 100% and it just became a very repetitive experience after a while that got tiresome after a bit.
6. Some parts of the game are not as intuitive as they could be. I found myself having to look up videos on some things because it wasn't as obvious as it could have been. One of the most notable examples I can think of is on 2 of the ground battles, I don't even remember which ones they were anymore, require you to build 3 things around a metal door at the post in order to open it, but there is nothing in the game to suggest you're supposed to do this. Once you know it, it's easy, and it could've been a lot worse, but it could've been handled better too.
7. This game would have benefitted from being able to swap out character on the fly like The Force Awakens did because I had times where I'd go somewhere in the hub, only to find out I had the wrong character. So that meant I had to turn around, sit through at least 2 loading screens, and then go back to the menu to change characters just to do a certain task. This happened to me a number of times.
8. I get they wanted to encourage exploring the hub a bit, but I am not fond of how you have to find characters in the hub in order to buy them. It makes finding some characters a bit difficult some times, something that affected my initial playthrough back in 2011. While I didn't have any issue finding them all this time around, I think just being able to buy them in the menus like the previous games would've been better. I also didn't like how you needed a bad character to buy a bad character, and trying to use a good one to buy a bad one simply doesn't work. That was yet another unnecessary inconvenience they added to the game, which was a big part of why I made that comment on #7.
9. Speaking of characters, the minikits being for characters you can play with like the rest instead of vehicles you'll rarely use like in LSWII and TCS was a welcome change and one that I think they should've done going forward. The only complaint I have is that you still have to buy them once you unlock them, and while not a big deal, I think just unlocking them for collecting all the minikits in one level would be better, and it would encourage the player to actually do it more.
10. The space missions they have for each planet in the hub are a neat idea that really helps take advantage of all that extra space between the ships, which encourages exploration and adds a little extra fun. Nearly all of them are decent, however, the one on Rishi Moon is EXTREMELY hard for no apparent reason. Of all the things I did in my playthrough, this was easily the hardest for me, and I can't think of any good reason why it needed to be. Whoever made this one should've rethought how he did it because this is NOT how it should've been!
11. The last thing I want to talk about is the game's completion reward for getting all the gold bricks being the Stealth Ship. While I loved the idea of it as well as seeing it in action in the TV series, and I am glad we have it in the game, I stand by what I said in my worst rewards thread when I say it is NOT a good reward for beating the game. It has a nice look to it, and I really like how it will make itself invisible if you don't fire it for a bit, just like how it's portrayed in the show. However, it's just another missile-launching ship like all the other ones you already have by that point, and it's not worth all the trouble it takes to get it.

Another hint I want to provide is:

1. I didn't know this until recently, but this game actually has a stud fountain similar to the previous games you can get in ground battles. I don't know what planets have it besides Florrum, but if you get enough progress on the battlefield, you can build one and earn studs even easier than before. Sadly you're bound by the timer on the level as to how many you can get and stud multipliers do not work on multiplayer, but it's still an easy way to get studs.

Overall, I had a good time with this game, and I am glad I replayed it. It was nice to re-acquaint myself with my lesser-played game in the series and open up a lot of suppressed memories along the way!