VicLUG

[joseph]

I've been playing this game for a couple of weeks now, it's a hoot. check out some ingame screenies:

http://blobfarm.ath.cx/bin/legosw2/

I've just been playing on the weekend so should pace the game out for quite awhile, it's vast. there's story mode with 3 movies and 6 chapters a piece; freeplay mode of all those chapters; 3 bonus levels per movie?; some sort of lego city when story mode is done?; 6 bounty hunter missions after purchasing those characters?

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[J1A3L5]

It looks pretty cool - Everyone I know who's played it seems to love it. It looks like I'd probably have some fun with it...but on the other hand, I'd tend to rather spend the 50 bucks on actual bricks!

I've heard about this unique two-player mode it has...how exactly does that work?

-John L.

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[joseph]

the 2 player mode is basically you and another character going through the level together. you can toggle back and forth between each other as there are different character types ( jedi, raygun types, droids, bounty hunters, storm troopers, small dudes, etc ) to solve the various level puzzles. you play the game first in story mode which has 2 relevant characters for that chapter in the movie and there are in game movie clips.

you can't complete the whole level in story mode and have to go back after you finish in freeplay mode where you can select whatever character you want. occasionally you will rescue one of your companions in story mode and you might have a whole crew, like on the death star with han, luke, leia, chewy and the droids. then in freeplay you are back to just the 2 characters. also you might come across an area that requires 2 characters to complete, like 2 platforms that both need force to lift, and both characters are jedi. you hop on one platform and the AI takes over and hops on the other and you both levitate each other up to the destination area. 2nd player AI will do a lot of stuff like that, and that is carried over from the first game as well.

there's a fun exploit someone found with 2 player mode as well in the 'double score zone'. small areas of the game that are sometimes hard to get to the lego studs you collect are worth double, so collecting 1500 worth of studs is now worth 3000. whenever your character is killed they drop around 1000 studs. the glitch exploit ( no cheat codes or hacks ) is to switch to actual 2 player mode, so as the 2nd character is not just following you around via AI but is playable via keyboard ( in theory by another person ). 2nd player then starts pummeling 1st player until they loose all their coins and collects them. rinse and repeat until you've taken all of 1st player coins. now switch back to player 1 controls and pummel player 2 until you've taken all of their coins, and in no time you've turned 3000 coins into 100,000 =) there are some v. expensive items to buy so this saves some game headaches without really cheating.

I don't do a lot of games, and generally just have one cooking at a time that takes me months to finish, so am v. cagey about what I invest time wise and can attest to the awsomeosity of this one =)

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[Steve]

i just finished the story mode yesterday, and im only 48% done.
now im in the process of replaying the whole game in freeplay mode.
i love it

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr

[joseph]

I'm doing a mix of both story and freeplay as I'm not allowed to do new story chapters unless Forrest is watching, but have permission to do levels on freeplay

saving up for the 2x score extra now ( a cool 1 mil studs )

what's your fav character to play so far Steve? I like Han's quick draw, but can't stand his jump (same with Lando and pre jedi Luke) . Leia is pretty standup for jumping. stormtroopers suck for jumping, bounty hunters are good but building stuff triggers off detonators too often. imperial officers are fun but a bit slow, same with tuskans. and jedi's are great except basically useful only at close range. bib fortuna is hilarious but useless =) chewy is generally a safe bet, but really gets into dismantling if your surrounded by troopers.

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[Steve]

jedi all the way !
they're great for any situation including long range! all you have to do is time your attack/block button to send blaster fire back to the shooter, just like hitting a baseball. they're the best jumpers, they're the fastest dodgers, all of them except vader will wear disguise helmets, plus the extra jedi mind trick or other force powers make them the most versatile characters in the game. the ONLY things they dont do are grapple and tunnel.

one thing i havent tried yet, is the feature of loading an old savegame from LSW1 to get access to the classic characters in freeplay. im looking forward to playing darth sidious as i go around slashing ewoks

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr

[joseph]

yes, very true about the returning volley with a lightsaber but religions and ancient weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.

you can create a dark force character using a red lightsaber in the bacta tanks and darth maul is super fun to block with =) a 'super character' you can make is using boba's helmet and and a red lightsaber, so you can toss thermal detonators and use dark force, but trying to pull switches or build stuff generally ends up as blowing yourself up.

my fav jumper? that is general grevious' bodyguard in LSW1. has the jump of jarjar plus a crazy attack. and havn't found a good jumper yet in LSW2 to compare so nice to bring them in. apparantly there is a crazy power jump glitch using the emporer, but havn't tried that one out yet. you toggle your character at the height of the emporer's double jump attack ( j, j, a, toggle ) and your character gets some sweet air. I'm at chapter 3 in RTOJ so havn't come across him yet to try!

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[J1A3L5]

Okay so now you've got me interested!

I tried the demo and stuff, and I found it quite confusing. After a while it got a bit more reasonable, but a couple things I found awkward:

The camera following seemed strange, especially if you retrace your steps, it refuses to let you look back. I think a mouse-controlled camera would make much more sense. As in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, for example.

The switching between characters. I found it difficult to choose which character I wanted to change into when they're grouped together. It seemed really clumsy - Wouldn't it make more sense to have a key you could press to toggle between them, independant of where you are?


It looked like a really fun game, with a lot of great ideas. I think it was just a bit hard to play...

-John L.

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[joseph]

been taking some in game movie clips. was stuck on the dagoba level and was perusing some walkthrough sites, discovered that movie clips are posted there. these arn't nec. strategy clips, but some that show the characters gaits and different monsters. the program used is zd soft game recorder and does a nice compression for the visual size of the files. let me know if any of the links don't work or have expired.

edit: anyone who isn't familiar with rapidshare, these files are free to dl, no need to sign up for anything. click the free button, in the free column which brings you to a minute countdown page. then there is a 3 digit captcha, only a few flaming rings of poo to go thru

http://rapidshare.de/files/35211014/LegoStarWarsII_bib.avi.html
Bib Fortuna's walk and attack ( 2.4 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35211249/LegoStarWarsII_dbl_score.avi.html
double score zone hack, this one shows an exploit in the dbl score zone where you can be in real 2 player mode and capitalize on your opponent/companion's nature of dropping coins which are now worth double. translation: dl this one only if your interested ( 3.15 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35211580/LegoStarWarsII_droid_sith.avi.html
one of the neat combo characters you can make, if you use a red lightsaber and a bounty hunter head or helmet you get this bomb weilding sith. they can't open droid doors tho, so sad. ( 2.95 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35212092/LegoStarWarsII_imp_officer.avi.html
imperial officer's walk and attack in the catina, stuff usually ends up as a barfight in here. ( 2.34 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35212280/LegoStarWarsII_rancor1.avi.html
rancor #1 running around the rancor so camera gets diff angles of it ( 1.73 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35212382/LegoStarWarsII_rancor2.avi.html
rancor #2 futily attacking it ( 1.64 mb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35212450/LegoStarWarsII_rancor4.avi.html
rancor #3 beasty roaring ( 527 kb )

http://rapidshare.de/files/35212626/LegoStarWarsII_rancor5.avi.html
rancor #4 rancor enjoying some nice fresh pig ( 2.86 mb )

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[Steve]

Has anyone else collected 60 gold bricks a built the "?" yet?
NO SPOILERS in case anyone has not ...

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr

[joseph]

yep it's a freakin hoot =) heard rumours of a 'sandbox' level that opens up after you get all jedi levels on story/freeplay mode, but don't think this exists in pc vs.

gamorrean and imperial guards have a weakness to the force, wish I knew that one on the barge.

the hardest minikit imho was on the deathstar freeplay when you have to fly over all the green pads.

Leia, Chewy, Imperial guards, Barge baddies are all decent characters

Han, Lando, Ackbar, and Bespin guards have a great triple shot but are disastrous for jumping platforms

my fav freeplay combo is Boba and Anakin ghost. very interesting what he can walk through and what AI baddies react to him.

you can break the rebel guard's action looking for his gun by drawing the gun the turning left quick

I'm looking forward to the ~ fountain ~

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[Steve]

i just played through my first Super Story, and was glad to discover that you dont have to set a record time to get the gold brick.

Whew!

was close though, 1:07:30
...and that was while dragging (sometimes literally) a new player along with me in 2p mode. i could DEFINITELY have done it a lot faster alone.

Only 8 more gold bricks to go !

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr

[Steve]

Finished !

time to 100% : 44hours exactly

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr

[joseph]

some of this is repeated from above post. if you are stuck on anything in the game there are lots of walkthroughs on the net, the best one I found is http://mycheats.com/view/section/19055/18763/lego_star_wars_ii__the_original_trilogy/ps2

it has lots of screenshots and clear explanations. below are some tips not covered in the walkthroughs

Strategy tips

you won't be able to complete freeplay levels without a bounty hunter, small character, droids, sith and stormtrooper. you get all of these by Mos Eisley.

you can get a sith right away in create a character bacta tanks by using a red lightsaber for the weapon.

you can make a bounty hunter sith/jedi by using a bounty hunter helmet/head and a lightsaber ( similar to Luke wearing bounty hunter helmet in Jabba's Palace story mode ) but you can't make a bounty hunter/jedi/droid that opens droid doors ( like IG88 )

you can break character animations, like rebels looking for pistol, by arming them and then changing direction.

don't bother buying any stormtroopers right away, they are like the clone troopers of the first SW Lego game, they will end up cluttering your free play selection. they have the worst jump of all the playable characters and will do a belly flop half the time. get an imperial officer in grey or black uniform, or Mof Tarkin and they can open up stormtrooper doors, have a decent jump and a snappy attitude.

if you are on a level where there is a lot of running through corridors like 'Rescue the Princess', 'Escape from Echo Base', or 'Cloud City Trap' a character like Han, Lando, Bespin guards, or Ackbar is ideal with the jump, roll and triple shot combo. they are not a good option for levels like 'Through the Jundland Wastes', 'Great Pit of Carkoon' or 'Jedi Destiny' where there is lots of jumping onto specific platforms, they will generally roll off the edge. use a jedi character for jumping. yoda and the emporer are a bit spastic for jumping, Luke, Ben and Vadar are the most accurate. good shooting characters for jumping are Leia, Chewbacca, Imperial officers, and Jabba's palace guards.

first big purchase strategy should be one of the score multipliers or the minikit detector. invincibility, ghosts, and heart regenerator are expensive and not a profitable early game strategy.

Anakin is the best ghost to first get. he's cheaper than Ben and Yoda behaves the exact same way he does in his normal form, which is not the most playable.

use dark force to force choke Red Imperial guards and Gamorrean guards. both are very hard to kill with conventional methods, taking several blows each. they generally come in pairs and easy enough to put some distance between yourself and them to get the dirty deed done. Luke can force choke Gamorrean guards as well.

Boba Fett is one of the most powerful characters to play once you have him fully suited up with extras. his blaster is 2x to begin with and add the blasters extra, you'll take out baddies with one shot. add bounty hunter rockets and he's a royal menace. his flying behaves differently than the first SW game and now behaves just like R2.

don't play the bounty hunter levels until you have got over 60 bricks. you get 100,000 for every gold brick after the 60 mark, and you will get a quick 1 million bricks for the 10 bounty hunter levels after that.

the Y-wing and tie bomber both can carry 5 torpedoes. the falcon is one of the best ships to play on the minikit bonus levels as it's much bigger and can collect more studs. darth vadar's tie fighter was what I used to get the minikit on Death Star Escape where you fly over the green pads, but the falcon is said to be good too as it covers more area.

you can shoot the probe droids that attach themselves to your draggable bombs on the Hoth level. on the 3rd wave of the last 'arena' section destroy everything else before you take out the last AT-AT. AT-ST's will break your cable and probe droids will focus on your bombs. this helps speed things up for super story level.

self destruct extra make C3P0 much more tolerable and you don't loose any coins. ewok catapult extra makes Wicket an even more cool character. both of these can blow up shiny stuff that only bounty hunter thermal dentonators can take out.

don't worry about things being too expensive. once you have all the score multipliers on and are in a double score zone a blue stud is worth over 7 million a piece.

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[Steve]

another VERY good early purchase is the "use old save"...

instant access to a whole roster of characters including bounty hunters, force users light and dark, and others.
all for just 250000

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Steve
My: Brickshelf - MOCPages - Flickr