Reviewed on Xbox 360, also available on PC and PS3

I’d intended to start this review asking, with a smug sort of sanctimony, how it could, would, should be possible to ruin a franchise like Star Wars. Then I suddenly remembered Episodes I, II, and III. I guess it seems somewhat appropriate then that LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is set in and around that murky “prequel” space every self-respecting Star Wars fan would rather forget, because I’d imagine this game is going the same way.

There’s probably a story in here somewhere, but in between the utterly inscrutable bits of plot and My First Sci-Fi Adventure character names, it’s impossible to say what’s actually going on. Which is also one of the game’s major faults, as it turns out – there’s simply a total lack of direction in most of the missions. All too often, I found myself wondering what I was supposed to be doing, if I’d have to do it for very much longer, and why I hadn’t taken a nice office job instead.

Most of the game is pretty standard LEGO-issue stuff, with a bunch of guys tripping from A to B, and blowing up everything on the way over, although there’s a conspicuous lack of anything like real ingenuity in the level design, and a conspicuous abundance of tedious repetition in its place. Moreover, there’s a very heavy emphasis on combat this time around – with the game often relying on infinite spawns of enemy droids – which doesn’t really work, because the combat in LEGO games has always been excessively simplistic, and still is. I’ve just invented a word to describe it: unfun.

The game also introduces a kind of basic RTS mode, which seemed like an interesting idea until I realised it really wasn’t at all. Even “basic” seems overly generous, when the mission objective is simply to destroy a whole lot of enemy buildings. Which might have been okay if it weren’t for the same excessively simplistic combat featured in the previous paragraph. Also, this RTS mode turns up in at least six missions, without ever adding anything significantly new.

The vehicles handle like amphetamine-powered rocks, and the layer of invisible ice covering every single surface in the entire universe (apparently) makes the game’s frequent platforming sequences about as enjoyable as a midsummer afternoon down the Carkoon sarlacc pits.

The LEGO games have always been about multiple replays and obsessive collecting, but this one’s so resolutely vapid and dreary the first time around, there’s very little incentive to play any of it over again. Simply, this is not the LEGO Star Wars game you’re looking for. Try the Original Trilogy instead.