Star Wars: Lethal Alliance – Twi’lek Adventures

Time to dive into the world of handhelds with Ubisoft’s third-person Twi’lek action game: Star Wars: Lethal Alliance, on the PSP. I saw this game by chance on some random top ten list, and from that moment I knew I had to give it a go. Lethal Alliance is essentially a long-lost title that has managed to evade me all these years – in a franchise that is otherwise pretty much fine combed for hidden gems. Stuff like this makes even the most jaded gamer shiver with anticipation. Rare excitement incoming in the form of an obscure Star Wars title!

Technical things
Before we get into the heart of the review, we have to clarify a few things. Considering it’s a PlayStation Portable game, I had to download the PSP emulator PPSSPP for Windows. It worked fine from the get-go, with my PS4 controller recognized and configured automatically. Sadly, running Star Wars: Lethal Alliance comes with two issues: one minor fixable, and one major, which unfortunately can’t be fixed.

The minor problem is easily corrected. Switch rendering from DirectX to Vulkan, and it lets you avoid the searing white flashes when in full screen. The second conundrum is more troubling. You see, the in-engine cutscenes run fine, with audio and scenes matching up perfectly. But the game also has movie files being played between missions, and these run incredibly fast with the sound d-synced. I tried everything, yet nothing was able to fix these story cutscenes. I checked a bunch of walkthroughs on YouTube, and everyone emulating it seems to suffer from this predicament. This naturally puts a big damper on the enjoyment of Lethal Alliance, since it makes following the story quite difficult. It’s possible, as it comes with subtitles, but the voice acting will be lost, and the cutscenes play out like a fast-forward Benny Hill skit. I hope you know speed-reading!

Death Star
In Lethal Alliance, you play as the cute female Twi’lek mercenary Rianna Saren. You are hired by the rebels to spy on the Empire, which eventually leads down the path of stealing the plans for the Death Star. I know, very original. At least Kyle Katarn is a recognized character in this Star Wars story. He is actually your recruiter, which is cool, as I think this game and Dark Forces run parallel with each other. One game doesn’t exclude the other, even if the protagonist has the same objective.

On your mercenary adventures, you also have the tiny droid Zeeo to help you. This is funny to me, because almost every Star Wars game of late has this kind of companion. What makes it doubly so, is that Lethal Alliance is an Ubisoft game, which means Star Wars Outlaws borrowed this concept from one of their older titles. I don’t blame them, seeing as it is a pretty good concept, especially to increase the gameplay options.

Other than that, Rianna is also after a certain someone for revenge, but the story lacks depth, and doesn’t feel that involved. This subplot gets lost in translation, which isn’t helped with the broken cutscene videos, unfortunately. Even so, the narrative felt mostly like an excuse to have different planets and locations to visit, including the personal story of revenge. As far as the story goes, it isn’t the most exciting, but the Twi’lek main character is likeable, at the very least.

Time to blast
I have never used a real PSP in my life, but I have learnt that the handheld is missing an analog stick, which does explain the somewhat awkward controls of Lethal Alliance in retrospect. You see, there is no manual aiming in this title, with LT and RT acting as a target cycle for the auto-aim. When not actively targeting anyone, these buttons double as the way to pan the character. This takes some getting used to, but when you do, it works fine as an enjoyable arcade shooter. 

On normal difficulty, the actual blasting, and dodging laser beams never becomes very dangerous. Yet, coming into melee range will end your sexy Twi’lek existence. It feels a bit odd, because there is clearly a big focus on evading blaster shots, seeing as it has a dedicated button and animations. It’s just not needed that badly. Just zigzag around and fire away. As long as you avoid melee range, and you will be safe for the majority of the game.

Lethal Alliance also has some light platforming, stealth, turret-sections, and obstacle racing to break things up. Everything feels “arcade” compared to other similar titles, but I wouldn’t say it’s bad, or work against the nature of the game. You have to consider what kind of title this is, and getting a chance to play a new adventure in the Star Wars saga is a perk in itself. So, while the gameplay is not the epitome of innovation, I found it charming in a quirky old-school way. A huge bonus is that you are not a Jedi, with you having to rely on blaster weapons of an uncivilized age!

Star Wars looks
Lethal Alliance clearly looks dated in multiple ways, yet I still found the visuals appealing in its simplicity. There is no denying that the textures are rough, though. The music and sound is certainly Star Wars, meaning this part is good. From what I heard from the voice acting, it lands on the questionable spectrum. While Rianna sounds excellent, the supporting characters are all over the place. All in all, the presentation is pretty good, seeing what kind of game it is and the limitations of the PSP.

Conclusion
I found Star Wars: Lethal Alliance to be a pretty fun surprise in a franchise with games that have been played to death, multiple times over. This is a clear contributing factor to my enjoyment of it, but outside of that, I wouldn’t say the game is exceptional in any way. A real shame is the video issue. It made the story hard to follow. I can’t blame the game for that, since it’s an emulation issue. I will recommend Lethal Alliance to any Star Wars fan that wants to see something new, and experience a protagonist that sadly hasn’t been seen since. Don’t go expecting something truly amazing, as its gameplay is very by-the-books.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas