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Best Star Wars games
With the focus of our best Star Wars games being on what we’d recommend playing today, that means a lot of the great Star Wars games from yesteryear, such as Dark Forces, X-Wing Alliance, TIE Fighter, and Jedi Academy have been stripped out. They all deserve honourable mentions, though, and we’d still recommend checking them out if you’re looking for a deeper, more complete look at Star Wars PC games.
What else should I be playing if I like this:The sequel,Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, is an obvious next step. It also allows you to dual-wield lightsabers, which is very cool.Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academyis an older take on linear Star Wars action which previously held a place on this list, and it has some of the best lightsaber combat in Star Wars gaming history.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashedisn’t perfect, but it’s a personal favourite. The roughly 10 hour campaign is filled with big, bombastic, and brutal boss battles that feels like Star Wars meets classic God of War. Even the QTEs, which might detract from the tension for some people, just add more flashy flips and force powers that never fail to make me grin.
While the story doesn’t tread much new ground in the long run (every Star Wars story has a baddie that inevitably flips into a goodie at an integral moment), Starkiller’s initial quest to hunt down scattered Jedi for Darth Vader feels particularly thrilling. Fighting grizzled masters like General Kota and Shaak Ti on higher difficulties so early in the campaign forces you to master every move, and sells the vibe of a sith acolyte who’s desperate to prove their power. Also, look at Starkiller holding a lightsaber behind his back in the image above. That’s a very cool stance.
What else should I be playing if I like this:While PC never received sequel Star Wars: Racer Revenge, the more recentRedoutandRedout 2capture the same blistering speed.Pacerwill also send you hurtling around tracks in anti-grav pods.
Star Wars Episode One: Racerplops you in a podracer and sends you hurtling through ravines and around tracks as you compete to be the best racer in the galaxy. Let me tell you, podracing has never felt so good. It might look old, but the sense of speed is still incredibly real. Blazing around corners at breakneck pace is dangerous, so it demands focus and precision to come out on top. Or just to survive in general.
As you complete races, you earn credits that you can spend on podracer upgrades, introducing an incremental sense of progression that feels incredibly rewarding and takes Racer beyond the treacherous Boonta Eve Classic on Mos Espa. Of course, you can also just replay the race made infamous in The Phantom Menace, endlessly crashing into Sebulba in a desperate bid to win on the Tatooine wastes.
What else should I be playing if I like this:Graham and Alec included lots of oldies on the previous iteration of this list, includingStar Wars: TIE FighterandStar Wars: X-Wing Alliance. They might not look as pretty as Squadrons, but they’ve got lots more Star Wars dogfights to offer.
The short Squadrons campaign quickly teaches you the ropes, but it’s the multiplayer that forces you to become an ace pilot. Sure, sometimes you’ll just get shot down unceremoniously, but the rare occasions in which you take a tight corner and slam the throttle into overdrive to blast forward towards your target are tense and terrific. Mastering those maneuvers and perfecting your loadout in the Dogfight and Fleet Battle modes are crucial to succeeding, and it all feels wonderfully cinematic.
What else should I be playing if I like this:They might not have lightsabers to swing around, butFinal Fantasy XIV,World of Warcraft, andThe Elder Scrolls Onlineare other great MMOs in which you can easily lose 20 years.
Star Wars: The Old Republicis not only one of the best Star Wars games on PC - it’s also one of thebest MMOs. The Old Republic plops players into the KOTOR universe, and BioWare’s narrative mastery takes full advantage of a setting that fans adore. You can choose from a bunch of class roles, each with their own individual storylines that force you to make choices, build alliances, and forge rivalries that shape your journey through a galaxy far, far away.
What else should I be playing if I like this:The much earlier FPSStar Wars: Dark Forcesis a great DOOM-like. If you want to drop the FPS and just focus on ordering people around, take a look at the RTSStar Wars: Empire at War.
I tend to say that regardless of the Star Wars content, lightsabers make something good. They’re colourful laser swords that make cool noises. Very cool.Star Wars: Republic Commandois an FPS that doesn’t need any of those laser swords, as it weaves the tale of a clone squadron without a single lightsaber in your inventory.
As the lead soldier of a clone squad, you’ll need to fight with your fellow commandos to complete objectives. It’s a tough gig, and the Geonosian baddies that plague the campaign force you to work together to survive. While those AI squad members can move and attack freely, you are also given control and can command them to follow set actions if needed. These include more objective-oriented actions, such as hacking a security door or blowing up an enemy ship, but you can also tell them to assault or defend a particular location. These orders prove essential if you want to survive some of Republic Commando’s later missions, forcing you to think like a leader if you want to reach the end.
What else should I be playing if I like this:If you can’t be fussed with mods that port the content across, Pandemic’s originalStar Wars: Battlefrontfeatures similar battles with a larger emphasis on just being one of many infantry in the war and without the playable heroes. If you need heroes in your Battlefront, then DICE’s more recent Battlefront andBattlefront 2are a more modern spin on the franchise.
While the campaign isn’t much to shake a Wookie at, with a fairly bland series of levels that fail to tread any new ground, it’s themultiplayerandco-opmodes that are must-plays. Walker Assault demands teamwork to win, and exchanging shots with enemy troopers feels particularly epic as AT-ATs stomp through the map.
If you’d rather play a hero power fantasy, hop into co-op with some buddies. You’ll join a team of AI troops as you assault or defend a base while fighting an opposing army. They’re often quick battles, but they have all of the laser swords and one-liners that you’d expect when Jedi and Sith take to the field. Sometimes the difficulty can ramp up unexpectedly, but the tense battles that follow only make co-op more exciting. It’s a brilliant mode that I can’t stop playing, and it’s a shame that many might not have experienced it, as co-op arrived in an update two years after its shaky launch.
What else should I be playing if I like this:Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais a more modern take on Lego Star Wars that covers the whole saga, but its collectathon open world areas don’t follow the same formula. If you want traditional Lego, hop over toLego Marvel Super Heroes,Lego Indiana Jones, orLego Pirates of the Caribbeanfor some of my personal favourites.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Sagais like cracking open your toy box as a kid. Each movie offers five levels of tight platforming and some fun force-imbued combat that weave through the original saga pre-Disney. Chuck in some slapstick visual gags that made it much easier to digest the plot as a child, and I think The Complete Saga might be why I originally fell in love with Star Wars.
Running through the levels once is a blast in the not-so complete saga, but revisiting them in free play is where the toybox imagination really comes to life. Seeing Darth Maul, R2D2, Kit Fisto, and a Gamorrean Guard charge through the forest of Endor was a fever dream for little me, and unlocking all of the hidden secrets and extras with their powers rewards you for that fun.
While the more recentLego Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagahas better graphics that make for some stunning screenshots, it loses the tight platforming levels of The Complete Saga, and pivots more towards short set pieces that do little more than guide you between huge open-world spaces filled with collectibles. There are tons of LEGO puzzles to solve as you gather them all up, but it feels more like hoovering your kids bedroom than playing a LEGO game of old. The Complete Saga, on the other hand, lets you run through each movie in Lego form and gives the puzzles as the cherry on top, and it’s a formula that I much prefer.
What else should I be playing if I like this:Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lordsis an Obsidian-developed sequel that launched the following year. You can also hop into the aforementionedStar Wars: The Old RepublicMMO, which has plenty of quest arcs that play out like excellent singleplayer stories, especially in the later expansions.
From Taris to Tatooine and beyond,Knights of the Old Republicis a sprawling journey that captures the feeling of a true underdog adventure, which is what Star Wars is all about, right? Well, that and lightsabers, but KOTOR has those as well. Knights of the Old Republic is set thousands of years in the past, which rids it of almost any ties to the Lucas' Star Wars. That gives it lots of freedom to carve its own path through the galaxy. Sure, it still revolves around the Jedi and Sith and takes you to familiar -tooines, but the new setting and exciting twist make Knights of the Old Republic’s story stand out.
More importantly, that story is your own, with a light or dark side meter that not only affects the powers you can learn, but also the ending you receive. When so many games are about capturing one aspect of Star Wars, such as flying ships, fighting in clone squads, or podracing, KOTOR goes for the feel of being in the Star Wars galaxy and is still worth experiencing today, almost two decades on.
What else should I be playing if I like this:Star Wars Jedi: Survivor didn’t make this list, but you should check it out if you’re desperate for more Cal and BD-1. We’d also suggest checking outSekiro: Shadows Die Twice. An odd choice, perhaps, but Fallen Order borrows a lot of its combat beats from Sekiro, and hey, Star Wars as a whole was heavily inspired by Kurosawa films such as Seven Samurai, so Sekiro might not be such a leap after all.
Like Disney animations that always need their animal pals to sell toys, Star Wars stories always need a good droid. It’s commercialism, without a doubt. But also, have you considered that BD-1 is very cute and I want one? Adorable robot companion aside,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderis an action-packed adventure that sends you through infamous Star Wars locales while battling equally infamous villains. While Knights of the Old Republic’s RPG system lets you tell your own tale, Jedi: Fallen Order is a more linear adventure (which I personally prefer).
The excellent lightsaber combat looks flashy and feels ferocious, with tense battles forcing you to embrace the flow and learn the combos to feel like a Jedi master. It’s a soulslike-lite that demands focus to succeed, with limited health stims and checkpoints making long-term survival feel incredibly satisfying. Taking further inspiration from FromSoft’s greats, the maps weave together in classic Metroidvania style and hide plenty of brutal boss battles. The Inquisitors offer some luscious laser sword battles, but you’ll also face off against a range of weird and wonderful Star Wars creatures. We won’t spoil them all here, but Oggdo Bogdo is the worst and I hate it. But I love to hate it. LikeElden Ring’sMorgott, but more of a massive toad.
If you like your Star Wars lore as much as gutting baddies with your lightsaber, then Fallen Order has plenty hidden away for fans of the force. Well-known allies and destinations await on your journey, and fans of animated series The Clone Wars will certainly find plenty that they recognise. Regardless of your prior knowledge of the war in the stars, though, Jedi: Fallen Order is just a fantastic third-person action-adventure that deserves your time. If you like it, its sequelStar Wars Jedi: Survivoris ready and waiting for more Cal and BD-1 action.
