My basic rule with the LEGO games is that you’ll love the
games as long as you like the license.
That doesn’t mean the games don’t have any problems, but your love of
“Star Wars” or “Jurassic Park” or whatever will easily outweigh any issues and
you’ll have fun. This applies to the
latest LEGO game, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens as well. It has its fair share of issues, but fans
will enjoy it regardless. Forget that my
opening statement sort of renders this full review of the game pointless,
though, and read it anyway.
Game Details
- Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
- Developer: Traveller’s Tales
- ESRB Rating: “E10” for Everyone 10+
- Genre: Adventure
- Pros: Great presentation; prologue missions; flight missions
- Cons: Unlocking prologue missions; repetitive minigames; formula is getting old; cover sections are lame
- MSRP: $60
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens tells a LEGO-fied version
of the story in “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”. You’ll go to Jakku, Takodana, the Restance
Base, and Starkiller Base just like the movie, though the game fills in some of
the gaps between events to stretch the story to a solid 10-hour runtime. In addition to levels that follow the story
from the movie, there are extra levels such as the final battle in “Return of
the Jedi”, Poe Dameron rescuing Admiral Ackbar, and even showing how Han and
Chewie captured the rathgars, among other bonus missions. These bonus missions have to be unlocked by
playing the rest of the game to earn a ton of gold bricks, unfortunately. It is a shame you have to work your butt off
to see the objectively most compelling content the game has to offer.
As with all LEGO games, just beating the 10-hour story
doesn’t mean you’ve finished the game.
There are 200+ characters to unlock, red cheat bricks to find, hidden
canisters, and much more to discover in order to 100% the game, which pads the
overall length to a solid 20-25 hours.
Gameplay here is pure LEGO simple button mashing through and
through. You break blocks, collect
studs, and occasionally have to build something out of LEGO bricks to
proceed. Different character types have
different abilities, such as blowing up gold or silver blocks, lifting heavy
objects, crawling through narrow passages, or using the Force to move
stuff. It is good simple fun that works well here. LSW The Force Awakens does also
have some new tricks of its own, of course.
First off are the multi-build sections that use the same
LEGO pieces to build 2-3 different items you need to progress through the
level. For example, you’ll build a
control panel first, then destroy it and build a jump pad, then destroy it to
build something else. This is an
interesting concept, but there isn’t really any choice involved. You have to build the items in the proper
order in order to proceed, so it all just ultimately seems tedious and
pointless. Another new gameplay
addition are cover-based shooting sections where your characters can pop out
from behind cover to shoot enemies or destroy LEGO items before ducking back
down for protection. These sections are
totally brainless with auto-targeting and no challenge whatsoever. Again, they just seem tedious and
pointless.
Faring a little better are the new open world flying
sections where you can actually fly an X-Wing or TIE Fighter freely around a
battle. The controls are dead simple,
but these sections are very fun and work well.
All in all, though, the fundamental gameplay formula here is
really starting the wear thin.
Traveller’s
Tales has been trying to update the series’ gameplay to be
more interesting over the last several years, but most of the new additions
have been worse instead of better.
There are so many different character abilities now that it is kind of
confusing. And every character type in
The Force Awakens also has some sort of ability that requires either button
mashing or playing a really dumb minigame (Finn has to align stormtrooper
armor, druids “hack” stuff by rotating puzzle pieces, etc.) that are repetitive
and obnoxious by the second time you have to do them. I don’t have any answers for how TT can “fix” the LEGO games, but
I do know that what they’ve added here, as well as in LEGO Avengers, is not the
way to go. The games are fine and
perfectly playable, but they’re just not as fun as they used to be.
As you might expect, presentation is one area where LEGO
Star Wars: The Force Awakens excels at.
Being a Star Wars game and all, the sound effects and music are
absolutely outstanding and the voice work – much of which is new dialogue from
the actors from the movies – is well done.
The visuals are also fantastic and easily stand as the best looking LEGO
game yet.
As I said to open the review, your enjoyment of LEGO
Star Wars: The Force Awakens largely depends on how much you like the
license. If you love the movie, you’ll
have a good time with this game despite some of the issues it has with the LEGO
game formula really starting to lose its luster. With that said, it is still a solid game all around and kids will
love it, but it isn’t exactly a must-play experience like LEGO games used to be
(they were for me, at least). I’d say
rent it rather than buy it.
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher.