The latest LEGO game, LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens is more of what you would expect from a LEGO game. The game is full of visual gags, witty dialogues, fan service and recognizable faces. Its unhindered gameplay and no penalty style, makes it a perfect game for people to pick up and play casually even for Star Wars fans who are not into video games. The Force Awakens is exactly what the doctor ordered for the LEGO gaming franchise.
LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens
Detailed Review
(+) Death Star wasn’t built in a Day
The best thing about LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens is the insane amount of fan service that is available in the game. LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens understand the deep and extensive lore of the Star Wars universe and uses that to its advantage. It buffs up the plot of the latest addition with tweaks and nips which do not hinder the original story of the cannon and yet make it fun and manageable.
Scouring the galaxy for slabs of carbonite that unlock characters from the original trilogy and the prequels is a blast. Unlocking those characters lead to unlocking of new missions like rescuing of Admiral Ackbar, and another which explains how Han and Chewie managed to capture the Rathtar they’re smuggling when you first see them in the film.
The game is full of Easter eggs, in-jokes, hidden missions and not to mention a roster of more than 200 characters that even includes Force Awakens director JJ Abrams.
(+) LEGO Alliance to Restore the Republic
It helps that the roster is not just different models or skins doing the same thing. Most playable characters have their own unique skill-sets and each level provides sections which are accessible only by those skills. So as you unlock more characters, you can revisit different levels and unlock the afore mentioned carbonite, which in turn unlocks more missions. Its a fun circle, and drives you to 100% the game.
Even the trophies are more focused on you doing things that will inspire memories from the game, like choosing Han Solo and Chewie while playing abroad the Millennium Falcon. It encourages you to come back again and again to the game, urging you to play it more and find a new nugget of trivia.
(+) Child’s Play
Of course it helps that LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens is not necessarily the toughest game out there. The game is based on the basic principle of smashing things, capturing enough LEGO blocks, then using them to construct something and move forward in the level. There is little penalty in the game, which makes it a perfect game for pick and play. Players can join you in co-op anytime, and none will feel left out.
It does break away from the standard LEGO formula though and you find yourself in set-pieces that require cover based shooting, or scenarios which have you commandeering a AT-ST, or aerial dog-fights which put you in the cockpits of TIE Fighters, X-Wings and the Millennium Falcon. The space dog-fights deserve special mention and praise, because they do a great job of not feeling nauseating and easy.
(+) Putting the blocks together
As a Warner Bros. game LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens scores satisfactorily on the technical fronts. While there are no jaw droppings vistas to render, there is a lot happening on the screen at any given time especially when there is a 4 player co-op going on. The game is able to handle the chaos pretty decently, and I did not notice any substantial drops in the frame-rate.
The voice acting though is pretty good. The dialogues are kept to the minimum and most gags are visual in nature, but the voice doubles have done a good job in mimicking the voice of the original cast, to the point that they almost sound indistinguishable.
