Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Demo Review
A New Hope
Another
Star Wars film, another Lego game follows. Developer: Traveller's Tales,
returns to give its usual serious-to-awesomely kooky spin on Force Awaken's
epic adventure in video game form. Creating Lego franchise entries based on all
other Star Wars films that have come before, the stakes are set even higher for
Traveler's Tales when creating a game around The Force Awakens, which met such
high levels of critical acclaim. A look into its available set of playable
characters, set pieces and gameplay innovations included, the demo for this new
instalment shows that it may just bring enough new to the table to be worth
it's anticipation.
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| D'awww! |
Visuals from the minute you dive into the demo make you realise
this is a Lego game in all the right ways. The entirety of the demo covers the
chase sequence on the desert planet: Jakku. From on-screen inhabitants,
characters and the set pieces surrounding them, visuals pop onscreen with that
gorgeus Lego gloss accompanied by chuckle-worthy visual jokes. Accompanied by
gazing in awe at of BB8's adorable Lego incarnation and the settings around
you, that usual John Williams score makes you feel right at home in that Star
Wars-Lego mixture.
Among the decent cast of playable characters in the main game, the
demo let's you play around with three: Rey, Finn and BB8. They're put together
for this level to give you a standard set of gameplay trio abilities: Rey for
hand-to-hand combat, Finn for shooting and BB8 for tech stuff (and just being
awesome). We've yet to be certain until the full game's release, but BB8 shapes
up to be one of the most fun characters to play for the whole of the Force
Awakens, whilst Finn & Rey themselves are just kind of there. BB’s
speed-up-and-charge and electrocution abilities are amusing, though I couldn't
help but grin most of all at how he moves. Just gliding and rolling gracefully
against the sand of Jakku is so smooth and enjoyably seamless, you feel more
insync playing as BB8 than the other characters by far.
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| Standard tutorial character set. That Lego shine though. |
If you've played Lego games before, you'll know what to do to get
some one place to the next from the beginning: beat up baddies; figure out the
puzzles, use character abilities for said puzzle, move on and repeat. Unless
you're either new to Lego games or if you have a "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it" attitude, you may sigh once or twice at powering through the
repetition of this gameplay equation. You may even do the same at the generic
shoot'um up combat for Finn or Rey's standard "hit them close quarters"
fighting style.
However, Lego The Force Awakens serves as a foundation for new
in-game systems and does so beautifully. These are Multi-Builds and Blaster
Battles. When destroying an item to rebuild into a puzzle-solver, like you may
have done many times before, you're actually given more than one building
option instead of a singular straightforward option. It unexpectedly felt so
refreshing to be forced to think carefully about which construct to go with in
order to go where I want to next, instead of just fiddling with the analog
stick until it at least looked sort of right. It'll be interesting to see how
this will open new exploration options into the levels as well. As for the
Blaster Battles, I personally wasn't aware of their inclusion going into the
demo so it was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Going from solving generic
puzzles to being thrown into a cover-based 3rd person shooter level, shooting
lasers at little Lego Stormtrooper and TIE fighters: words cannot describe the
fanboy joy felt by myself and surely many alike. Even BB8 has a part in the
fight, giving you a chance to utilise his abilities for specific than before.
These new systems will make you smile enough to almost forget the repetive tropes you had to play through to get you there.
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| As satisfying as it looks. Pew Pew! |
Being based on Jakku for the whole of the level, getting the
chance to pilot and fight in the Lego Millennium Falcon is inevitable. Controls
are a little shaky to get used to but once you do, you feel enthralled at the
chase-themed dog fight you came to love watching the film. Comparing the
now-and-then complex you'll have at the start and this point in the demo will
make you appreciate the best was saved for last.
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| *Inner fanboy scream* |
Lego games are known for the comedic twists they give to the films
they interpret. Even in dialogues, Lego games of recent years have written
scripts and utilised voice talent to deliver these kooky interpretations at
enhanced levels e.g. Lego Marvel Superheroes (2013) as a highlight. Unlike alot
of previous games though, cast members of Star Wars: The Force Awakens were
brought in to use their voice talent for this Lego videogame version. While the
visual gags of the demo were worth a laugh or two, bringing in the well known
cast as the voice talent feels under utilised. The script feels written and
delivered as repeats from the film's dialogue. This makes the cut scene's
mixtures of visual jokes feel poorly blended with a script delivery that tries
to take itself too seriously, whilst some more light-hearted parody writing into
the script would have fit more comfortably. Although, by the time you get to
the Kylo Ren cut scene, you'll laugh enough to realise Traveler's Tales can
still be on point in parodying parts of the franchise's characters.
Verdict
Rating 8/10
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens graces all current-gen consoles
June 28th, 2016.
By Ben Williams, PineappleCarpet
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