Building a better game
(This review contains
spoilers!)
For the most part, Lego games are a
hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed the original Lego Star Wars games, and to
a lesser extent, the Harry Potter games as well. But recently, I feel they’ve
fallen in a bit of a rut. Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego Marvel Superheroes
were both fun, albeit unmemorable, Lego The Hobbit was agonizingly boring, and
Lego Jurassic World holds the distinction of being, in my opinion, the worst
game I played in 2015.
Keeping that in mind, it’s clear that
lots of heart and hard work was put into the latest Lego game, an adaption of
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s by far the most enjoyable Lego game made in
the last few years, although the problems of its recent predecessors still
linger on.
Starting with the graphics, this game
isn’t exactly remarkable by today’s standards, but compared to other Lego games,
its leaps and bounds beyond the rest. Characters like Chewbacca and Yoda are no
longer rendered as featureless plastic. Now they have faces and expressions of
their own.
The best part of this and every other
Lego game before it are easily the cutscenes and characters. I’m still sort of
on the fence about having the characters talk in these games. While it’s a lot
easier to understand the story when it isn’t told through mime, it robs us of a
lot of classic moments. Does anyone else remember how the classic “I am your
father” scene was redone in Lego Star Wars II? That made me laugh for days the
first time I saw it.
Despite whatever your feelings may be
on the Legos talking, the cutscenes are still hilarious to watch, and full of
loads of slapstick and visual humour. Between Han constantly acting like a
cocky scoundrel, Kylo Ren hanging out in his Darth Vader themed bedroom, and a
recurring ice cream vendor in Supreme Leader Snoke’s room, there’s a lot of
memorable moments.
Another new addition is that, for what
I believe to be the first time ever in a Lego game, the characters chat during
the levels. The entire cast from the movie reprises their iconic roles,
including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels, and yes, even Harrison
Ford. It injects a lot of life into levels that can, at some times, be either
too long or too easy. A lot of the game’s jokes lie in this new dialogue as
well, as the cutscenes mostly use voice clips from the movie. The Stormtroopers
have a lot of goofy remarks, and Adam Driver even gets a few laughs in during
the final battle with Kylo Ren.
While this is all fine and dandy, how
is the actual gameplay? I’m happy to say that this is easily the best Lego game
since Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga from all those years ago. Since I haven’t
played the original in a while, I can’t say for sure if it’s topped it as the
best ever, but it comes close.
Some levels, such as escaping Rathtars
on Han’s freighter and invading Starkiller Base with Finn are some of the most
fun I’ve had in a Lego game in years. They blend puzzles and action perfectly,
so you never get tired of one or the other, just like the old games did. Not
all the levels are winners, but we’ll come back to that later.
Each character feels unique, and are all immediately
recognizable. Playing as BB-8 is just as much fun as you’d hope. There are also
new boss fights, and while none of them are quite as good as the fights against
Maul or Vader from the original games, there are some fun ones. I especially
found the battle against Captain Phasma to be a complete blast (pun intended).
Another new feature added is Uncharted-like segments where
you hide behind cover to shoot. While some of these feel like they’re slowing
down the momentum of the game, I really enjoyed them. It almost felt like an
arcade style shooter at times.
The true star of the gameplay,
however, is the flying segments. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is
the best and most fun I’ve had flying a ship in a game in a really long time.
It’s so weird to think that a Lego game surpasses both Battlefront and Star Fox
in this regard. It controls perfectly, with no clunkiness or need to take time
to learn. The best parts are when you and a friend are working together to
pilot a single ship, with one of you flying and the other gunning. The opening
scene with Poe and Finn escaping from the First Order in a stolen TIE Fighter
is my personal favourite from Force Awakens, and it’s my favourite level in
this game too.
One thing I’d like to mention is that,
just like every other Lego game, Force Awakens is best experienced with a
friend. If you can find someone else who wants to play with you, your
experience will be 10 times better.
Still, Lego Star Wars isn’t without its
faults. While it’s certainly the most polished Lego game in ages, glitches are
still abound, although rarer than they were in Lego Jurassic World. While my
brother and I were playing, we encountered several noticeable framerate dips
throughout the game, accidentally got Han trapped inside a wall with no escape
at one point, and finally, our game crashed during a cutscene, forcing us to
replay the dreadful Maz Kanata’s castle level.
Speaking of that level, it brings up
the biggest problem with some of the levels. Several of them are filled with so
many puzzles, a Zelda dungeon would be jealous. Normally, this wouldn’t be a
problem, but when you’re stuck for around 30 minutes because the level is
taking forever to finish because of the sheer number of puzzles, it can drive
you crazy. The Maz Kanata’s castle level is especially guilty of this, because
it throws a volley of uninteresting, time-wasting puzzles at you in rapid
succession, culminating in the worst room in the entire game. Whereas some
levels juggle the action and puzzles perfectly, never slowing down, several of
the levels can feel like a slog, because of just how often you need to make a
pit stop at Point C and D just to get the characters from Point A to Point B.
Besides the occasional glitches and
bad levels, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still one of the best Lego
games in years. I’d say it’s worth a look for the amazing flying segments alone.
If you know a young Star Wars fan who’s itching for more Force Awakens action,
this game is perfect for them. It’s also great for a rental if you’re spending
a weekend with a friend and want a game to play. And even if you aren’t
interested in this game at all, you should still check out the cutscenes on
YouTube. They’re absolutely worth it.
FINAL SCORE
7/10
Good
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