Unlike your typical Lego Star Wars games, which normally focus on a trilogy or a series of episodes, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is based on a singular movie of the franchise: Episode VII. But despite the fact that The Lego Group and TT Games couldn't help but remind us that they're still making these things, no matter how unusual the decision to create a game centered around a single entry in the Star Wars universe, did it still turn out well?
Like the previous game, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (8/10), players start off in a fairly engaging prologue, this time focusing on the ending events of Episode VI, as they play through the destruction of the Death Star II's shield generator, the final duel against Emperor Palpatine, and the ultimate demise of the massive battle station. Entering the events of Episode VII, which takes place decades later, Luke Skywalker has now gone missing, hidden among the stars, with the Resistance attempting to locate his whereabouts while trying to keep some newly found information safe from the First Order, as brave pilot Poe Dameron hides the remaining map fraction inside of his droid companion, BB-8, who narrowly escapes on the desert planet of Jakku. (History seemingly repeats itself after Episode IV, huh?) As players are thrown into the adventure, they will be introduced to new mechanics that expand well upon the gameplay of the Lego Star Wars game series, such as multi-builds, which allow you to build a choice of several different models from the same pile of Lego bricks, droid computer outlets that now offer section-rotating puzzles, (though I'd rather the game not confirm their placement automatically as we turn them), handle bars that can be pulled by strong characters, and other mechanics that keep the adventure thrilling. You'll even come up to hallways and trenches in which you hide behind walls for cover while firing your blaster against enemies to progress forward, something fairly reminiscent of Sega's Star Wars Trilogy Arcade game (which was only somewhat nerve-racking to me as a kid. And no, I haven't done a proper review for it). Jedi characters can even use the Force in lieu of a blaster in these areas! It looks like someone in the developer team was indeed thinking! And new to the Lego Star Wars game series, the characters now use actual speech instead of mumbling, their dialogue being re-used from the original movies, and many new lines being recorded from the original voice actors! (Though, sometimes it does feel excessive.) A convenient alteration that addresses the tedious issue of searching for characters in the Clone Wars entry, you can now purchase unlocked characters straight from the character selection menu. Additionally, Power Brick settings are now saved, and they can easily be turned on and off, via the character wheel. Remember how the previous game's Minikits broke the tradition of collecting vehicle model sections by having you collect Minifigure parts instead? Well, now we're back to vehicles again! Specifically, Microfighters that you can fly around anywhere and take on certain challenges with. You do still collect bonus Minifigures, but they are frozen in Carbonite Bricks that have to be thawed in the Resistance Base on D'Qar. As for the ten, rather than six, different chapters you play through, they are now broken up into sub-chapters, allowing you to easily access a specific section if you missed any Minikits during your first session in Free Play. And the Steam achievements even have some fun references!
Though it does do a lot to expand upon the principles of what makes a Lego Star Wars game, there are actually many issues that I cannot easily ignore, especially the several irritating game-breaking bugs that it has, which I will get into in a moment. Throughout the game, there are several different hint projectors which you have to hit to get a tutorial from, but they really don't need to be used throughout the entire game, only the first level or so. A few environments, such as Palpatine's lair, have materials with roughness and normal maps that are mostly uniform and uninteresting. While the color palette of this game is mostly pleasing, there are some parts of it that look absolutely ugly. For example, at least one lightspeed tunnel in a cutscene is overly saturated. (The tunnels do often bear an inconsistent appearance, by the way.) Here's an important rule about color palettes: only use the most saturated colors on the things you want to draw attention to, such as the characters, so that they stand out from the environment. Anyway, the ugliest of the color palettes was on the Starkiller Base in free roam, which had some abhorrent, cyan lighting! In the rest of the galaxy, much of the lighting is what you would expect it to be, but at other times, it feels rather flat, especially in dense environments, like the forest on Takodana. And I'm thinking: come on! Where's the ambient occlusion? Where's the contrast? But what irritated me the most out of anything else in this game was the technical issues. Yes, the technical issues I brought up just at the top of this paragraph. And they haven't been addressed in YEARS! Character dialogue and sound becomes too quiet when your camera is not even that far from them. In Free Play, the Minikit detector is mostly accurate, but at fewer times, it is absolutely misleading. In The Eravana, there's a shooting section where BB-8 can easily get stuck in the ceiling. And once that happens, there's no way to get him out without restarting the level! To avoid this, make sure you're playing as Han or Chewie, with BB-8 in the Player 2 slot. Any character that isn't in one of the slots will get stuck, but they will rejoin you after you pass through the next door. In another major problem during Free Play in Starkiller Sabotage, I couldn't use thermal detonators to target and blow open a silver door. I even saw some barely visible, blue wireframe of developer geometry in front! There are a handful of several other game-breaking bugs that will force you to restart a level once or twice. But the absolute worst problem I experienced was with the vehicles! For whatever reason, during both cutscenes and gameplay, the vehicles happened to lag or stutter, while everything else ran smoothly. Depending on... I don't know what was going on, but sometimes the vehicles will only stutter, or they'll freeze for WAY TOO MANY SECONDS TOO LONG! This was especially a problem in the Starkiller Destruction bonus level, which I had no way of finishing, due to this absolute pain of an issue. Certain objects that use physics simulations also exhibit this problem. I did play this game once on the Xbox 360, years ago, with absolutely no issues, at least not that I can recall. So, maybe you'll have a better experience on certain consoles. As for the DLC, it practically added nothing new, but some bits and pieces of it were decently engaging, especially in the Escape From Starkiller Base level.
To sum it all up, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens does much to improve the series, and it does much to harm the series as well. Though this particular Lego gaming experience may have a few frustrating technical issues, it's only because of how the Force was with me that I didn't slash my computer with a lightsaber. Isn't that right, Kylo Ren?
Final Score: 7.75/10
