Last week at GDC, we had the chance to get a hands-on demo of LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, WB Interactive’s newest installment in its movie video game series. Right up front: it was a total blast to play, and there’s plenty for you to be excited about. So let’s dive into it, shall we?
Anybody who’s played a LEGO game based on a movie knows that they usually import audio straight from the film into the game itself, saving them from having to re-record all the dialogue they want to use. The Force Awakens proves to be no different for the vast majority of its audio, and that’s just fine. That being said, there actually are more than a few original lines in LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and they didn’t bring in imitators to try to mimic Daisy Ridley or John Boyega, oh no. They brought in the genuine article; both Ridley and Boyega returned to reprise their roles and record new lines just for the game. It’s a small thing, but it definitely adds up.
The attention to small details like that serve to show just how much care went into the development of the game. As I played the intro, which involves guiding a sand-boarding Rey down a sand dune, I remember being too caught up in the tiny little bits flying by to actually think about where I was going. You end up running over tiny little Jabba’s Palaces while cruising through Star Destroyer exhaust ports as LEGO studs go whizzing by and everything.
Right after that segment, you find BB-8, who remains just as adorable as ever. More than that, BB-8’s pretty darn lethal–their attack consists of speeding around, using their head as a ram, knocking baddies over. Of course, this being a LEGO game, you could team up with a friend to take on scavvers, with one of you playing Rey and the other one playing BB-8.
There’s the usual puzzle-solving that comes standard with LEGO games, as well as the taunting “you don’t have the right tool yet”-type of teaser. I passed by a door that looked like it had a glowing lightsaber slash running through it. “You’ll need to come back and use Finn’s lightsaber,” explained the writer who led the gameplay presentation.
This immediately stuck out to me because (if I could get a bit pedantic for a second) that lightsaber isn’t exactly Finn’s. Sure, he kind of hogs it for much of the movie (be honest with yourself), but that’s definitely Rey’s from the get-go (legacy ownership notwithstanding). The hope is that Rey isn’t just relegated to only using her staff in this game, and that she gets a shot at wielding the lightsaber that’s rightfully hers. As is the case with many different LEGO games, there can be multiple versions of the same character, what with costumes and all. We’ve reached out for comment regarding this point, and will update when we hear more.
Aside from that, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has plenty more new things to get excited about. There’s a neat starship battle component that has an interesting Battlefront-like edge to it. The team took a few creative liberties around how faithful the game would be to the movie, as most LEGO games do. This was apparent as you ended up fighting an entire complement of TIE fighters in the Millennium Falcon. Again, demonstrating the multiplayer aspect: you could have whoever’s playing Rey piloting the Falcon while having the other player (as Finn) control the gun turret.
There’s a lot to love about this game, and a lot of it has to do with the heart that shows in nearly all of the LEGO games I’ve played in the past. It’s clear that from the moment you pop in the disc to the moment you hit 100% progress, these games are lovingly crafted by fans who care.
You can pick up LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens yourself when it hits stores on June 28th.
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