Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens review

PROS

• More slick Lego gameplay
• New puzzle and combat mechanics
• Brilliant flying sequences
• Fantastic humour

CONS

• Some filler in the lengthy chapters

Available on Xbox One (reviewed), PS4, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U

A whole Lego Star Wars game devoted to just the one film? I’ll admit that my first response to TT Games’ latest was fairly cynical. While we know the Lego series works well for trilogies or even looser themed collections (see Lego Marvel’s The Avengers), could one movie really stretch out over many hours of gameplay without cramming in too much filler? Well, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens has not merely dispelled my snark but made it feel unwarranted. It’s yet another great example of how the series can hold onto its core while managing to quietly innovate, and might also be the funniest Lego Star Wars game to date.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the scope of the game, opening with a prologue that reworks the climax of Return of the Jedi – and in more style than in The Original Trilogy game – before taking us through the events of Episode VII. That much you might have predicted, but TT Games has somehow got permission to take things even further, with a series of unlockable side missions that explore the characters and events of The Force Awakens in more depth. It might be strange to find the exploits of Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren and Han and Chewie chronicled for the first time in Lego form, but this helps make Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens almost unmissable for Star Wars fans. They’ve even managed to get the major cast members to do new dialogue, and that includes Harrison Ford. This, by any standards, is a coup.

 Of course the gameplay doesn’t veer far from the old Lego template, though I think we’ve reached the point where complaining about that is like complaining that Call of Duty involves a lot of shooting people in the face through a holographic sight. You’ll still spend most of your time tackling stormtroopers and space-gangsters with your fists, light sabre or blaster, while smashing the scenery into handy Lego bricks. You’ll turn some of these bricks into new objects which can be used to solve simple puzzles, while collecting characters with special abilities you can harness to get past all the obstacles in your way. This is as true of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens as it was true of, well, just about every other Lego game.

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Yet there’s always something distinct about every Lego game, whether that comes down to Lego Batman’s costume-based puzzles and open-world adventures or Lego Pirates of the Caribbean’s focus on platforming and melee combat. Lego Star Wars continues its predecessors’ love of vehicle sections with a stream of Starfox-esque flying sequences and dogfights, many of which are good enough to put Star Wars: Battlefront’s meagre efforts in the shade. In fact, I can’t remember having such a good time blasting cannons from capital ships and tackling Tie Fighters since the glory days of Rogue Squadron.

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