Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens

<p>I’ll be honest about something&semi; I’ve not seen <em>The Force Awakens<&sol;em>&period; I know&comma; I know&comma; but to tell you the truth&comma; I’m not a massive <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> fan&period; I like the original films but they’ve not had a massive impact on my childhood&comma; nor did I like the prequels&period; I do love Lego&comma; yet it’s been a while since I played a Lego game &&num;8212&semi; something like 8 years ago&period; So&comma; I have a lot of catching up to do and my inner child has had enough of being repressed&period; So I ask&comma; will <em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em> bring me closer to the film&quest; Or will it just make me go back to <em>Lord of the Rings<&sol;em>&quest; &lpar;I’ve haven&&num;8217&semi;t played that Lego game either&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;438640&sol;ss&lowbar;d33eeff761c740ab176d65b93708a76314d4f038&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1467294518" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em> tells the story of Rey&comma; Finn&comma; and Poe Dameron as they travel across the galaxy to help the Resistance find Luke Skywalker&period; But in their way is The First Order&comma; the new antagonizing force which has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire&period; They seek to destroy the Resistance and their closest allies&comma; the New Republic&comma; and forever rid the universe of the Jedi&period; So it’s up to our heroes and a cast of other colorful characters including Chewie&comma; Han Solo&comma; and more to stop The First Order and find Luke Skywalker&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The one big change I noticed right away is that our Lego characters actually speak now and with voiceovers from the film’s cast&period; I know this has been around for a couple of the games &lpar;I’m not totally clueless&rpar;&comma; but I like this change a lot&period; Before the Lego games relied heavily on visuals to deliver the communication and humor&comma; making it cute yet a little repetitive and dim-witted at the same time&period; Now&comma; this branches the humor out more&comma; makes the story more clear&comma; and the serious moments feel more engaging&period; This is a playful adaption which is still very light-hearted but&comma; when it comes to the drama&comma; they still have a great sense of gravitas&period; I loved the scene with Kylo Ren and the new Emperor discussing the disturbance in the Force&period; They made it work so well considering it’s all done with Lego&period; I will admit that some of the voiceovers sound a little faded or you just can’t understand what some people are saying&period; It felt like some moments had literally been ripped straight from the film during a chaotic scene&comma; making it difficult to hear properly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The remainder of the sound design is perfect with a great soundtrack and amazing sound effects that remain truthful to the <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> franchise&period; Best of all is John William’s score&comma; which is just wonderful to listen to throughout your adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;438640&sol;ss&lowbar;b293307e1b16787173bf1fc0a863bac0e711de4f&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1467294518" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay is massively enjoyable for both kids and adults&period; There is a perfect blend of problem solving&comma; combat&comma; and exploration&period; You travel to all the locations in the film and more&comma; tackling both the main campaign and various side missions which aren’t seen in the main film&period; Each world holds a great depth of exploration to engage with&comma; such as finding collectable items&comma; currency&comma; and unlockable content for the main game&period; Your journey through the campaign will be made up of problem solving and combat along with various diverse set pieces to break up the progress&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Most of the game’s complexity and challenge requires skill sets from different characters&comma; whether it be for combat or tackling a puzzle&period; It’s a beautifully structured game with interesting components balanced together to form interesting aspects of exploration and lateral thinking&period; It could be from setting up a trap to defeat an AT-AT&comma; finding a way past a giant space squid&comma; or repairing the Millennium Falcon before blasting off into a space battle&period; There’s just so much fun and variation to be had in this game in or outside the main campaign&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The strangest addition I’ve seen were segments of cover based shooting&period; It’s not bad a thing at all&semi; it just struck me as odd to see a <em>Gears of War<&sol;em> aspect in a Lego game&period; But these moments actually work well as players will face opposing forces and larger obstacles such as turrets and AT-ATs with multiple methods of passing them&period; It’s great fun as well to play with another player and&comma; thankfully&comma; there’s split screen for local multiplayer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;438640&sol;ss&lowbar;e9b41fbb40db7a3f2e2ace7f28267b41c3142ccf&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1467294518" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The main feature here is building items to solve problems&period; You’ll often have to destroy various objects and build other items to overcome a problem&comma; and there is also a great deal of choice and lateral thinking behind it&period; Most of the outcomes for what you make are pretty funny as well&comma; keeping to the light-hearted tone of the Lego series&period; It’s nice to have the choice to make either object from a choice given or to work out the right order in what object to make&period; This plays well for larger puzzles that require multiple items to be made in a certain order and particular character skills in-between to complete the task at hand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only aspect I did find which let down the experience a little was the shallow impact of threat or defeat&period; No matter what&comma; it’s extremely difficult to die and&comma; if you do&comma; you would have to be one of the worst players imaginable&period; Not to be harsh&comma; but this game is pretty easy in the sense that combat lacks the impact of tension or fear&period; I guess it’s not a major problem as the game makes up for it by having other elements pose the aspect of challenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;438640&sol;ss&lowbar;8386dad8a8c536b4007c1cdb28468859af87d3b4&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1467294518" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Lego Star Wars&colon; The Force Awakens<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But the strongest and most compelling aspect of this game overall is the replayability&period; There is a gigantic amount of content to unlock&comma; including new characters&comma; new star-ships&comma; and cheats to use in the free play mode&period; This opens the possibility of going through the game again using new characters that can obtain hidden items with certain skills&comma; fight in star battles as Tia-Fighters or Red Wings&comma; and playing through the game with disco light lightsabers is freaking hysterical&period; This game offers everything and more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is a no brainer&comma; it’s a great game&period; I love it and it has made me want to go out and take a look at other Lego games I’ve missed&period; But for now&comma; this is a brilliant title with many compelling and entertaining elements that will amuse younger and older gamers&period; A must buy for any <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> or Lego fan out there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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