Despite being a huge Star Wars fan, the new Lego Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game flew right under my radar. The previous Lego games were all but duds, with the exception of Lego Dimensions and Lego Batman, so my hope for the game was fairly modest.
These Lego games follow the same exact formula with each release: goofiness, interchangeable characters, simple puzzles and mash and bash fight mechanics. After all, it’s targeted at kids, with some adult players occasionally giving it a go. And very little has change in the new release, with new additions such as cover based shooting sections, flying around in an X-wing and slightly more challenging puzzles.
The shooting, like the fighting, is very simple. With a press of a button you lock on to a target. A couple of blaster rounds later the stormtroopers are down. It’s that easy. Now the shooting might not be as thrilling as Star Wars: Battlefront, but flying the X-wing around the lake on Takodana sure was a lot more exciting. Add in the chatter from your fellow pilots, you would feel slightly more immersed.
With a cast of 200 playable characters, some being more memorable than others, they have their own ability and use for example Rey’s agility allows for fun parkour puzzle sections while Chewie’s grenades let you blow up surrounding blocks to collect Lego pieces much quicker which would help you unlock other hub worlds.
Sounds boring doesn’t it? Well not quite. If you have a child, a nephew or niece, collecting bricks is less of a chore. You might also say that the humour is childish but it’s charming as heck. Some of the emotionally heavy scenes from the movie have the signature Lego goofiness added in, including that major spoiler scene.
Traveller’s Tale, the developers, have set out to make a game that’s fun to play. They are not harping on the next big innovation in gaming. They just want a fun that anyone can and will enjoy. Not many modern games have that fun factor anymore.
It’s either too competitive, too hard to get into or learn, or it takes itself too seriously. The fun factor in this game is by far its best quality. The faithfulness that the developers had in the source material certainly paid off.