Gaming review: Lego Star Wars - The Force Awakens

I would visit theme parks and water parks on a regular basis and test out how many flips I could perform while jumping into a pool before hurting myself, then the N64 came out and stole my attention from the outside world - but now in my twenties and two big parts of my childhood have never really left my grasp.

These are the obsession with colourful interlocking bricks we call Lego and the second which has turned me in to a complete film fanatic, the top of that list goes to the epic space opera franchise - Star Wars. After the movies were resurrected I was eager to explore the stories of new galaxies and the new characters, just like TT Fusion have done in their latest addition to the Lego franchise.

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens intently follows on from the plot of the movie, thus giving you the chance to play through many of the most exciting and memorable segments from the film. For example, you will visit the dense forests of Takodana, you will also find yourself traversing through the desert planet of Jakku, or through the ground (and the skies) of Starkiller Base, and there is so much more.

You can play as dozens of characters from this film and other Star Wars movies. However, for the majority of your first play through of the game's story mode, you shall find yourself to be in charge of key characters from The Force Awakens which include the likes of Rey, Finn, Han Solo, Poe Dameron, Chewbacca and BB-8.

The majority of the cast from the movie have all taken time to lend their voices to the game, Harrison Ford in particular provides a host of new voice work, as does Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Anthony Daniels, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o and Adam Driver. The content added in the game is better than any of the deleted scenes found on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray. Besides the new story additions, the game offers a bunch of fascinating characters and planets, which allows players to fully explore different locations that may have only appeared briefly in the movie.

The Force Awakens is every bit as silly, erratic and packed with lighthearted humour as all the other Lego titles previous. For example, Ford was drafted in to supply dialogue about "wookiee cookies,". The First Order's stormtrooper army are a load of laid back buffoons, who are more likely to be seen enjoying a relaxing time in a hot tub than actually doing their jobs. The game strikes a fine balance between fascinating and goofy Star Wars content.

What is considered to be standard now with the Lego games, many of the characters posses unique abilities which can be found at your disposal to solve puzzles or access certain areas. Rey, for example, can use her staff as a lever to trigger some switches, whilst Chewbacca is armed with explosives that are able destroy various structures.

TT Fusion have also introduced a few new gameplay additions into its tried-and-true gameplay formula. There is now a cover-based shooting system that surprisingly works and works well, most of the time - what bodes well in it's favour is that it is strictly used within specific sections of levels. These firefights host a very simplistic pop-up and shoot component, but this feels more successful when making your way through the puzzle elements of the game, like figuring out how to disable a powerful and annoying shielded turret or to stop a stormtrooper Onslaught.

The Force Awakens puzzle play is also heightened through piles of bricks that can be used to compile up to three different contraptions. Players will need to figure out what they need to compose to advance to the next section, the order in which you construct each of the objects will need to be figured out also to help a character reach a certain part of the environment. These new gameplay enhancements does reduce the number of character-door-based interactions we see in each stage, which helps keep this Lego game fresh and less repetitive than it's past endeavours. However, that's not to say that the game isn't without its tedious puzzles.

The flying sections are fun and supply us with full freedom of movement, with vehicles playing a huge role almost as big as the characters themselves, they are either deployed for entertainment, dogfighting or ground assaults. The vehicles control efficiently when it comes to the dogfighting levels, they can lack excitement on certain occasions, but who can complain about flying around in the Millennium Falcon? The rival ships struggle with life, often get stuck on objects within the environment, this leads to straightforward kills and laughable moments for all of the wrong reasons.

There are several additional levels that expand on the adventures of the film, for Star Wars fans, these are exciting extras that really capture a unique feel of the movie and give us a plethora of laughs along the way. This is also given an additional boost of authenticity by the inclusion of nearly the entire cast of The Force Awakens cast, so fans of the movie will certainly want to invest their time in to finding the answers to those burning questions, like - How did C3-PO get his red arm? Don't worry, as nothing in here will spoil anything for upcoming movies. It's wonderful if you're a Star Wars fanatic like me, but it can also be frustrating as these new levels are hard to access. They are firmly locked away until you gather enough gold bricks within the game to unlock these extra narratives, In other words, you're going to have to put the hours in to reap the rewards of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The Verdict:

I have always been a fan of the Lego games and I've always been a fan of Star Wars, putting these two together was always going to end well. The game looks polished and detailed, it's design is faultless and you will have hours of fun. Despite a few annoying bugs here and there, including a ridiculous infinite death loop I couldn't escape and the occasional cutscene not triggering, which both resulted in me having to restart a level.

I had an array of fun, being it during Co-Op or collecting as many of the hidden gold bricks as i could seek out whilst traversing on the game's open worlds. Of course witnessing Harrison Ford in action again as Han Solo was awesome, I can't stress just how cool this is, and he did a brilliant job reprising his role. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens hosts over 200 playable characters and there is lots of reasons to replay each level over and over again, Is this possibly the best Lego game to date? The force is strong with this one.