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| source// Lucasfilm |
The massive LEGO game enterprise kicked off with Star Wars – a prequel retrospective to tie into the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith – so it was only inevitable the unbearably-hyped The Force Awakens would get a similar treatment sooner or later. Sooner, it seems; the game was officially announced in early February and will hit shelves on 28th June, bringing Episode VII to joyful plastic life.
Earlier this week I got a chance to play three levels from early on in the game – Rey finding BB-8, Nima Outpost and Falcon Chase – and sat down with Tim Wileman, Associate Producer at TT Games, about the game’s development and its new features. Here are the twelve biggest things we learnt.
12. Even The Developers Skip The Crawl
Everyone loves the LEGO cutscenes and their tongue-in-cheek send-ups of the movies, but by the third, fourth or fifth rewatch they can be a little bit lethargic, so it’s pretty gratifying that you’re now able to skip everything, even in story mode. It really adds to the series’ “pick up and play” ethos, making playing the straight story a second time a more attractive concept.
However, the most interesting thing to come out the event relating to this wasn’t about the game itself, but how the developers treated it – during the demonstration, even they skipped the pre-level opening crawl!
11. The New Story Levels Show How Han Got The Rathtars And How Lor San Tekka Got To Jakku
Out of the game’s eighteen levels, eleven of them are from The Force Awakens, but the other seven are made up of entirely new story elements that details the events between Return Of The Jedi and the new movies. It was already seen we’d get some Endor wrap-up, but at the event it was confirmed that we’ll also see how Han and Chewie captured the Rathtars and, perhaps most excitingly, how Lor San Tekka wound up on Jakku.
This was an incredibly exciting experience for the team at TT Games, who “had a fit” when they found out they’d get to add to the Star Wars mythos. The company was reportedly given a fair amount of creative license with these sections, able to expand them in whichever way they wanted.
While obviously these levels won’t be fully canon – all LEGO games play fast and loose in that regard – the broader characters, locations and interactions are, and according to Wileman, they may reappear in more media down the line.
10. Even The Most Minuscule Element Is Accurate
One of the biggest elements about all the LEGO games is how, from Middle-Earth to Isla Nublar, the game world feels exactly like its source movie. This was a big factor pushed in the presentation, with multiple uses of the word “authentic” really hammering home how faithful to The Force Awakens the new game is.
Playing it this becomes more clear – locations like the felled Star Destroyer and Nima Outpost are vastly expanded from their short appearances in the film, but every backdrop, panel and shanty building feels directly lifted from the film, helped no end by the use of John Williams’ score.
At some points, though, the attention to detail is so ridiculous it’s amazing they have time to code a game as well; despite even the developers skipping it, every effort has been made to ensure that even crawl is as accurate as possible – it’s in the right aspect ratio, uses the correct scaled font and even has a pinpoint accurate vanishing point.
9. The Actors Returned For In-Level Commentary
After years of mute figures miming out the movies, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings switched things up and pulled real dialogue from the film. At first looking like it’d change the whole dynamic of the series, it’s been mostly accepted as a very positive addition, allowing for a greater breadth of jokes in the cutscenes.
Following on from similar work with Jurassic World, the cast of The Force Awakens recorded new voice snippets for the game. From what I played it was mostly in-level stuff, with Daisy Ridley providing more targeted commentary on what Rey and BB-8 were up to in the Star Destroyer – the cutscenes stuck with tradition and kept the use of lines directly from the film (although some may have been rerecorded for clarity).
8. There’ll Be Playable Characters From All The Movies
LEGO games are renowned for their massive roster of characters, and each one seems to push the limits of what’s a reasonable cast number. The Complete Saga’s 160 felt pretty extensive, but The Force Awakens is going to take things further with over 200 characters in the full game.
Yup, two hundred. If that sounds like it’s stretching a two hour movie for all its got, don’t worry – not all of these will be pulled from Episode VII. Instead, they’ll come from the newly created prequel stories and the original six episodes.
The balance between new and old characters wasn’t made clear, but from what Wileman said it seems like you’ll be able to relive The Force Awakens with Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi (so, basically, play A New Hope).
7. The Project Has Been Dominated By Secrecy
Hardly surprising for a a game based on one of the most secretive blockbusters of recent years, but there seems to have been quite a bit of secrecy involved in the development of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens too. Wileman couldn’t go into too much detail about the process of how they balanced working alongside the movie or dealing with spoilers, but he did say that the team did “have had access to certain materials, of course. They understand our games and they understand our sensibilities.”
And then there’s the other side of it – the secrecy around the game itself; despite being in production for years, it was only announced a couple of months ago. However, this doesn’t seem as intentional (or, as said in the interview, “devious”) – according to Tim, “it just felt right” to announce the game after the film had hit.
6. There’s Even More Multiplayer Elements Than Previously
To say a LEGO game is built with multiplayer in mind may seem a bit defunct at this point – that was a key selling point of the first LEGO Star Wars game, with simple co-op set-up and several dual puzzles. However, The Force Awakens takes things a step further, using the previous developments of split screens and larger areas to offer up a very interesting multiplayer experience.
In the felled Star Destroyer, at one point BB-8 has to go rolling through its bowels to advance to the next area, leaving Rey stuck on a small platform. Rather than forcing the player controlling the scavenger to start twiddling their thumbs, this area has several hidden goodies that, if anything, take longer to play with than what the droid’s up to.
5. It’s Full Of Easter Eggs And References To The Originals
LEGO games always have some really cheeky, license-specific easter eggs, which means in The Force Awakens is a veritable feast for Star Wars fans old and older. Graham Goring, Lead Story Designer at TT Games made a point of this in his demonstration, but getting a hands-on only hammered this home; Star Wars may be forging forward, but this game like the movie is very aware of its past.
Naturally on Jakku there’s a plethora of rusted original trilogy vehicles (some of which you can interact with, complete with suitable Imperial March sound clips), but there’s lot of the more typically silly inclusions too, like a model of Jabba’s Palace that can be destroyed to make the pieces for a rideable Sandcrawler or a giant mouse droid used to scare a Luggabeast. Based on what’s here, Star Wars fans of all leanings are in for a treat.
4. The Levels Are Rather Short
One thing that did come up playing through three levels of the game was how short they seem. I only had access to story mode and had a semi-walkthrough presentation before for two of them, but even taking the time to build the Sandcrawler and find a few minikits the time in-game was rather slight. Each level consisted of a couple of distinct areas that offered plenty of fun side quests, but didn’t have the longevity of parallel sections from previous games.
Now this may in part be due to this being an unfinished product, and that The Force Awakens is being told in eleven parts rather than the traditional six, but as the game is adapting one movie instead of three you’d expect some inflation to counter that. This may be a non-issue once the full game is released, but as it stands, the Story Mode is a bit slight.
3. It Feels Very Cinematic
I’ve already established that The Force Awakens’ sense of authenticity is through the roof, but that’s not the only area where the game feels like the movie. In a massive advancement of previous games, the in-level cinematics are incredibly well constructed, seamlessly flowing from the usual distant static camera to give an up-close view of the action. The addition of interactive minigames and simple QTEs, which adjust focus, also help; they make the world feel like a world, rather than LEGO figures interacting in a cardboard foreground.
This will only be played up by the new Blaster Battle game mode, which recreates firefights by introducing cover firing, special take-out abilities and heightened enemy AI. I didn’t get to play any on the day, but from how they were described and the images shown they look set to be a highlight of the game.
2. The Flight Sequences Are Amazing
There’s been spaceship sequences since the first LEGO Star Wars, but they’ve never quite popped in the way they should; originally confined to rails and later stuck on a rather basic 2D plane, they felt like filler as opposed to fully fleshed out parts of the game. TT Games are trying to fix that with The Force Awakens, for the first time introducing sections with full 360 degrees of movement.
And they’re (mostly – see the next entry) awesome! The level I played was the Millennium Falcon taking on TIE Fighters on Jakku (although there’s several others, including the battle on Takadona above Maz’s castle) and it was a pretty solid adaptation; using the various flip and swoop controls you can actually recreate the ship’s iconic movements from the chase.
The levels themselves are a mix of on-rail shooting and these segments, but from what I saw the balance is handled pretty well. How big a part they play in the experience really depends on how prominent they are in relation to the usual platforming, of course, but the Escape from Jakku is a good start.
1. The Current Version Is Glitchy
OK, so it’s not all good with the game – this is a work-in-progress and as a work-in-progress there are some glitches and flubs that do hamper the experience somewhat.
A major issue is the odd placement of invisible walls. This is most prominent in the open flying sequences, which have a rather low glass ceiling and inconsistent rebounds when moving out of the main game area. Similar issues pop up when riding creatures in the regular levels – their attacks need to be done at almost exact 90 degree angles. I also had a couple of sound blips during gameplay on my console, although talking to others that may have just been mine.
None are game ruining, and could very easily be ironed out by the time release rolls around, but they do make the experience a little less fluid.
Are you excited for LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.
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