lieselstarwarsgames | Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Part 1)

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens – the Lego Star Wars game I both have and haven’t beaten. How is that possible? Well, when I first got the game on Steam, it wouldn’t run right on my older computer. The animation lagged to the point of the game being unplayable and no matter what I did, nothing seemed to fix it.

Shortly afterwards, I got the 3DS version of the game and beat it. It was a lot of fun, but I still haven’t touched the Steam version since, even though I did get a new computer in January of 2017. Why? Probably because I had grad school and writing projects and other games to play.

So now, the moment of truth. Is the game playable on my current computer?

Well, I picked a save slot from the main menu and so far, so good. Then, like in Clone Wars, this game begins with a prologue – this time it’s the Battle of Endor. We open with a length cutscene of Vader bringing Luke to the Second Death Star and you’ll notice a big change from the previous Lego Star Wars games.

The characters speak.

Previously the characters did a kind of mutter during the cutscenes, but now they actually speak real words. I <i>think</i> (though I’m not 100% sure) that Lego Lord of the Rings was the first movie-based Lego game where the characters spoke, but anyway, for this opening cutscene the characters recite their dialogue from the movie: Palpatine reveals that he was the one who reveal the shield generator location to the Rebellion, Ackbar and Lando realize it’s a trap (while respectively drinking coffee and eating cookies), and the Ewoks ambush the stormtroopers (one of them flinging a pig, which is random even by Lego standards) while Han and Leia do their “I love you”/”I know” exchange.

Okay, now will my computer allow me to actually PLAY the game?

<img src=" https://i.imgur.com/z736l8m.jpg"width="600">

Well, we start off in control of MY HAN and OMG, I can actually control him, imagine that! Also, when he stands idle, he’ll practice his quick-draw, HA!

The first task is to kill ten stormtroopers, but after you’ve done so, an AT-ST walker will come stomping through the forest with an Ewok on its foot trying to hit it with a rock. Of course, hitting it with a rock does nothing, so we’ll have to figure out some way of getting up to it.

The graphics have gotten a significant upgrade, but a lot of gameplay elements from the previous Lego Star Wars games remain: collecting studs, destroying everything in sight for studs, the True Jedi meter, collecting minikits, and of course, building stuff. Right now we need to build a bench-shaped trampoline to get up to the cliff and collect our first minikit.

Once again, collecting ten minikits in a level will unlock a vehicle like in The Complete Saga. However, the trampoline we built doesn’t let us reach the AT-ST, so what do we do?

Well this game introduces (at least for Lego Star Wars games), multi-building, meaning you can use the same set of bricks to build multiple things, so let’s shoot the trampoline we just built and hold down the left arrow to build it again on the left side of the cliff.

Multi-building for the first time will also unlock the “Unlearn what you have learned” Steam achievement. Yup, this game has Steam achievements, which is awesome. I wish the older Lego Star Wars games had them, but I’m not sure what sort of alteration to the game codes would have been required to implement them.

Anyway, hold down the jump button to get enough momentum to jump high enough to reach the top of the cliff, where there are lots of studs to collect and . . . Wicket stuck in an Ewok trap! Along with the Power Brick in the background.

Don’t worry, little guy! We’ll save you! Hopefully. So long as saving you isn’t something we can only do in Free Play Mode.

Fortunately, we can save him right now – just have a character with a blaster use the grapple gun and hold down the J key long enough to set him free.

Now we have cute little Wicket in our party!

Which means he can use the travel chute to get to the top of the treehouse (by the way, I love the Ewok bongos sitting around – we’ll need them for the celebration, after all).

There are a pair of handles here, but apparently Chewie’s the only one strong enough to pull them. Those travel chutes are fare too small for a Wookiee to fit through, so how is Chewie gonna get up there?

Ah, I see, Wicket can push the rack of spears with a stormtrooper helmet (interpret that as you will) and it’ll fall to the ground, smashing into some convenient building bricks that we can use to build a ladder . . . out of weapons. Well, you work with what you've got.

Then Chewie can climb up and pull the handles.

Doing so will cause a lever to yank up a bundle of logs on the side of the AT-ST, and if you’ve seen the movie you probably know where this is going. But first thing’s first – let’s figure out how to get the Power Brick. Once you get down from the treehouse, shoot the ladder since we don’t need it anymore and use the weapons to build this . . . gymnast thing.

I’m not sure what it is, but you can jump from spear to spear to get to the top of the hill and get the Power Brick.

Now let’s head to the other side of the AT-ST, where there’s another convenient set of handles for Chewie to pull.

That’ll make two bundles of logs crash into the AT-ST, destroying it. Ha! Oh wait, there’s a second AT-ST behind it, of course. Now our party members get into stealth mode – and I had to take a screenshot of Han crouching because it’s my Han crouching.

Look, it’s Han! Crouching! Am I too obsessed with the guy? Maybe, but this is the start of the first stealth battle.

For these battles, you need to crouch behind the barrier and time when you stand up and shoot. If you can kill an enemy when he’s preparing to shoot (while playing Han, but that’s no issue for me), you get the “Quick on the draw” achievement. If you can get through the battle without dying, you’ll get a gold medal that will break into a ton of studs – I died once, so I got a silver medal, but it still broke into a good amount of studs and Han jumped up and cheered at the end, bringing a goofy grin to my face despite the back pain and it also gave me the “They’re shooting at both of us!” achievement for completing my first stealth battle.

Of course, we’ve got another AT-ST to take care of after the battle, but there are some explosives we can shoot to get rid of it.

Buuuuut now, we’ve got a giant fallen tree blocking everyone except Wicket, since there’s a chute next to us. Also, R2’s beeping somewhere, but we can’t find him. By the way, you can’t see it in the screenshot, but those little plastic flames flicker like real flames – a nice touch.

Well, there’s a large bundle of logs here that could break the tree, but Wicket’s not strong enough to push them down by himself – he needs to find some Ewok friends to help him, so let’s head back down and find some Ewok friends. Fortunately, Wicket can call his fellow Ewoks to help him much like how the clone commanders could command other clones in the Clone Wars game. Once we’ve brought a few of Wicket’s friends, they can all work together to push the logs.

Unfortunately, pushing the logs doesn’t break the tree, but it gives Wicket space to jump down and explore the area on the other side of the tree. Hey look, there’s a minikit – we’d better keep our eyes out for a way to get it!

Where were we? Oh yeah, saving the others. Well, we’ve got some debris lying around that Wicket can build into a mini cannon thing and oh, THERE’S R2! How did he get stuck in a fallen tree like that?

Don’t worry buddy, we’ll save you! Once Wicket blows up the log and sets R2 free, our other friends can use the debris to build a ramp.

And now Han can ascend up to the tree to get the minikit!

Of course, we’ve got a rocky ledge in front of us later on, but hey, we’ve got R2 here and a conveniently-placed astro droid panel!

So let’s just have him activate the panel and . . . oh crap, another minigame?

Were people really salivating over the Simon minigame at 3PO’s panels in the Clone Wars game? Seriously, what’s wrong with the droids just activating the panels right away like in The Complete Saga? Eh, at least this one’s more tolerable than the Simon game – you rotate the inner discs to fit in the outer discs, but it still just comes across as a gimmick.

After R2 activates the panel, it explodes into a pile of bricks that you can build into this elevator thing.

I don’t know why, but I find that elevator thing funny, especially how it seems to be running out in the wilderness with no power source. Maybe R2 was the power source, but anyway, let’s make our way up the hill to this . . . structure that projects the Rebellion signal but has a stormtrooper helmet sitting on top of it.

Sometimes the weirdest things show up in Lego games and I love them for that. Anyway, let’s use our grapple guns to swing from the projection and now Han and Leia can highjack a couple of AT-ST walkers – WOOT!

Sure, we’ve gotta do a quick time event to get in the walker, but who cares, we’re controlling a FUCKING AT-ST WALKER!

And look, there’s more! We can use the AT-ST to break up the gold Lego objects!

Which also means we can shoot down these bags of gold boulders (don’t ask me where the Ewoks got those) to bring down the bridge.

Have the time of your life mowing over stormtroopers – just watch out for explosives.

And soon we’ll reach the shield generator!

Also, 3PO’s trapped on the roof. What’s the story there?

Eh, I'm sure he'll get himself down. First of all, we've got to destroy five of those bags of gold boulders for a minikit.

Now we can jump out of the AT-STs and explore the ground, where we’ve got a mysterious box with four grapple hooks and . . . three Rebel soldiers standing around in a white circle. Are they being held prisoner in a mystical anti-Rebel circle?

I thought Han, Leia, Chewie, and Wicket could pull the box open, but nope, we’re gonna need those Rebels to help us. So I sent Han to call them over – but it turns out we need Leia to do so.

Not sure why Han couldn’t do it since he’s a newly-appointed general and all, but no matter. Leia can lead the Rebels to yank open the box that contains a minikit, yay! After we’re done destroying everything for studs and fighting stormtroopers while we’re at it, we need to build a distraction for the stormtroopers so we can ambush them with our secret Ewok army weapon. So what’s the distraction? Why, playing the movie Star Wars, of course!

I can’t think of a better distraction than that. But wait, if the movie Star Wars exists in the Star Wars universe, does that mean someone made a Rebel propaganda movie about the destruction of the first Death Star while the Empire was still in charge? Did Luke, Leia, and Han play themselves in the movie? And does this mean Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also exist in the Star Wars universe? Is someone filming the battle right now? And does the movie Star Wars exist in the universe of the movie that’s showing during the battle right now? Is there a never-ending chain of the movie Star Wars existing in the Star Wars universe that’s also a movie that exists in another Star Wars universe that’s also a movie that exists in another Star Wars universe?

I’m taking this too seriously, let’s move on. The Ewoks ambush the stormtroopers, Han does his trademark shrug in Lego form, and the Rebels blow up the shield generator, but the level’s not over. No, now we cut to the second Death Star, where Palpatine is still taunting Luke, but Vader decides he’s had enough when Luke shows him a picture he drew of his dad. Nothing’s more moving than your kid drawing a picture of you – am I right? Vader’s moved to tears and he jumps in front of Palpatine’s lightning, which really pisses him off. Now Luke and Vader have to work together against him, fighting off endless waves of guards while we’re at it.

First, we’ve got to Force-operate the crane things on either side of Palpatine’s throne to toss him in the air. Am I the only one getting Robot Chicken Palpatine vibes here? Probably.

Of course, he gets wise to our scheme and Force-destroys the cranes, so now we’ve got to figure out something else since if we go anywhere near him he’ll zap us with lightning and that’s an instant death. Fortunately, we can build these ship dispensers – Luke can use the Force on one to send an X-Wing to fly into Palpatine and Vader can use the Force on the other to send the Emperor a TIE Fighter hit. I love how anything can happen in a Lego universe.

Wait a minute. Vader got hit by a guard while he was Force-sending the TIE and now he’s . . . stuck.

Uh . . . okay, I switched to Luke and Palpatine leapt to the lower level, but Vader’s still frozen on the balcony.

Hey Han, here’s a frozen Vader decoration for you. Seriously though, I think I discovered a bug in the game and I need the dark side in order to keep fighting Palpatine. I switched back to Vader and . . . he’s still frozen.

I’m gonna have to restart the level, aren’t I? (sighs) Well, at least I won’t be capturing bases.

Okay, I restarted and I actually don’t have to play through the Battle of Endor again – it restarted at the beginning of Palpatine’s section. Nice that this game has mid-level autosaves. Anyway, after whacking Palpatine with an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter and not getting hit while doing so, then we have to fight him on the lower level. After we fling some more shit at him, he’ll create a lightning barrier around himself. Brutal, but we can throw our lightsabers at those silver targets to get the ceiling mechanism thing crashing down on him.

Now Vader and Palpatine get a one-on-one duel which looks really cool with the lightning and all, but the actual duel is a quick time event. Yeah, this game came out when those were all the rage.

After we input the right sequence of buttons, Palpatine falls to his temporary death and Vader dies his permanent death. Now how does this game do Anakin’s death? Well, they don’t play it straight like in The Complete Saga – Luke pulls off Vader’s helmet and . . . there’s ROTS Anakin under it! Luke is shocked and quickly replaced the head with scarred Vader head just in time for him to die (and both Luke and the guards burst into tears).

But the level’s still not over – we’ve still got to destroy the Death Star after all. This is a LONG prologue, but next we take control of the Millennium Falcon as it flies into the Death Star.

We’re in a rail shooter section like the first ROTS level in The Complete Saga, but at least THIS time you get the option to invert the controls so pressing up means you go up and pressing down means you go down. Thank GOD for that. Also, I shot five of something and got a minikit, but I’m not sure what it was I shot since I was shooting all over the place.

After some wild shooting, you’re at the core.

First thing is to take out the core’s shielding, and COOL, for this part you get an inside-the-cockpit view with Lando and Nien Nub.

But alas, we don’t remain in the cockpit after we destroy the core’s shield. We blast the core in a similar way as we did in The Complete Saga – by shooting the core with torpedoes while also blasting TIE Fighters.

Shoot a few torpedoes at the core and BOOM! We have our ending cutscene of the Endor party and the ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin – and the ghost of Vader? What? Oh, it’s Qui-Gon’s ghost fucking with everyone – HA!

So ends the level – and since I got True Jedi, I got the “The Force, it’s calling to you” achievement. Whew, that was a LONG prologue. Did it need to be so long? Probably not, but it gave me the warm fuzzies to be playing through the end of ROTJ in a new way, especially since the 3DS version didn’t have this prologue.

Join us next time when we jump to thirty years later!