'Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens' tells stories set before the movie
Lego BB-8 is somehow even more adorable than the real thing.
He rolls across the sands of Jakku (sorry, Neil deGrasse Tyson), bleep-blooping along without a care in the world. If there's anything to criticize, it's that TT Games didn't equip Lego BB-8 with a fiery thumbs-up button.
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The thumbs-up makes an appearance in a cutscene -- but like everything in TT's Lego games, it's a more exaggerated version of what you remember. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is definitely cut from a mold, but that's okay. It's still Star Wars.
We've already heard the basic details of what's new in this latest Lego game, but some time spent with its early levels offers insight into how it changes up the formula.
Multi-builds
Multi-builds lend additional depth to puzzles, allowing characters to build Lego objects, then tear them down and rebuild them in a different shape to serve a different purpose.
You might need to have Rey build a jump pad for BB-8 so the bot can cross an inaccessible area. Once he's through, Rey can shatter what she built and instead piece together a mechanism that BB-8 can use to unlock a nearby door.
Fun fact: BB-8 can't build anything. He doesn't wield the Force and he lacks hands, so he mostly just rolls around and makes noise. When it's time to fight, he headbutts. It's great.
The multi-build jumbles of Lego glow with a golden sparkle, and you choose which object to create by tilting the right stick in different directions. It's easy to build the wrong thing for a particular puzzle, but it's just as easy to then break it down and build the right thing.
Aerial combat
Flying spaceships aren't new for Lego Star Wars, but The Force Awakens changes things up with new sections that feel more like proper flight simulators than Galaga-style arcade games.
There's a little bit of both in this game. Take Rey and Finn's escape from Jakku aboard a certain smuggler-turned-Rebel hero's freighter, for instance.
There are "on-rails" moments where the Falcon constantly moves forward as you steer to avoid obstacles. When a TIE Fighter approaches from behind, you've got to avoid its targeting crosshairs until it passes in front of you.
Eventually, the tight, set pathways give way to an open-air space where you can move the Falcon around in 360 degrees.
In the game's current, not-yet-finished state, gunning down the required 20 TIEs is a tricky feat. The Falcon feels just a bit too responsive, making it overly difficult to track the swift-moving First Order fighters.
Blaster battles
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens also attempts to turn epic gunfights into an even bigger spectacle.
This is the hardest new "feature" to get a read on. Rey and Finn's hasty run to the Falcon is extended in the game, as the two -- with BB-8 -- take on squads of First Order troopers along the way.
There are places where you can build turrets and use other elements in the environment to turn the odds against your aggressors. Ultimately, the Jakku encounter feels like any other Lego game battle, just bigger.
Other assorted details
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens both follows and extends beyond the plot of the movie. There are 18 levels in all; 11 are pulled from familiar Force Awakens sequences, while the other seven tell stories set earlier in the timeline.
For example, you'll play through Han and Chewie's hunt for the rathtars, then let them escape from a gang showdown with Rey, Finn and BB-8. You'll also see how Poe ended up on Jakku at the beginning of the movie.
Lego The Force Awakens also gives players an assortment of "hub" levels to run around in. These open areas connect to different sets of story missions, but they also hide an assortment of secrets and hidden unlocks.
In The Force Awakens, there a five hubs in total: Jakku, Takodana (home of Maz Kanata), Starkiller Base, D'Qar (site of the movie's Resistance base) and the Millennium Falcon.
If you've played a Lego Star Wars game before -- or, really, any Lego game -- you know what to expect. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes to PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on June 28.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
