LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer and Interview

[Hapori Tohu]

There are some news about the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game. A new gameplay trailer reveals some new features for LEGO video games, including blaster battles where players can seek cover, multi-builds to explore different ways of expanding the plot by building and flight gameplay. Over a third of the levels will explore plot lines that happened between episodes 6 and 7, including how C-3PO got his red arm. Check out The Verge for the new trailer and a short interview with Lead Story Designer Graham Goring!

 

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[TheSkeletonMan939]

I really wish they would have opted not to use voice acting for this one... to stay in the spirit of the first two games, y' know?

 

The voice acting stuff just doesn't work for me, especially for the games based off films.

[Vorahk1Panrahk2]

^ I too am disappointed by the choice to include dialogue from the film. I admit I have yet to play a LEGO game that includes voices, but judging from all the trailers it just doesn't work. I find that there's a certain charm in having the (relatively) mute characters.

 

The additional content that's suposed to bridge the gap between 6 and 7 also sounds disappointing, mostly because they are answering questions I never cared to ask in the first place. But it's a LEGO game and those always have a certain charm to them, so I'm optimistic that I'll enjoy the game. I'll definitely get more enjoyment out of this than I did the movie.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Vorahk1Panrahk2

[Aanchir]

^ I too am disappointed by the choice to include dialogue from the film. I admit I have yet to play a LEGO game that includes voices, but judging from all the trailers it just doesn't work. I find that there's a certain charm in having the (relatively) mute characters.

I felt this way too before actually playing/watching any of the games that include dialogue. For me I associated a lot of the trademark humor of the games with the way they were told in pantomime. However, I've since watched my brother play three games that did have dialogue: LEGO City Undercover, LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, and LEGO Dimensions. In these games, the dialogue ADDS to the humor and charm rather than taking away from it.

 

Granted, all three of those games told original stories rather than being straight adaptations of existing media like the LEGO Star Wars games. The only adaptation-style LEGO game I've really watched that included dialogue was LEGO The Lord of the Rings, which felt rather bland to me. But of course, unlike some of the other games, it didn't have original dialogue and jokes recorded specifically for the game. And for all I know, ANY of the adaptation-style games might have bored me after watching the games that did tell more original stories.

 

The first LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer definitely told me that the game will have plenty of humor. What remains to be seen is whether the dialogue will add to that humor, or whether it'll just be... there, like it seemed to be in what I saw of LEGO The Lord of the Rings.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Granted, all three of those games told original stories rather than being straight adaptations of existing media like the LEGO Star Wars games. The only adaptation-style LEGO game I've really watched that included dialogue was LEGO The Lord of the Rings, which felt rather bland to me.

 

That one was the worst for me. It's the one that got me to stop paying attention to Lego games. The dialogue just doesn't fit in with the atmosphere the games try to create, and the writers have to improvise with stuff like this:

 

 

That's not witty, that's stupid. And it's annoying to have that juxtaposed with the serious dialogue.

 

____

 

Would it have killed TT Games to wait until the new trilogy is over to make this game?

Then again, Warner Bros. is involved, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

Edited March 24, 2016 by TheSkeletonMan939

[Lyichir]

 

Granted, all three of those games told original stories rather than being straight adaptations of existing media like the LEGO Star Wars games. The only adaptation-style LEGO game I've really watched that included dialogue was LEGO The Lord of the Rings, which felt rather bland to me.

 

That one was the worst for me. It's the one that got me to stop paying attention to Lego games. The dialogue just doesn't fit in with the atmosphere the games try to create, and the writers have to improvise with stuff like this:

 

 

 

That's not witty, that's stupid. And it's annoying to have that juxtaposed with the serious dialogue.

 

____

 

Would it have killed TT Games to wait until the new trilogy is over to make this game?

Then again, Warner Bros. is involved, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

 

I don't see what Warner Bros. being involved has to do with anything...

 

And let's be fair. There has only been one Lego game by TT Games that actually "waited" until it had a full trilogy to adapt before making a game. That was the first Lego Star Wars, which most likely only "waited" because by the time they were making the game, the first two prequel movies had already been released. Other than that you have Lego Star Wars 2 (released many years after the original trilogy), Lego Indiana Jones (also released years after the movies), Lego Indiana Jones 2 (basically the same thing again with added content from Crystal Skull and some other tweaks), Lego Lord of the Rings (again, released years after the movies), Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (released years after the movies and tied in with PotC 4), Lego Jurassic World (released years after the Jurassic Park trilogy and again tied in with a new movie), and The Hobbit (released not long after the second movie and completely missing content from the third).

 

Waiting until the trilogy was complete would be foolhardy in this case, because it will most likely be at least five years before that happens and in the meantime The Force Awakens is a hot property right now. Arguably they could have waited to bundle in content from the various anthology movies due out in the next two years, but again, that'd fail to capitalize on the hype around The Force Awakens, so arguably it'd be smarter to save that content for a game based on Episode 8 (which will probably receive much more hype than the standalone movies and as such would make more sense as the centerpiece of a game). The only other alternative I can come up with which might have been preferable would be to follow in Lego Indiana Jones 2's footsteps and create a game that included content from The Force Awakens AND remakes/reimaginings of the original Star Wars movies as well, and chances are that with the amount of development work that'd entail (especially with this game seemingly having a new engine), even that would still take too long to develop and result in this game missing the Force Awakens hype train by another year.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Lyichir