Disney Infinity: The Force Awakens Review

When writing about any game, we’re always keen to avoid spoilers to ensure we don’t ruin games for anyone – with the exception, of course, of our podcast’s Lewis ‘Loose Lips’ Gaston – but covering the new Star Wars expansion for Disney Infinity is particularly problematic. For one thing, Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers are about as welcome as woodworm at a carpentry fair, and for another the story in Disney Infinity’s expansion is merely similar to the movie, rather than a direct retelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuz4fQQOuE

So let’s start with the straightforward stuff. The new Force Awakens set includes figures of the two new central characters, Rey and Finn, with both Daisy Ridley and John Boyega reprising their roles from the film. In a nice touch, both Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver also lend their voices to Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren, though it only serves to highlight the lack of original voices for the cast of the original trilogy, in particular Han Solo.

The new figures do look fantastic, both in the plastic and in-game, retaining the look of the real-life actors within the inimitable Infinity branding. Rey is particularly handy with her staff, while Finn’s blaster level’s up to become the most powerful rifle in the whole game.

Kylo Ren is a brilliant antagonist, and his red lightsaber – questionable cross-guard and all – easily makes short work of all that stand in his way, though of course you can take him out in the campaign and turn his work to the side of the light. His special move is a particular highlight, with his force blast freezing every enemy in place – whatever their frame of animation – allowing you to then annihilate them in spectacular fashion.

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As with the previous sets, you can unlock each of the Disney Infinity Star Wars figures for play in The Force Awakens set, from the Clone Wars, through to Rebels and the original trilogy. Thankfully one of the tweaks here sees you only having to find one coin as opposed to searching for the multiple ones that locked you out of playing with your figures in Infinity 2.0.

Along with Rey and Finn, you also get The Force Awakens playset, which sees you visiting a number of the key locations from the film, starting with the desert planet of Jakku and the hulking ruins of downed Star Destroyers lying in the distance. Of course it’s hard to talk about the rest of the locations without ruining some of the key points of the film, but they’re all relatively well brought to life, though none of them have the same wow factor as Jakku.

As with the Rise Against The Empire set, the Disney Infinity team have gone more for a flavour of the film, rather than aping the film’s plot exactly. While it’s probably not as jarring the changes in the Rise Against The Empire set – Han and Chewie were absolutely not there when Luke met Obi Wan – it’s a more child-friendly retelling that brings the characters together in a fun environment.

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It absolutely looks and sounds the part, with the stirring Star Wars’ themes running throughout, though I think they’re largely taken from the previous six films rather than The Force Awakens – having seen it three times already, I feel like I know what I’m talking about – and as much as I love pieces like The Duel of the Fates it would have been nice to hear more of the new compositions.

There are a range of holo-games that are unlocked via finding the required medals hidden about the different locations, though in essence they’re all a simplified score attack game that’s loosely styled on Geometry Wars, without the analogue stick aiming. They’re a vaguely interesting diversion, though they’re easily beaten by picking up the shield power-up every time it appears.

Disney Infinity’s version of The Force Awakens has plenty for fans of the series to enjoy, but the reworked story here really doesn’t capture the imagination in the same way as the new movie does. Of course, the game is aimed at younger members of your household for whom the more adult moments wouldn’t work, and as a sandbox for the fantastically styled toys it absolutely does. Just don’t be too precious about your Star Wars, or this one’s not for you.