Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has come to Disney Infinity 3.0 in a brand new play set featuring Finn and Rey, plus Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren are available as single figures and a Power Disc pack featuring 2 costume changes, an event disc and vehicle.  Three members of the DisKingdom.com team, Abe, Roger & Travis, share their thoughts on the play set, the figures and power discs, both good and bad.

Initial Thoughts:

Abe: The Force Awakens playset is loads of fun and starts out beautifully on the planet of Jakku. It feels like you are stepping into the movie and it is packed with many great missions and activities to keep you occupied for hours. Love this playset!

Roger: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is without doubt one of the biggest movies in a long time and Disney’s only console video game (so far) to feature the story and being able to continue the magic on the day after I saw the movie and Force Awakens fever is in full swing. Disney Infinity’s version of the Force Awakens does differ slightly from the movie, with only a couple of cut scenes and variations from the story, it doesn’t distract too much from the gameplay but just feels a little odd.

Travis: I have been looking forward to this Play Set, and the movie, for months now. After seeing the movie Thursday night, I was very eager to play the Play Set when content unlocked on Friday. The story, the characters, and the overall renewed love of the Star Wars universe I had leaving the theatre after seeing the movie for the first time (I have since seen it a second time) gave me hope for a very memorable Play Set.

The Good:

Abe:  The idea of scavenging on Jakku to get things accomplished, is awesome. It gives you just another taste of what life on Jakku would feel like. It pays homage to the movie quite well.  The flight through the starship grave yard with the Falcon was amazing. One of my favorite moments of the playset.  I love being on Hans freighter. I think it turned out great and old Han as a mission giver was a nice touch. It also felt like I was in the movie being on the freighter.

The final battle with Kylo Ren was awesome! Totally enjoyed his attacks and love how there are three progressively harder stages to his battle. The cinematic’s at the end of the fight is perfect as well.  The mini moons in space are the best between all the Star Wars playsets. They give you the true challenge that was lacking from the other playsets. Finally, the hologames were a big hit for me. They are fun, addictive, and add hours of gameplay to this playset.

Roger: The Force Awakens continues to deliver a similar experience that we saw in Rise of the Empire and Twilight of the Republic, with lots of missions involving collecting salvage, space missions, fetch and repair tasks. If your looking for a hardcore Star Wars title, Infinity isn’t it, it’s simple and effective, it’s a family game at its core and it’s a lot of fun, though I’ll admit after seeing how beautiful Jakku looks in Star Wars Battlefront, the Infinity version is much more toy like which fits the style. The play set is more more ranged attack focused because of the skill set of Rey & Finn, which makes it feel very different to Twilight of the Republic.

I loved how this play set was out on the same day as the movie, Infinity is a movie tie in video game at its heart and unlike other titles like Frozen, Big Hero 6 and The Good Dinosaur which just had toy box characters, Disney have made some great progress is making Infinity the perfect location to tie in console versions of their movies, however we get a throwback to the days of rushed games, there are a few issues that’ll get into later.

Travis:   The Holo Arcade Game: I have not had a chance to explore all of the games that you unlock throughout your adventures in the Play Set (similar to Champion Coins), but the games I have played so far inside the machine have been a lot of fun.

Granted, I have not played Star Wars Battlefront, so I do not have that to compare to (probably comparing apples to oranges anyhow), but I like how Jakku looks in game. Yes, it does sort of remind me of the setup of Tattooine in the Rise of the Empire Play Set. However, there is enough of a change (as much as you can change a desert landscape) to make it feel unique to me.

The Bad:

Abe: Everything seems to fall apart when you get to Takodana. The story is completely off and don’t really follow the movie. It does make sense why Kylo never shows up and kidnaps Rey, because Rey is s playable character and wouldn’t make sense to remove her from the game. It’s also odd the Maz Kanata isn’t in the playset at all. Just felt very odd to not include her in the game. Now the planet activities in general, make no sense. Like, why are we still scavenging here? Why is there a stunt park in the water? Why do speeders hover over water? Many things made no sense. Finally the thing that bothers me the most, is that Han just disappears from Takodana to Star Killer Base. He just vanishes. Found that silly.

Roger: I do have a few issues with this play set, the secrecy behind the movie seems to restricted the games development, with the game content being locked away and hidden on the disc since the summer, meaning the game suffers from not as much development time as it probably needed. It’s a shame they didn’t apply the same DLC system they will be using in Marvel Battlegrounds to give them more time to develop the game and be closer to the movie.

The Force Awakens play set is probably the weakest play set from 3.0, it just doesn’t compare to the other two Star Wars play sets nor Inside Out, it’s a shame as I had hoped this play set would have been a bigger adventure, it just felt a little flat. There seemed to be too many missions that had nothing to do with the story and building a water amusement park on the lake just seemed bizarre. There isn’t a lot of toy box unlocks in this play set either, so many great pieces could have been made available to builders. Also the final boss battle just lacked any connection to the movie, with a great lightsaber system that we saw with boss battles in the other play sets, that would have made more sense instead of throwing barrels at Kylo Ren.

Travis: Takodana: The major gripe I have with the Play Set is Takodana. I will be honest, after playing the first few hours on launch day, and exploring the planet of Jakku and Han’s Freighter, I was hopeful for this Play Set. There were subtle changes to the storyline, but they were understandable. Then, over the weekend, I continued the journey on the planet of Takodana… and it somewhat fell apart. Storyline changed way too much to the point where characters were deleted and major scenes in the movie were no longer present. I ended that round of gameplay just entering Starkiller Base, so I am hoping gameplay gets better.

The Figures:

Roger: The Force Awakens has four great figures, Kylo Ren is the standout figure to me, looking menacing and feeling different to the 3 heroes (though a Light FX version would have made this a amazing figure). Finn is a powerful shooter and the figure looks pretty solid and was my go to character to play the play set with he is a lot of fun Rey plays well with her ranged attacks and staff, though I could seriously see a different version of her in later editions. Poe looks great in his Resistance outfit but I’ll be honest that this character didn’t really interest me enough to want to use him much.

Travis: The Force Awakens Play Set figures have easily become my favorite ones to play with inside Disney Infinity 3.0. Rey is a very strong female character with both a strong melee attack with her staff and a powerful ranged attack with her blaster. Finn’s Stormtrooper rifle blast is one of the most powerful ranged attack in recent memory. I enjoys blasting around with Poe dressed as an X-Wing Fighter Pilot… and it feels like the Play Set gives him more “camera time” then the actual movie.

The only one that seems to be lacking for me within the Play Set is Kylo Ren. For me, the Play Set has a ranged attack sort of mentality with the game play, so Kylo Ren does not fit. I haven’t played inside the Toy Box much with Kylo Ren after leveling him up for a bit his lightsaber attack becomes pretty powerful Gives me something to look forward to.

The Power Discs:

Roger: The power discs for the Force Awakens are a mixed bag, Finn’s Stormtrooper costume change is the highlight as not only does it make Finn look awesome but also improves his in-game shooting ability. The Resistance tactical strike feels similar to Nick Fury’s event disc from 2.0 and Poe’s costume change disc isn’t too bad, these at least feel better and more valuable than a toy that could have been unlocked from the play set. The Quad jumper vehicle is a disappointment as it is barely in the movie and compared to the unlocks from the play set like X-Wings or Tie-Fighters, it just doesn’t seem necessary, I think I would have preferred an old Han Solo costume change disc.

Travis:  The Force Awakens Power Disc four pack isn’t anything to be very excited about. The two costume discs, one for Finn and the other for Poe) are simple, but also effective in adding another element from the movie inside the Play Set. The Resistance Strike Event disc seems to be powerful for the small area it actually strikes… I would think an airstrike would cover a bigger area. Finally, the Quad Jumper is a head scratcher to me, seeing as the actual vehicle was shown in the movie for mere seconds. Not sure why the DI team chose this vehicle. It’s a fun design, but barely a part of The Force Awakens.

Final Thoughts:

Abe: The force awakens playset is definitely loads of fun and there is plenty to do. The challenges are great and have a subtle difficulty to them. Aside from odd choices in story and activities to do in Takodana, this playset holds its own quite well. It is a playset that will be quite popular this holiday season. Well done!

Roger:  With the play set, removing the cost of the figures, does mean this play set is only around $5 to $10 and its certainly worth the money, while the main storyline can be completed within 3 to 4 hours, taking time to complete all the side quests and challenges, will easily offer two or three times that. Making this a good movie tie-in game as this isn’t a full blown stand alone title, I’d easy recommend any Star Wars fan to pick this up and have a bit more fun with the Force Awakens and I’ll pick up Kylo Ren is another excellent addition to your Infinity roster.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a good addition to 3.0, there are plenty of hours of entertainment that I enjoyed playing but I wasn’t blown away and that’s a little disappointing, especially after the movie left me wanting more, hopefully next time Disney make more use of the time and technology to deliver a more polished experience.

Travis:  As excited as I was for this Play Set, I am afraid that so far, it has not wowed me like I hoped it would. That being said, the figures that are part of the Play Set are some of the best ones that Disney Infinity have put out in the past 3 years, so there’s a silver lining. Who knows… I might play more of the Play Set and start liking it more. I am not fully writing the Play Set off just yet, it’s just gone enough downhill that I doubt it can recover.

 

The guys also shared their thoughts on the play set on the most recent Infinity & Beyond podcast below:

 

What do you think of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens play set?