New LEGO Force Awakens trailer shows cover mechanics and more

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has a lot more than what you’re used to seeing from a LEGO game, namely cover mechanics and multi-builds.

New stuff is always a good thing when you’re talking about the now-ubiquitous LEGO games. The long-running series is definitely a good time, but there are so many LEGO games at this point that developer Traveller’s Tales pretty much has no choice but to try and come up with some kind of new hook for each one.

Some of those hooks are fun and work out well, some don’t. And when they don’t, the age of the mechanics at play really start to show their age. Fortunately, what’s happening here with The Force Awakens looks pretty great so far.

Multi-builds allow gamers to construct a selection of LEGO builds in the game, giving you a choice of how to tackle various situations. Then there are the Blaster Battles, which effectively add in a little Gears of War-type cover to the game. You’ll pop out from behind available cover to snap off a few shots at Stormtroopers, as well as duck out of trouble yourself.

The third point touted in the press release are arial battles, and space dogfighting, which is in and of itself nothing new. We’ve seen both elements in past LEGO titles, but this time around Tt says you can expect things to be sped up to a degree for some “high-speed, action-packed flight gameplay like never before”. And of course, you’ll get to pilot some of the most iconic craft from the film.

All in all, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is packing quite a bit of newness, and will land on consoles, handhelds and the PC on June 28th.