Beneath hot and cold running filler lies a bed of basic, family-friendly fighting and puzzle-solving gameplay, enhanced by a trio of mechanics new to the Lego series—Blaster Battles, Multi-Builds and space combat.

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Blaster Battles, the most successful of the three, transforms the game into a cover shooter. Characters duck down behind debris or press themselves against walls, peeking out to take shots at the enemy, dropping back when fire is returned. Blaster Battles are fun in an auto-aiming, loose-y goose-y sort of way. They’re a bit overused—almost every level features at least one Blaster Battle segment—but they’re a welcome break from chaos of the flailing minifigure combat the franchise is known for.

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Space battles come in two flavors, on-rails and open arena, and they’re fine. Dodging cannon fire through twisting canyons and facing off against an entire squadron of Tie Fighters on your own is initially exciting, but the Lego series’ lack of stakes takes the edge off. You die, you respawn a little lighter in the wallet. It’s the same in every Lego game, but somehow I feel it more acutely in the middle of what should be a tense dogfight.

Finally we have Multi-Builds, piles of Lego bricks that can be assembled in multiple ways. Their success really depends upon their implementation. Sometimes they feel tacked on, like when they give the player two different ways to perform the same task. Say there’s a dionaga (tentacle beast) blocking the way through a First Order trash compactor. One build might create a mass over the creature that can be pulled down on its head. Another creates a giant fishing rod, snaring the beast. The outcome is the same; the options are merely cosmetic.

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Multi-Builds really shine when used in puzzle situations. An energy current slowly moves through a broken circuit. The player uses a set of blocks to create a bridge for the current. The current passes, and the player breaks the bridge, rebuilding it further down the line. That’s the sort of clever implementation that makes Multi-Builds an exciting addition.

While the three new features don’t exactly revolutionize the series, they’re enough to make The Force Awakens more than just another licensed Lego action game. Considering this is something like the 18th game of its ilk released in the past 11 years, that’s saying something.

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With all of its filler, both good and bad, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens still feels like it should have waited for a few more movies. As I set about scouring the game’s levels for special bricks, mini-kits and other goodies fans of the extended franchise obsess over, I keep thinking about what a great third of a trilogy game this will make once Star Wars Episode IX arrives in 2019.