I'm glad this is more or less living up to its expectations. Good review, Dan!
Sort of off-topic observation:
This is the game that has made me realize that the word "metagame" has experienced major semantic shift in its very short lifetime. Seems like it now refers to gameplay elements that are specifically inside the game, and not at all meta (according to the previous and maybe now obsolete meaning). Interesting!
Well I didn't expect Ferdinand de Saussure to be invoked... in an insightful Star Wars commentary... on my video game review outlet of choice. Armchair linguist here, and bravo.
Austin, there's just a ton crammed into this film, to its credit and otherwise.
Multiple heroes-on-journeys, some shorter than others, and all seem like avatars of the original trilogy's protagonist. Desert-planet denizen eking out an existence, meant for something greater... ace pilot who saves the day... feisty rebel sticking to the empire--all manifest in their own characters in TFA, all exhibited in Luke in the original trilogy. I was surprised at how well those all fit together, but it makes a weird kind of sense to consider them as the "multiple aspects of Luke Skywalker."
However, this makes for some bizarre pacing issues that gave me a bit of whiplash.
Star Wars now has its own near-mythical beats that, it seems, Must Exist in the plot: a big holographic bad guy who is ugly; a big superweapon (again) (UGH) that threatens all freedom and all sapient life, etc. Where the original trilogy felt like processing literally ancient ideals into something adventurous and relatable, TFA occasionally feels like a big ol' rehash.
All that said, Episode VII really works as the beginning of a Titanomachia--a reverential re-introduction of the characters of this fiction, and then BAM, punting them right out of the way to make room for a dynamic new generation of characters to gather round and worship, nerdfully.
Super interesting aesthetic going on with this thing. I can't see myself playing it, but would definitely watch someone with better hand-eye coordination than me play it.
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