Lego has become something of a phenomenon in the toys market. I used to own a lot of it when I was young. Back then though it was just space, pirates and city stuff available, really generic stuff that was the basis of being able to build your own things. It’s has since blown up in our faces and took on big franchises spanning pretty much all forms of media. Movies, TV series’, comics and of course video games have all, at some point, been given the Lego makeover treatment. Over the period of 19 years, Lego have released 59 video games across every format which have most recently been made as humorous makeovers of popular movie franchises, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic World and Star Wars are to name a few.
The newest Lego game to grace our systems is a bit of a late entry releasing after the films it is based on. Lego Marvel’s Avengers brought to us by TT Games and Warner Bros Interactive. It made sense. Capitalizing on 2013’s fantastic Lego Marvel Super Heroes, TT Games have gone bigger with Lego Marvel’s Avengers. More characters, locations to explore and things to do, the scale of this game is breathtaking.
The story missions span the 2 Avengers movies, Avengers Assemble and Avengers: Age of Ultron with a few little parts taken from other movies in the Marvel universe such as Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Of course, in traditional Lego fashion, the scenes and dialogue have a funny twist to them to stay child friendly such as ice cream and milkshakes being a common sight and seeing the Hulk taking selfies with a Chitauri Leviathan. It’s genuinely funny but it’s all over the place. Obviously depicting the entire movies would be too silly and long but the scenes that are featured are far apart from one another making it feel rushed with scenes from other movies squeezed in. This game would have survived without them. Dialogue is again ripped straight from the movies with the actors reprising their roles which TT had done in their previous movie based games. It works great and allows them to keep the charm and authenticity of the films. I mean who else could be Iron Man other than the brilliant Robert Downey Jr?
It’s safe to say, game play wise, once you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. Players control a character and are encouraged to smash the Lego environment to collect studs which are used to unlock characters and vehicles. Every game seems to have a few differences from one another but the base game play remains untouched. This time around, Lego Marvel’s Avengers has more of a focus on combat. You fight a lot more in this game than we have seen in any of the others. To accommodate for this, playable characters can pull off stylish and iconic finishing moves unique to every character when a button prompt appears over an enemies head. This is a kids game so the window to press it is a generous one. Also, after a short while, playable characters can use a team up move which are awesome and different to every combination of characters. My personal favorite being the included move where Thor slams his hammer down on Captain America’s shield to create a devastating shock wave.
Puzzles are once again simple requiring almost no thought but let’s not forget who the target audience is. I find it charming and fitting for a Lego game really. Working out how to start a defunct tractor and rescue trapped civilians is a welcome change of pace. There are mini games which feel tacked on which happen way too often. Like using a scanner which activates an onscreen cursor which require you to look for the sweet spots and games of miniature pairs to use a computer console. They just feel unnecessary. A lot of puzzles require certain types of characters which require free play mode to solve.
Missions aside, there are now more hub world’s to freely explore which I am excited to say includes Manhattan from Lego Marvel Super Heroes. Going open world was a very good move for the Lego games. Zipping around as Iron Man was exhilarating and super fun and I’m happy to see it back. More areas are available now too such as Tony Starks Malibu Penthouse and Barton’s Farm, each one fully explorative and vary in size and within each one, tonnes of gold bricks and characters to find and unlock. The roster is massive. Over 200 playable characters. It’s mind blowing. Aside from the Avengers, characters such as Iron Fist, Ant Man and Abomination make a return, this time with lesser known Marvel characters such as Fin Fang Foom and Captain Britain.
As with most Lego games, graphically, they don’t amaze. Other than different skins, the characters are mostly the same shape and none of the scenes match the heights of the ones featuring Galactus from Lego Marvel Super Heroes. There are some really nice looking lighting effects and character detail but they never wowed me but let’s be honest, who plays Lego games for the cracking graphics?