What for those who take Forza Horizon and Mario Kart, and put them collectively in a Legofied model? That’s basically the query that Visible Ideas and 2K have tried to reply with LEGO 2K Drive. On paper, you’d assume a recreation like that might be nothing wanting excellent- and positive sufficient, a number of elements of LEGO 2K Drive are legitimately gratifying, from its freeform driving to its vibrant and vibrant world to its customization mechanics. On the identical time, it additionally suffers from some vital points that work in opposition to the expertise in methods which might be exhausting to disregard.
LEGO 2K Drive options 4 distinctive biomes, every of them a decently sized open world map, with one being a smaller tutorial location, and by way of environmental selection and pure visible design, there’s so much to love about every biome, with places starting from sandy desert plains to lush inexperienced valleys and extra. The moment-to-moment expertise of driving round every space can be inherently enjoyable, because of the sport’s mixture of straightforward and simple inputs and misleading depth. With the flexibility to leap, drift, and fast flip all on the desk, it feels such as you all the time have an important diploma of management over the way you need to maneuver your automobile, despite how snappy and easy every motion feels.
“The sport doesn’t put as a lot of an emphasis on talent as one thing like Crash Staff Racing or even Mario Kart would, however the driving mechanics in and of themselves are undeniably gratifying.”
The driving expertise as a complete truly feels refreshingly seamless, in that there’s little or no that the sport does to interrupt your basic circulate or momentum. In true Lego trend, the overwhelming majority of issues you possibly can see within the environments are utterly smashable, whereas your automobile additionally routinely transforms into both a road racing automobile, an off-roading automobile, or a ship relying on what kind of terrain (or water) you’re driving on. As such, there’s little or no to interrupt your momentum, since issues akin to crashing and going off-track are taken out of the equation by an important diploma.
Add to {that a} enhance mechanic that’s pretty beneficiant with how rapidly your meter refills, and the place core elements akin to sense of pace and momentum are involved, LEGO 2K Drive efficiently nails the basics. Much like a large number of kart racers, the sport additionally scatters a wide range of merchandise pickups all through its programs that allow you to equip a special weapons in opposition to your opponents, and although the implementation of that mechanic is pretty shallow right here, it’s, at the least, a enjoyable little layer on high of the core gameplay loop. In fact, how uninterrupted the driving is sort of consistently does imply that the sport doesn’t put as a lot of an emphasis on talent as one thing like Crash Staff Racing or even Mario Kart would, however the driving mechanics in and of themselves are undeniably gratifying.
It’s a disgrace, nevertheless, that the issues that LEGO 2K Drive places round that core find yourself disappointing. Take the races, for example, the place the AI so usually exit of its technique to fiercely compete in opposition to you for the overwhelming majority of the race, solely to fumble and misplaced out near the top. In case your rivals are forward of you, they’ll usually grow to be surprisingly simple to meet up with and overtake within the latter levels of a race, and conversely, for those who’re too far forward of them, they’ll rubberband proper up in your rear as you’re approaching the end line. I get that it is a recreation made firstly for teenagers, as just about all Lego video games are, but it surely goes nearly slightly too far with that. With no actual sense of problem all through the expertise, ancillary mechanics, such because the stats of your automobiles or the perks that you simply equip them with, find yourself feeling undervalued. That, in flip, means there’s additionally usually little or no cause to vary the automobiles you’re utilizing. Because you’ll be choosing them largely primarily based on what they seem like, the entire automobile assortment side loses a few of its luster as properly.
“With no actual sense of problem all through the expertise, ancillary mechanics, such because the stats of your automobiles or the perks that you simply equip them with, find yourself feeling undervalued.”
That overemphasis on attracting a youthful viewers impacts the sport’s story and writing as properly, even when these are clearly not even near the primary belongings you’re going to be enjoying this recreation for. Moreover a number of chuckle-inducing gags and puns, jokes in LEGO 2K Drive are inclined to fall flat, and the overwhelming majority of the characters you meet make subsequent to no impression. That’s an actual disgrace, as a result of if there’s one factor you’ve come to count on from a LEGO recreation, it’s childlike however efficient humour in its writing. Clearly, there’s solely a lot you are able to do with the writing when you understand you’re additionally catering to a youthful audience- however LEGO 2K Drive appears to solely cater to a youthful viewers.
How LEGO 2K Drive implements its open world design can be not with out its points. On one hand, there’s no denying that the visible design of every space is unbelievable, not solely by way of how a lot selection the sport displays from biome to biome, but additionally because of how vibrant and filled with attraction and character every space is. That, mixed with the enjoyable fundamentals of the driving, makes merely driving round fairly an gratifying experience- although the maps aren’t too large, so there isn’t an infinite quantity of issues to see.
What the sport fills that map up with, nevertheless, is way much less participating. There are many racing associated aspect actions, in fact, like bite-sized challenges that take you thru drifting programs or job you with setting air time information, whereas as well as, the sport additionally throws a number of aspect quests your method, that are extra prescribed set-piece missions with distinctive objectives and setups, like defending three towers in opposition to waves of invading aliens by driving by them and smashing them into tiny Lego items. Sadly, I didn’t have a lot enjoyable with most of those aspect actions. The bite-sized racing ones scattered all through the open world are inoffensive at greatest and bland at worst, whereas the aspect quests simply don’t really feel enjoyable to regulate, seeing as they take the main target away from the precise racing side, which is likely one of the greatest components of the sport.
Ultimately, the standard of the content material throughout your complete bundle finally ends up feeling fairly diluted, and repetition begins creeping in. In truth, that feeling of repetition turns into even tougher to stave off as a result of LEGO 2K Drive’s story mode adopts a little bit of a grindy construction. Important path races and story progressing are stage gated, which suggests the sport usually breaks the momentum and forces you to have interaction in its aspect activities- which, as I discussed, are fairly hit or miss. The story mode isn’t significantly lengthy at 8-9 hours, and also you’ll probably be spending nearly all of your time in on-line races or non-compulsory and/or post-game content material, however for individuals who’re seeking to full the story, its construction may depart you slightly pissed off every so often.
“The place LEGO 2K Drive stumbles with its racing occasions and its open world maps, one space the place it’s an unequivocal success is its creation and customization toolset.”
However the place LEGO 2K Drive stumbles with its racing occasions and its open world maps, one space the place it’s an unequivocal success is its creation and customization toolset. In a nutshell, the sport lets you construct total automobiles from scratch, letting you choose every Lego piece you need to use for your complete construct, and providing an enormous choice of items on provide, with different beauty choices like stickers, paints, and extra thrown on high. Extra items are unlocked as you progress additional within the recreation, additional increasing your toolset with much more enjoyable new choices. By way of its precise mechanics, constructing vehicles and placing Lego blocks collectively is undeniably enjoyable, and mixed with the huge array of choices it presents, it’s one thing which you could simply spend hours enjoying round with.
Clearly, LEGO 2K Drive is an uneven expertise. There’s so much to love about it, and there’s no denying that at it’s core, it may be legitimately enjoyable. All of that comes with caveats although. Whereas the driving is enjoyable, the races are held again by inconsistent AI. Whereas the open world maps are nice to have a look at and drive round in, the content material they’re filled with is just not probably the most compelling. Whereas I like how approachable and charming the sport is, it caters to youthful audiences a lot that it finally ends up feeling slightly shallow. A minimum of there’s the entire creation and customization side, which is one space the place LEGO 2K Drive is a triumph with none reservations. In the end, for those who’re on the lookout for an arcade-style racer that may lay reliable declare to the Mario Kart throne, this can most likely depart you disillusioned, but when all you need is a enjoyable and laid-back (if unremarkable) racing recreation, then you definitely’re in luck, as a result of that’s exactly what LEGO 2K Drive is.
This recreation was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
