The Lego Movie 2 Videogame

Game Title: The Lego Movie 2 Videogame
Released: February 26, 2019
Game Length: 17 Hours
Grade: B

Different Game

Explanation: There was some hesitation before adding this game into the list. It doesn't feel like any of the other games in the series as it certainly takes some influence from Lego Worlds. Many elements are taken from the adventure, build, and sandbox genres. The game keeps track of the number of bricks collected and required to build things like a sandbox game. One major difference that sets it apart is how you cannot change the world. While Lego Worlds allowed you to break apart and build up the landscape, The Lego Movie 2 Videogame establishes the world ahead of time. They are not randomized worlds that molds a bunch of different mission areas together. You are still able to build structures and break down objects in the world, but you cannot customize your own items. You are unable to interact with objects you build like the drum set or the swing set. However, you are able to drive any vehicles that are included in the special builds. Lucy narrates both The Hint System that plays a demonstration video on how things work before you attempt them and the events during the campaign. Sadly, there are no cutscenes from the movie. While the story is loosely similar to the film, much of the content and the planets are simply expounded upon in the game without following the main events. While characters you interact with during the campaign have voice acting, little outside the generic mumbles are to be found from quest-givers. There is only one character on the screen at a time (unless you initiate a second player).

Environment: The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that the DLC is free. This will allow you to revisit moments that were not detailed out in the movie like how Rex trained his raptors on his ship or how Mayhem catered to the Justice League. This expands the number of bricks to 550. In order to access Goldtropolis, you will need 400 bricks. My total came to around 91.4% completion with 514/550 Bricks. While the game doesn't exactly replicate the 11 planets in the Systar System, they do a very good job categorizing areas into planets that were more localized in the film. They split the jungle and harmony sections. The Sorting Area expands all the little Duplo figures. Speaking of which, the campaign might be short clocking in at around 3 hours but the three boss battles reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus are pretty awesome. What really surprised me was how the Asteroid Field had a bunch of old space ship sets I used to play with growing up. You'll also be able to visit the realms from the first film like Middle Zealand or Old West. You can visit a bunch of the original cast like Ma & Pa Cop or visit Unikitty's brother (that eerily looks like a Cat-Sonic) that is shown for a couple seconds from the film.

Interface: There are many relics (or lootboxes) that you can collect. They provide you with a bunch of collectibles once you open them up. The red bricks provide you with a bunch of abilities when you physically equip your character with them. If you already have an item, it will be break into bits that slowly builds into a relic-master that is guaranteed to give you new items. The played timer is back in the pause menu. There is a random character button that you can press when you don't feel like browsing your character roster. Sadly, the game does not list the name of your character at any time on the screen once selected. The game loads the last character you played before you quit the game, equipment and all. You can pick-up small objects like cats, rats, baby dinosaurs, babies, and spiders. You may warp to a different planet using the mini-map or from the pause menu. Speaking of maps, your mini-map now expands when hitting the select button, zooms with LB & RB, and allows you to place (and remove) as many waypoints as you want.

Vehicles

Features: The vehicles in this game are somewhat similar to what you might be used to in the series except for the fact that they move very slowly. Other than the special vehicles that move a hair quicker with their animal movement, every vehicle seems to putt along at one speed. There are no boost abilities. This makes the only thrilling part of the race be watching the timer tick down to those last few seconds as you are reaching the finish line. There are a few flight races as well as an underwater sequence. Since vehicles are considered structures, there is no limit to the number you can build. Many vehicles do allow you to fire, except for the giant gun that conveniently rests on top of the raptor. Metalbeard's Trike fires cannonballs, not sharks. General Sweet Mayhem's ship shoots exploding hearts like in the movie. Very few like the skateboard and motorcycle are capable of hopping in the air. The Fun Bus plays Catchy Song (warning - the song is going to get stuck in your head). Emmet's Thricycle is also drivable. Driving through rough terrain will shoot out "brick dust" from the tires of your vehicle. You are able to pick up bricks in the vehicle. Unfortunately, you are unable to obtain quests while inside one. This makes it difficult when you have to quickly hop into one as a race is beginning. Hats and special character pieces are removed when members are placed inside enclosed spaces (sorry Taco Man). Yes, the mermaid can drive.

Horns: Nearly every vehicle has a cool horn you can use, except for maybe the special animal mounts and skateboards. The raptor mounts do make "caw" sounds and react accordingly when something comes in contact with them. Any sort of construction vehicle or one that makes sense will beep when they are backing up. Space pirate ships do have an appropriate navy bell and spaceships will blare an outer space warning sound. Cars will all have their appropriate horns. There are a couple, like Abraham's chair, that play the Horse Race jingle.

Special Equipment

Build Page: One cool feature of the game is how you are able to build objects anywhere in the world. You pull out your little page and choose between building a vehicle or object. These categories go even further than that. Vehicles break down into special, land, flight, and water. I say "flight" loosely because a couple like Abraham's chair merely hovers. Objects can consist of things physically scanned from the world that get added into the database, things bought in the stores on each planet, things you found in relics, or quest items that are automatically added when you accept one. There is an entirely different "special" page that is gold instead of blue that contains large buildings required for the planet of Syspocalypstar. Using this page also generates a bunch of things for puzzles: micro manager that follows you around for a minute and shoots barricaded black bricks before it explodes, water sprinkler that takes out fires and grows plants, an electric generator that powers things, a pink bouncer, and a thumper that uproots things in the ground.

Tools: There are a bunch of cool gadgets and gizmos in your arsenal. Some of these can be seen from the movie while others are utilized from Lego Worlds. These generally have duo-functionality that allows you to make progress through puzzles and have fun in the world.

• Scanner - enables you copy objects found in the world and add them to your build list. For a brief second, you will see the scanner extend outward with a couple of googly eyes like it does in the movie.
• Sticker Gun - allows you to shoot stickers that attach on anything and everything in the world.
• Danger Fists - used to destroy special glow bricks.
• Camera - functionally the same in previous games where you can take pictures that are added to a gallery. Unless you are using a special character like a lexbot or skeleton, the character will animate a smile when performing a selfie. Green Lantern even has his missing tooth when he smiles into the camera. You can change filters or zoom in. Fun Fact: for a split second, you can see your character attach the camera to a selfie-stick before entering the mode.
• Paint Wand - allows you to repaint the world by choosing from a palette of colors or randomly shoot any color you want.
• MetalBeard's Head - there are certain puzzles with a small platform that requires the head attachment to move objects. Fun Fact: He will scare your character with a greeting when you aren't moving.
• Welding Tool - similarly seen from lightsabers and heat vision in previous games, the welding tool will cut a hole in objects. If the character has a flat back, they will be equipped with a blue backpack along with the tool.
• Grapple Gun - vastly superior from any you might have seen before, the grapple gun will pull hooks, grab onto handles, and enable you to jump to any nearby point you can come in contact with in the world.
• Tractor Beam - this little pad replicates what you have seen from the Jedi using the force or superheroes using telekinesis when moving objects around. There are very few moments where this item is required to solve a puzzle.
• Jet Wings - after completing the campaign, you finally receive wings that enable you to fly temporarily. You can rapidly tap on your booster to maintain your height or hold it down until your wings start flashing red while visually lowering down. As easy as it is to use these to get around the world, it can be more fun using the various platforms to get around.

Roster

Characters: There are around 180 characters. Roughly 25 are from the Lego Friends series and about 35 are repainted with sparkles, gold, or alternative outfits. Unlike previous games in the series, characters do not have individual powers - Superman can't fly, Cyborg doesn't shoot lasers, and spacemen can't use their jetpacks. Unikitty is the rare exception where she holds items with invisible hands, attaches some weapons to her forehead, and incapable of driving vehicles. Instead, their abilities are tied into their equipment. Another big difference is how you can access the roster by pressing the button instead of holding it down. Characters do have a super power that charges up a blue meter around their base, enables them to jump high in the air, and press four buttons to assemble a giant weapon that clears the area. While the vast majority will summon a blue flamethrower, Metalbeard summons a pirate cannon, Lucy creates her speakers, Unikitty (and her brother) calls that big yellow thing from Cloud Cuckoo Land, General Mayham calls in her ship, and Emmet builds his Triple-Decker Mech (which is not featured as a vehicle).

Idle Animation: What surprised me is the number of characters that do retain some sort of idle animation. The unique and interesting ones are limited to the main cast. Most of these are replicated from previous games. Cyborg plays football, hovers, and pulls out a couple of objects. Batman jams out on his guitar. Aquaman has about a dozen fish jump out of the water and he flops around on the ground. Sweet Mayhem salutes and occasionally flies around after her boots malfunction. Unikitty sits down and licks herself. Rex has a baby dinosaur circle around him. Metalbeard pulls out a spyglass and has an actual shark circle around him. Lucy does a couple of karate moves. Lex Luther pulls out a slushie. Green Lantern flies around and drops his ring. Emmet does a little dance.

Equipment: There are a lot of different weapons and items you can equip. Although there are no identifiers shown between the dotted lines, they essentially break down into special equipment, melee weapons, range projectiles, thrown objects, musical instruments, scanners & scopes, light emitters, and melee items. There is very little differentiating the equipment from each other. Bigger weapons like a broadsword will swing differently than something simple like a lasso. Equipment labeled with elements will glow while you are holding it, shine differently when used, and properly explode the way you expect. So expect rainbow weapons to shine rainbow colors, fire elements to emit a flame, and crystal will shatter on impact. A few will have special properties like how the Basketball Bazooka shoots basketballs and the pink wand shoots stars. Rex Jetpack, with its movie-accurate lightning pieces, needs to be equipped separately and functionally identical to the fly wings. The character will play a loop of a good minute of random riffs from the guitar, saxohone, and trumpet. The telescopes will let you zoom in on the landscape. "Electric torches" will shine a light onto the ground and around when you are swinging it. Although the item is "pom poms," you are only able to equip one of them. The boombox (as well as the super boombox) plays music while you are wielding it.

Summary

Review: Breaking traditional gameplay, Tt Games decided to create a new hybrid system that allows you to both create and explore wherever you want. You can replicate any object in the world and build structures on a dozen sites. Vehicles are a lot slower than normal and the worlds are much more vast. Since there is a new array of items that you use for abilities, characters are completely interchangeable to the point the developers added a convenient random button. There are quite a list of surprises from the giant monster battles to the old Lego sets you can find in each world. While there is an abundance of things to discover in this game, your attention is vastly limited with a campaign time of less than 10 hours. The game barely follows the events in the movie and instead diverts into exploring each of the worlds. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad game but certainly establishes it as one to avoid purchasing.

 

3-18-2023