The past 20 years have had multiple Lego titles. Some were based on critically-acclaimed movies, such as Harry Potter or Star Wars, with others letting us control Marvel Super Heroes. With every release fans look for a change in the formula. Following the success of Marvel Super Heroes a few months ago, the sequel hopes to add new things to the formula that has done the franchise so well.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes focuses around the characters within the Marvel universe. As a Marvel fan, it’s very exciting to see almost all of the characters in the MCU in this game. Storywise, the game revolves around Krang the Conqueror who has traveled through time and differing realities to capture cities and merges it into one. Unfortunately, there are several heroes that have been captured and it’s up to the other characters in the Marvel Universe to set up a plan and rescue them, and save the world from Krang once and for all. For a LEGO game, the story is quite interesting, with a lot of funny moments between the characters.
Playing through the game, you will see yourself switching from a plethora of characters that are available for play. Those who have played LEGO games before like the recently released Ninjago movie, there are tons of characters that you get to unlock as you progress. In Marvel Super Heroes 2, the amount of characters that you get to choose from is massive and unlocking them will be a tough one. However, there are certain characters that you get to unlock by entering a cheat code. While the majority of the popular characters in the Marvel Universe are present like Spider-Man, Thor, Iron-Man, and Captain America, there are far less popular characters that are present as well that only hardcore Marvel fans will be able to recognize them.
Gameplay is something that will really feel like familiar territory for those who have been playing LEGO games for quite some time. For the most part in the game, what players will be doing is destroying enemies on-screen when it combat, destroying the blocks and also constant building. That’s of course while going through the interesting humor-filled story that the game has. For the first few hours, players will find the game to be fun but it will get stale as you go along.
To make up with the somewhat repetitive nature of LEGO games, there are things that have been added to add some flair into it. Every Marvel character that you get to play, they all have unique powers and abilities that you can use. An example of this is She-Hulk can smash through weak walls, Thor can charge up motors, Doctor Strange uses time manipulation, which come in handy when rewinding time during the campaign and Captain America can bounce his shield off multiple strike points. It’s best that when you play through a specific area and play with different characters to have a feel of the diversity of the game.
One of the things I find really annoying in this game is how vague the directions are. While the campaign is pretty much straightforward for the most part, I encountered moments where the objectives aren’t clear, thus delaying my progress. It really gets frustrating that you are forced to use walkthroughs from YouTube or sometimes restart the level to orientate yourself.
With LEGO games also known for having its simple yet-fun puzzles, you will be solving a decent amount of puzzles to progress through the game. These puzzles are easy to solve and usually involve using a specific character to solve it. When on a mission, you will be solving puzzles with a specific group of people but when you are in an open world setting to play around in, you will be piqued to scour every level for secret areas and solve puzzles as you go along where you will unlock hidden secrets to the game like new characters and more.
In terms of visuals, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 looks pretty despite not having enhancements on the Xbox One X. It pretty much looks like every other LEGO game released recently, except loading times have been improved and the game feels more a lot polished this time around. As far as glitches go, I have not encountered anything game-breaking but expect to get stuck at some point.
Despite being another repetitive LEGO game, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes still provides an entertaining experience, combing the Marvel Universe with humor-filled comic book-esque stories, that the series is known for. Unfortunately, outside of that, it’s another Lego title. This isn’t a bad thing, per se, just that those familiar with the franchise will know what to expect. Despite that, Marvel fans will likely enjoy it and should look at picking it up, if only for the fan service. The same is true for those looking for a new Lego game to play.
[Editor’s Note: LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 was reviewed on XBO platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
