Another month, another Lego game. What with last year’s releases of Lego Jurassic World and Lego Dimensions, not to mention Star Wars: The Force Awakens looking at a 2016 release, the amount of Lego games around is staggering. The real question is does this title stand out from the crowd of Lego game titles?…
Much like all other Lego games, gameplay is split between fighting and puzzle solving, neither having received an update. In all honesty they still play like the original Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones games from years ago. Combat is repetitive and simple, with one standard and one special attack. You can also do super attacks when two characters pair together, but you’ll mostly find yourself slapping the attack button over and over, as waves of the same enemy try to kill you, which in itself is a pointless task as there is no lives system in place and there’s no punishment for dying.
Puzzle solving is also the same as in previous games, using the different character’s abilities to solve variations of “build this, move that”, which isn’t too bad on its own, as it’s a formula that’s proven to work. Unfortunately, nothing ever seems taxing and nothing gives you a sense of accomplishment once you’ve done it.
Story wise the game takes place across The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron movies with single levels being based around Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Unfortunately for the game (and whoever plays it) they decided to use the original audio from the films meaning any of the humour and charm Lego games normally exude is gone and is instead replaced with muffled one-liners taken completely out of context from the film. Just take a peek at the two videos (above and below) to see what we mean.
Imagine a pinball table and every time you got 1000 points Hulk yelled “SMASH”. That’s essentially what Lego Avengers does. As Lego games are aimed at a younger demographic, many key poignant scenes are replaced with embarrassing attempts at humour that fall flat and are actually kind of insulting.
Now I understand that Lego games are aimed at people younger than myself, but I don’t feel like that should be an excuse for a mediocre game (especially if you’re a father or uncle who has to do most of the playing to complete levels!) and with all the hype that Marvel generates nowadays I kind of feel like this is a cash grab to sucker in fans of the films.
The most baffling thing about the existence of this game is that Lego Dimensions literally came out last year. It was a game designed to be all Lego games and all pop culture rolled into one package, where you also get to collect toys. So why, in a world where Lego Dimension exists, does Lego Avengers need to as well? I assume the answer has to do with Disney owning Marvel and Lego Dimensions rival, Disney Infinity.
It isn’t all bad though for Lego’s digital foray. If you really do want to play Lego with Marvel characters, the 2013 Lego Marvel Heroes is amazing, with great voice acting, a better list of characters and better balance between fighting and puzzle solving. Actually now that I mention it I think I might send Avengers back and pick that up instead!
Author – Hal, Plymouth store
Reviewed on Xbox One
