LEGO 2K Drive Review - The Final Verdict

foreign [Music] never been caught cheating but probably cheats all the time reigning Champion an obvious bad guy that's me shadow Z oh I'm gonna smash you good for being a no-name nobody who suddenly had threatened me for another parent freezer [Laughter] oh all right see hit the bricks [Music] what if you take Forza Horizon and put it together in a Lego fight version that's essentially the question that visual concepts and 2K have attempted to answer with Lego 2K drive on paper you'd think a game like that would be nothing short of excellent and sure enough several aspects of Lego 2K Drive are legitimately enjoyable from its free-form driving to its colorful and vibrant world to its customization mechanics at the same time it also suffers from some significant issues that work against the experience in ways that are hard to ignore Lego 2K Drive features four unique biomes each of them a decently sized open world map with one being a smaller tutorial location and in terms of environment variety and pure visual design there's a lot to like about each biome with locations ranging from Sandy Desert Plains to lush green valleys and more the moment-to-moment experience of driving around each area is also inherently fun thanks to the game's combination of simple and straightforward inputs and deceptive depth with the abilities to jump drift and quick turn all on the table it feels like you always have a great degree of control over how you want to maneuver your vehicle in spite of how Snappy and simple each action feels the driving experience as a whole actually feels refreshingly seamless in that there's very little that the game does to interrupt your general flow or momentum in true Lego fashion the vast majority of things that you can see in the environments are completely smashable while your vehicle also automatically transforms into either a street racing car an off-roading vehicle or a boat depending on what sort of terrain or water that you're driving on as such there is very little to break your momentum since things such as crashing and going off track are taken out of the equation by a great degree add to that a boost mechanic that's fairly generous with how quickly your meter refills and where core components such as sense of speed and momentum are concerned Lego 2K Drive successfully Nails the fundamentals similar to a multitude of Kart Racers the game also scatters a variety of item pickups throughout its course that let you equip a different weapon against your opponent and though the implementation of that mechanic is fairly shallow here it is at least a fun little layer on top of the core gameplay Loop of course how uninterrupted the driving is almost constantly does mean that the game doesn't put as much emphasis on skill as something like crash team racing would but the driving mechanics in and of themselves are undeniably enjoyable it is a shame however that the things that Lego 2K Drive puts around that core end up disappointing take the races for instance where the AI so often go out of its way to fiercely compete against you for the vast majority of the race only to fumble and lose out close to the end if your Rivals are ahead of you they'll often become surprisingly easy to catch up with and overtaken the latter stages of a race and conversely if you're too far ahead of them they'll rubber band right up to your rear as you're approaching the Finish Line with no real sense of challenge throughout the experience ancillary mechanics such as the stats of your vehicles or the perks that you equip them with they all end up feeling undervalued that in turn means there's also often very little reason to change the vehicles that you're using since you'll be picking them largely based on what they look like the whole vehicle collection aspect loses some of its luster as well that emphasis on attracting a younger audience affects the game's story and writing as well even if those are obviously not even close to the first things you're going to be playing this game for besides if you chuckle inducing gags and puns jokes in Lego 2K Drive tend to fall flat and the vast majority of the characters you meet make next to no impression that's a real shame because if there's one thing you've come to expect from a Lego game it's effective humor in its writing obviously there's only so much that you can do with the writing when you know that you're also catering to a younger audience but Lego 2K Drive seems to only cater to a younger audience how Lego 2K Drive implements its open world design is also not without its issues on the one hand there's no denying that the visual design of each area is incredible not only in terms of how much variety the game exhibits from biome to biome but thanks to how colorful and full of charm and personality each area is that combined with the fun fundamentals of the driving makes simply driving around quite an enjoyable experience though the maps aren't too big so there isn't an endless amount of things to see what the game fills that map up with however is far less engaging there are plenty of racing related side activities of course like bite-sized challenges that take you through drifting courses or task you with setting airtime records while in addition the game also throws several side quests your way which are more prescribed set piece missions with unique goals and setups like defending three towers against waves of invading aliens by driving through them and smashing them into tiny Lego pieces sadly I didn't have much fun with most of these side activities the bite-sized racing ones scattered throughout the open world are inoffensive at best and Bland at worst while the side quests just don't feel fun to control seeing as they take the focus away from the actual racing aspect which is one of the best parts of the game in the end the quality of the content across the entire package ends up feeling quite diluted and repetition begins creeping in quickly in fact that feeling of repetition becomes even harder to Stave off because Lego 2K Drive story mode adopts a bit of a grindy structure critical path races and story progressing are Level gated which means that games often break the momentum and force you to engage in its side activities which as I mentioned are quite hit and miss the story mode isn't particularly long at eight to nine hours and you'll likely be spending the majority of your time in online races or optional and or post-game content but for those who are looking to complete the story its structure might leave you a little frustrated from time to time but where Lego 2K Drive stumbles with its racing events and its open world maps one area where its unequivocal success is its creation and customization tool set in a nutshell the game allows you to build entire vehicles from scratch letting you pick each Lego piece you want to use for the entire build and offering a vast selection of pieces on offer with other cosmetic options like stickers paints and more thrown on top more pieces are unlocked as you progress further in the game further expanding your tool set with even more fun new options in terms of its actual mechanics building cars and putting Lego blocks together is undeniably fun and combined with the vast array of options it presents it's something that you can easily spend hours playing around with clearly Lego 2K Drive is an uneven experience there's a lot to like about it and there's no denying that at its core it can be legitimately fun all of that comes with caveats though while the driving is Fun the races are held back by inconsistent AI while the open world maps are great to look at and drive around in the content they're packed with is not the most compelling while I like how approachable and Charming the game is it caters to younger audiences so much that it ends up feeling a little shallow at least there's the whole creation and customization aspect which is one area where Lego 2K Drive is a Triumph without any reservations ultimately if you're looking for an arcade style racer that can lay legitimate claim to the racing Throne this will probably leave you disappointed but if all you want is fun and laid back if unremarkable racing games then you're in luck because that's precisely what Lego 2K Drive is hey did you know that we had gaming bolt to upload new videos every day stick around drop a like subscribe and hit that Bell and let us know what kind of content you'd like to see in the future with a comment below

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Id: 7rIUFApN1wE

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2023