The
short answer is yes, it works with some slight exceptions. If I was going to stick with short answers
though I would be more active on Twitter.
Here’s why it works, and it’s not entirely why you think. I love the addition of Marvel characters to
the Lego video game mythos, and the amount of characters that they pack into
this game is phenomenal, but this is not a perfect game and it gets less and
less perfect the more you unlock. First
of all, while I like the amount of characters included, there are some glaring
exceptions (no Namor, Adam Warlock or Quicksilver, and how can you have a
cavalcade of Marvel villains and include The Wizard but not Apocalypse?). I can live with that though as the characters
that are there are generally fun to utilize and of the gigantic cast I can
always find someone that I want to use.
Unfortunately,
that is a minor gripe when there are more major ones to be had. As with the past two Lego games (Lego Batman
2 and Lego Lord of the Rings) the game is buggy. It’s not as bad as Lego Batman 2, but it’s
still a pain, and something you would think would be fixed by now. The fighting mechanic is also subpar as once
a button is pushed it seems to start a succession of punches, not just one per
button push, so you usually see your character swinging at air halfway through a
fight. There are also instances within
the fight itself where the character, instead of just swinging at a bad guy
with their arms or legs will go into a convoluted animation, like a grab and
throw, out of nowhere. This is time
consuming and gets old after awhile, which is why most of the characters (the
ones without projectiles of some sort) are virtually useless except for their
assigned tasks (telekinesis, super strength, etc.) and even then you can
usually find a projectile-wielding character that has one of those other
qualities if you have enough time and Lego studs. I like the fact that if you “kill” en bad
guys in a row you get to multiply the studs collected by ten for a few seconds,
but getting to that point is a pain in the ass (especially since your ai
character(s) rarely defeat bad guys by themselves).
The
flying mechanic is also hard to control, which wouldn’t be that big of a pain
if it wasn’t for the fact that a lot of the bonus content (the gold bricks) are
won by racing through the sky. I’ve
tried many of the different races and have not won one yet. I have a feeling once I unlock all the rest
of the content I will just have to go back through and keep trying. It shouldn’t be that hard though, especially
if it’s something that is so closely tied to the overall completion of the
game.
The
campaign itself is relatively enjoyable.
The levels are lengthy, but with multiple checkpoints you can stop and
be assured that your progress is saved (unless a bug hits and you freeze
halfway through). The way that the story
interweaves all of the Marvel heroes together (something it did not do until
the final few missions of Lego Batman 2) is equal parts interesting and
admirable. I wish the real Marvel
crossovers were written this well. The
characters are pretty spot on in terms of the way they act and interact and I
enjoy the traditional Lego humor that is added to the game. The post-credits scene once you beat the game
(reflecting the same trait that all of the Marvel movies harbor) is a great
touch as well. Of course, the real fun
of the Lego games are not the campaigns in their truest form, but instead the
“freeplay” aspect. This is not only the
running (or flying) around New York City, collecting all of the gold bricks and
character/vehicle tokens, but also going back through the levels and using
whatever character you want to complete the task at hand.
The replayability of this game is
through the roof as I beat the campaign well over a week ago but still find
myself firing it up to go back through
the levels and finding everything necessary to accomplish 100% completion. In fact, once I beat the initial storyline
(and found a few extra bricks/tokens along the way) I had only completed around
twenty-five percent of the game. That
left seventy-five percent of extra shit to find and do! Needless to say, I still have a ways to
go. In addition to going back through
the levels, there are smaller levels open and available once you beat the
game. These “Hubs” as they’re called,
are usually one room and the more gold bricks you get, the more open up. You can beat them and then go back through
them in free play to get all of the things you missed out on the first time,
much like a regular level. Here, you get
the super powerful red bricks (called Deadpool Bricks here) that allow you to
do things like multiply your studs times upwards of ten, or it will provide
markers to show you where all of the minikits, gold bricks or tokens are.
Most of the fun of this game will
be when my son finally gets to play it and he can fly around New York City as
Iron Man or Thor, or whoever. His love
of superheroes is on par with my own and the joy on his face when he blows me
up with an errant Iron Man laser blast will be well worth the price. If you have kids, or are a kid at heart, I
suggest that you invest not only your money but also your time in this title.
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