Since this is a Lego game, let’s again look at the ways it differs from other Lego games. It’s much like Lord of the Rings, with a large overworld hub filled with quests. It’s a less fun hub than Batman 2 because it’s harder to get around without the power of flight, and it’s a bit buggier; objects will disappear when your co-op partner moves between areas.
The game seems optimised for single-player, and I’m not just talking about the frame rate. You have issues like the one I mentioned, and a glaring fault in the very first level where the second player invariably and irreparably gets stuck behind a door.
The Gamepad features are good, with a handy map for the overworld and even the ability to shunt one player’s screen down there. This is good because it gives both players widescreen, but the Gamepad user may feel a bit bad for having a lower-res screen. It also disconnects the two players, so it’s harder for each to know what the other is doing. Implementation of the map is also horrible, as every time you go in a cave or travel somewhere or you cough lightly, the Gamepad kicks you back to the feature select screen. I hate this. Leave the map on, please.
New aspects are the building minigame, stolen from the Lego Movie Game where it made more sense conceptually; and collecting loot, which is fine in theory but a bit unbalanced. We ended up with 999 stone and hundreds of gold fairly quickly, but were always low on copper.
The game suffers from poor visibility and some hard-to-use controls and mechanics. Quicktime events and frustrating contextual demands slow down the experience, especially when one person is left out. Chase sequences are as unfun as ever but quite short in this game. Also, wizards may seem cool but this game makes you hate them because their staff attack is so achingly slow to use.
There are so many faults in the implementation and feel of this game, but that doesn’t mean that the basic concepts aren’t still competent. It also doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, and my wife and I enjoyed it enough to get to 100%, which doesn’t always happen. The game itself has a sense of fun and silliness, with one extra giving you a banging techno song with soundbites of movie lines.
Finally, I remain baffled at the timing of its release. I would much rather they had waited until the release of the third film, and included that in the game. As it is, we’re left here with a game now completed but only telling two thirds of a story, and wondering whether they’ll release the rest as DLC or not bother, and if so whether it will even come to Wii U (apparently there’s character DLC, but we didn’t get that). This was a source of concern for me before we got it, and if and when the BOFA DLC issue comes up, I can see it causing me angst again. Just plain odd.
I’ve showed a few screenshots here from my playthrough of this game. I found playing through it kind of a chore, because my motivations were mainly to see the content for an article/feature I’m working on. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but I didn’t pick it up to have fun.
As part of Batman’s recent anniversary, all of the Batman games had a massive sale. What a great idea, except the only ones I can be bothered with are the Lego ones. Don’t tell me again how good Arkham is supposed to be, ain’t nobody got time for that. My wife and I once again teamed up for the co-op Lego experience, and meanwhile I played the handheld iteration on my iPhone.
I believe my first exposure to the trials-style biking genre was Bike or Die on my friend’s Palm Pilot. I found it fun to overcome the inventive obstacles by manipulating the balance and speed of your bike. Trials of course has a big name recognition, and I believe I’ve talked about Evolution here before. Unfortunately for me, the newest game was released on seemingly every platform except the ones I own. Fortunately, I like the idea of this companion mobile game more.
