The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame

Genre: Open-World 3D Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is a family-friendly Open-World 3D Action-Platformer released in 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This is the yet another entry in Traveller’s Tales’ long-running LEGO crossover franchise of family-friendly 3D Action-Platformers, with this game naturally following the events of The LEGO Movie 2.

So… okay, this game isn’t a complete disaster. While The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is one of the worst-reviewed mainline games in the LEGO franchise, it does have its redeeming qualities. Having said that… yeah, this is rough.

Let’s start with the positives. First, The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame makes smart use of an element from LEGO Worlds, the ability to scan items and build them. It then works this into the franchise’s usual “build something to solve a ‘puzzle’ to progress” way of doing things by having a pretty obvious square platform where you’re clearly intended to build something, a nice visual shorthand. Also, this game starts you out in its Open-World immediately, not forcing you through some starting linear level before setting you loose to explore.

Yeah, that’s… that’s about all the positives I have to say here. I mean sure, yes, this game does once again reuse the standard Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO 3D Action-Platformer formula, which at its core is still good, it just does so in a particularly awful way here.

Just moving around in this game feels like you’re walking through molasses, like you have to struggle a bit before you can get some momentum going. Why Traveller’s Tales felt the need to do this when movement was perfectly fine in earlier games, I have no idea, but it makes everything in this game more of a slog. This slowness extends to the game’s vehicles, which absolutely fail to convey any sense of speed.

However, what ultimately feels like this game’s biggest fundamental flaw is the absolutely joyless presentation. It’s not even just that the film’s all-star voice cast has been replaced here with awful stand-ins that sound drastically different from their film counterparts, it’s that the LEGO franchise’s signature humor is missing here, replaced with bog-standard, boring, task-focused writing that particularly feels like a betrayal of the wonderfully witty film this game is based on. Add to this 3D visuals that seem unpolished with a fair amount of pop-in and some frustrating camera issues, and you have a game that at times seems to want you to hate it.

Just what the heck went wrong here? The previous game in the series before this was LEGO DC Super-Villains, a title that I felt was one of the high points in the franchise! That game was absolutely overflowing with personality, polish, and great gameplay that progressed the series. How the heck did we go from that to this!?

When I felt like I had played enough of The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame to review it, I shut it off in disgust. This wasn’t merely a fatigue of the LEGO games that may have seeped into my feelings on many of the other games in the franchise, this was a genuine dislike for the game. Virtually every other console game in the series, I could see myself at least playing for a bit to kill some time, but the thought of spending more time with this game repulses me. Good job guys, you wrecked it.

tl;dr – The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is yet another game in Traveller’s Tales’ family-friendly franchise of LEGO Open-World 3D Action-Platformers, but something went very wrong this time. Frustrating and sluggish movement and a joyless presentation make this one of the hardest games in the franchise to enjoy, even if you’re a fan of the film. This game does have its redeeming qualities, but there are more than a dozen better games that play exactly like this one does, but better. With that being the case, I suggest you play one of those games instead.

Grade: D+

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