LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2

Genre: Open-World 3D Action-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is a family-friendly Open-World 3D Action-Platformer released in 2017 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, and the third major Marvel crossover for the series.

This time around, that crossover is somewhere in-between the comics versions of characters and the film versions. The game starts off with the Guardians of the Galaxy, who are clearly patterned after the film versions. Meanwhile, the game’s main antagonist is Kang the Conqueror, who only just recently made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. Kang’s choice as villain gives the game’s designers the chance to make this game a time- and dimension-hopping adventure, allowing the designers to tie together all sorts of disparate locales. However, at its core is the same game we’ve seen countless times before.

Okay, so how does this game compare to prior releases? Well, we seem to have lost multibuilds from LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game. We don’t have the great combat of The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game. We also don’t have the fun team-up maneuvers of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers (Rocket Racoon riding on Groot notwithstanding).

Okay, so what interesting features does LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 have to offer? Well, The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game’s 4-player co-op has returned, along with a new 4-player competitive mode that’s not particularly compelling. There are tighter controls for flying characters too. And… hm… I’m having trouble thinking of anything else here.

Beyond that, this is just… well, more of Traveller’s Tales’ usual LEGO 3D Action-Platformer stuff. Fight a bunch of enemies, destroy everything in the room, and use it to build something to help you solve “puzzles” to progress. Wash, rinse, repeat.

In terms of visuals, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers looks great, with a lot of detail in its 3D environments and a lot of mayhem going on on-screen at any given time. However, this isn’t too far ahead of what we’ve seen in prior games in the series. Likewise, because this game isn’t directly based on the films, we have a voice cast of sound-alikes. And that’s fine, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Again, please don’t take any of my lack of enthusiasm here to mean LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is bad. It’s quite good, actually. But it’s quite good in the same way we’ve seen in numerous other prior games, with little to truly make it stand out. If you enjoy LEGO games and/or Marvel’s world and characters, you’ll likely enjoy this. But if you’ve grown burned out by the Traveller’s Tales LEGO games, this game won’t change your mind about that.

tl;dr – LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is yet another game in Traveller’s Tales’ family-friendly franchise of LEGO Open-World 3D Action-Platformers. This game offers more superhero antics in an Open-World, but without any major enhancements that I can think of. The core gameplay is still good, though some players may have tired of it by this point. Basically, if you like Marvel Comics and haven’t yet grown tired of LEGO games, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Grade: B-

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