Lego games aren't anything if not consistent, as well as in today's gaming world that's an accomplishment. This is a series that typically has multiple releases a year and yet still finds a way to conserve a certain quality level in terms of its gameplay and it is humor. Sure, there is a rather easy base to work from, and it's not like the graphics will push modern hardware to the brink, but the Lego games always deliver an event the whole family can also enjoy from beginning to end. The most recent game, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, once again maintains the program for the series, and even though it also adds several new bells and whistles, there are some new issues that crop up along the way, too.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 involves classic Marvel villain Kang the Conqueror. Kang has decided to stitch together a global from across both time and the multiverse and dub the resulting mishmash Chronopolis, with the worst characters from over the timeline pledging fealty to him. Obviously, in most these worlds are actually heroes, too. Now, Marvel's finest (without the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and all sorts of their related characters) must find a way to band together to stop Kang and his army, and send each a part of Chronopolis to their respective devote the multiverse.
Similar towards the previous Lego Marvel game, the story unfolds chapter by chapter from the hub world, in this case these Chronopolis. Kang's powers served because the perfect chance to stitch together some favorite alternate Marvel universes like Spider-Man 2099's Nueva York, Spider-Man Noir's Noir Universe, Captain America's Hydra Empire, and current Marvel locales such as the Inhumans' Attilan, the Guardians from the Galaxy's Knowhere, and an Asgard on the brink of Ragnarok. Each world features its own dedicated story chapter and it is filled with the kind of childish humor that's always punctuated the series, with the heroes constantly bumbling over themselves. Throwing in the different universes only adds to the topical humor-fourth-wall breaking references towards the Noir world's sepia tone palette, for instance, and the obligatory mummy jokes in Ancient Egypt. Plus, with 18 different worlds across 20 story chapters this really is easily the longest standalone Lego game yet crafted.
Chronopolis can also be the biggest hub world TT Games has ever made for a standalone Lego game. It's chock full of hours of content, including racing within the streets, stopping crime-petty criminals as well as villains which range from well-known rogues like Electro to relative unknowns like Sentry-459-taking quizzes concerning the game, and more. Succeeding at these bonus challenges serve as extra ways to earn classic gold bricks, which could then be used to unlock even more content hanging around like bonus levels, and more of the heroes on what is easily the biggest roster shipped with any Lego game.
To be fair, though, due to Disney and Marvel's recent push against promoting the X-Men and other movie properties they don't control, the roster is a bit artificially bloated with multiple versions of Ironman, Captain America, Spider-Man, and the like in addition to some really obscure heroes and villains from Marvel's history. As a very long time fan of Marvel's properties, other characters are sorely missed at times. You are able to give me as numerous superhero versions of Gwen Stacy as you would like, but I'd still prefer to have Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, or Cyclops.
Of course, the lack of X-Men is more dependent on personal preference than something which seriously detracts from the gameplay. As in many of the previous games, there aren't many differences between a lot of the characters besides aesthetic or personal appeal and perhaps a different voice actor. Gameplay-wise most characters fall under just a few categories. The various Captain Americas are somewhat unique because there are switches only their shields can hit, but other characters like Dr. Strange may also reflect energy when the situation requires it. The household of Hulks are often fine for if you need to smash a wall. And you have your pick of characters that can blast or blow things up with energy: Ironman, Captain Marvel, Thor, as well as Rocket Raccoon. And with the new Ms. Marvel replacing the kind of Mr. Fantastic, and Wasp and Ant-Man's shrinking abilities, there's very little in the original Lego Marvel that was not replicated with various heroes here.
There are a few new gameplay mechanics at least to also take advantage of new heroes, though. There are special mazes that just Ms. Marvel can stretch through, Dr. Strange may use his magic to spread out up special portals with a line-tracing mechanic, and Lockjaw can teleport to normally unseen parts of a level. This occurs top of the classic Lego mechanics of smashing everything around the corner, occasionally rebuilding some of the stuff you've destroyed into new things and useful, and collecting the in-game currency, studs, to purchase more heroes and vehicles. Collecting minikits and saving Stan Lee from obvious peril also return as extra methods to earn those precious gold bricks.
Besides the massive scope of Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2's world and its predictably large roster of characters, the game also introduces levels while many as five characters can be in your party at once. There are several levels where you will be working with the whole Guardians of the Galaxy team, or the whole family of Inhumans. This enables for more complex levels and puzzles with increased elements than we have seen before. Each character inside your party may bring new things to the team to help you progress through a level. For instance, Star-Lord can fly, Drax has super-strength, Rocket has beam weapons, Gamora may use her swords, and Groot could are a ball and roll on certain switches. By switching backwards and forwards together, you've different characters interacting with various areas of a stage at different times more than ever before.
There's a disadvantage to this, however. When there have been only ever two characters for your team, you knew exactly whom you were switching with when playing the game solo. With five characters on the team, even when you're facing that you wish to control, you might bounce to entirely the incorrect character. This only gets worse when, after leaving a personality you were just controlling, the AI decides to operate off away from in which you left them, or worse yet, find yourself in trouble somewhere in the environment that you simply can't have them from without restarting the amount. While the added complexity to the levels that the larger teams bring is definitely an obvious method to in the ante from prior games, it's clear that more bugs have made it through consequently. If TT wants to keep these bigger partiers for the next major Lego adventure, it needs to iron out a few of these issues first.
The AI also bugs by helping cover their the villains on occasion, with cutscenes either being slow to trigger or boss battles not entering their next phase at all for some reason. With many levels being relatively short-few must take a lot more than 20-30 minutes to accomplish offering in the game in nice bite-sized chunks for all those strapped for time-there are few mid-level checkpoints. Although these bugs were few in number, these were present enough to warrant a warning here. Having to restart large servings of an amount since the game glitched is always frustrating.
The Lego games aren't just solo experiences, though. Local two-player co-op continues to be with the series as long ago when i remember and it returns here and it is as solid as ever. When you are getting too much from your partner, the awkward split-screen returns, compounding the issue of the sometimes already too static camera, but it is nothing some solid communication can't correct. Depending on the age of who you're having fun with, though, have fun with that.
There's also a new addition this bypass with a four-player competitive way of multiplayer. You can now communicate with the Grandmaster at Avengers Mansion in the game, and he will greet you into 1 of 2 games. The first is a take on your standard Deathmatch, however with the added bonus of Infinity Gems falling occasionally in the sky and boosting a person or team. The second requires players to try and paint the ground in their color by walking over blank spots. It loosely resembles something from Splatoon, but quickly can devolve into confusing chaos as players desperately try to score in the tiny arenas. Each mode has four arenas to them too, and although this is not the deepest multiplayer, it can make for any nice accessory for the formula. It also enhances the question, however, as to why there's still no online functionality in the Lego games.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is easily the largest and most entertaining standalone project the series has produced yet. There are literally hours upon hours of fun Marvel-themed content to keep games of every age group occupied for long periods of time. A few of the drastic expansion of the gameplay and world size, however, has led to some bugs that can become frustrating at times. If you can look past some of these new technical issues added along with some pre-existing ones, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 should still be an enjoyable action-adventure the a whole group of Marvel Merry Marching Society members are able to enjoy.
