Enjoyable However Flawed Open-World Racer

I used to be on board with Lego 2K Drive the second I discovered we had been getting an open-world Lego racing recreation, full with the power to construct your individual automobiles. And having performed practically 12 hours to date, I’m nonetheless having lots of enjoyable with the sport. But it surely’s unattainable to disregard a nagging feeling that it actually desires me to spend cash in its in-game retailer.

Introduced in March, Lego 2K Drive is the primary recreation to come back from a deal struck between 2K and Lego again in 2022. The 2 firms apparently determined to connect their names collectively and add “drive” to the top to create what could be probably the most boring online game title of 2023. Fortunately, the online game itself is far, rather more enjoyable than its drab title, which sounds much less like a wacky open-world racer crammed with cool power-ups and extra like a nasty sports activities recreation that includes a sport I’ve by no means heard of however which is nonetheless standard.

Bland title, however enjoyable Lego racing

Get previous the tasteless title and Lego 2K Drive comes proper out of the gate firing on all cylinders with an thrilling CG cutscene and a reasonably quick however enjoyable tutorial. It makes a superb first impression. And the second the sport gave me full management, I used to be in awe of what I noticed. Lego 2K Drive is about in a brick-built world crammed with aspect missions, mini-games, collectibles, and so, so many Lego automobiles. It’s very colourful and beautiful. And large! The open world of 2K Drive is break up into a couple of totally different biomes, every with its personal theme, characters, missions, and automobiles. Enjoying this recreation is like attending to play within the basement of the wealthy child you knew in elementary faculty who had each Lego set. Fortunate bastard. However now I, Zack, have all of the bricks and funky units to play with!

The fundamental setup behind the principle story mode is that an evil racer hates you—for causes the sport jokingly doesn’t elaborate on—and you must win the massive trophy to show your self the higher driver. To get an opportunity at that massive win you’ll need to earn a bunch of flags by beating rivals, leveling as much as unlock new races, rank up, and finally acquire entry to the massive closing event. There’s not a lot to the precise story, however the writing is just like the latest Lego motion pictures, sometimes making me smile and barely annoying. And I believe youngsters will benefit from the zanier moments.

However to win the massive trophy and show your self to your evil rival, you’ll have to do greater than race Lego-built automobiles round numerous tracks, as piloting boats and mastering off-road automobiles are in your agenda, too. And just like the automobiles, all of those are brick-built. Nonetheless, you don’t actively select between every kind of car. As an alternative, as you race round, the sport auto-swaps between both your automotive, boat, or off-road trip of selection. This streamlines what might have been an annoying a part of 2K Drive, and likewise means that you could discover the complete Lego-filled world of Bricklandia as you please.

Driving actual quick and attain a river? Hold driving and also you’ll simply flip into a ship! Take a pointy flip off a paved highway and onto some dunes? Don’t fear, the sport will swap your automotive out for a jeep with out lacking a beat. It takes the open-world driving of Forza Horizon and makes it much more arcadey and thrilling as you may actually go anyplace at any time.

All of the bricks and funky stuff on the earth can’t save a racing recreation with dangerous driving physics or poor controls, and by chance, Lego 2K Drive avoids these pitfalls and is a blast to play. As soon as I mastered the drifting and leaping controls, I used to be masterfully swooping, swinging, and gliding world wide like a Lego professional. And on Xbox Collection X efficiency was clean as butter, making it simple to take pleasure in all of the high-speed motion.

Lego 2K Drive’s disappointing microtransactions

The second bricks begin to fall off this creation is once you begin to dig across the menus, the place you’ll encounter a retailer full with a season cross. Whereas the sport does characteristic a tremendous, in-depth, and easy-to-use automobile builder—letting you make practically something you may think about—it additionally options some disappointing microtransactions.

Technically, you may simply drive round, have some enjoyable, unlock some automobiles, construct your individual creations, and by no means actually work together with the in-game retailer. However, when you don’t need to (or can’t) construct one thing like an ambulance or a large hamburger automotive, the shop affords official Lego builds that you could purchase and use in-game. Nonetheless, all of those automobiles price $10,000 Lego Bux. And after enjoying for 12 hours I’ve solely reached round $8,000.

That is the half the place 2K Video games would, whereas twirling its mustache, probably say: Don’t fear, you should purchase some Bux if you wish to. That is true, certain, nevertheless it’s so misplaced on this in any other case colourful romp of creativity and wackiness.

And the best way the economic system is balanced, it actually feels such as you’ll have to fork over some money if you wish to purchase a couple of of those pre-made automobiles with out grinding for hours. It’s additionally unhappy that the in-game retailer incorporates Lego half packs on the market. These are cheaper than the automobiles (fortunately) and the builder in-game does include lots of components out there totally free (and also you earn extra by finishing missions), however the truth that some bricks and bits are locked behind a paywall—even one that you could bypass through grinding—is irritating.

The opposite massive a part of Lego 2K Drive is multiplayer, which I’ve solely barely poked as there weren’t many different gamers on-line whereas I performed the sport earlier than launch. The web races play equally to the single-player races, however with the added wrinkle that your opponents might need spent hours determining the way to construct the best, good race automotive. Or a large dick. Or possibly they simply spent some actual money and acquired a automotive utilizing Bux. Till the sport is out within the wild, it is going to be laborious to say how multiplayer will shake out, however I’ve some issues.

It’s actually a disgrace that such a beautiful and enjoyable open-world sandbox is tied to stuff like a season cross, premium currencies, and costly in-game purchases. Maybe 2K will tweak some levers to make it simpler to earn and unlock new automobiles—which might be good—however till then the specter of greed will at all times be there, nagging at me as I construct, smash, and race.