Finest identified for engaged on the writer’s WWE and NBA video games, Visible Ideas has discovered itself behind the wheel of 2K’s newest licensed experiment. Lego 2K Drive is a high-octane aggressive racer stuffed with destructible brick-y environments to crash by way of and a kid-friendly narrative stuffed with fourth-wall-breaking enjoyable.
The sport’s finest function is Bricklandia, the playful Lego panorama through which 2K Drive is ready. It’s a world begging to be dismantled by the brunt of your screeching tires and customized boat masts. Accelerating throughout the open-world playmat ({that a} human would by no means wish to step on) is an exhilarating expertise, made higher by the fastidiously animated auto-morphing potential. As you cross completely different terrain, from highway to off-road and on water, gamers mechanically change between automobiles to suit the context.
Tires and water noodles body the world’s vistas and act as charming obstacles, and it’s this mix of real-world objects with Lego constructs that amplifies the pleasant toy field ambiance. As a budding racer dropped into this hanging open world, you deal with an onslaught of revheads, claiming their flags to ascend to the distinction of Sky Cup Champion. Mohawked egomaniac Shadow Z serves as your rival on this endeavor, popping up infrequently to remind you of how mean-spirited he’s.
To even get near taking him on, it’s essential to discover Bricklandia in the hunt for rival speedsters, every with their very own distinctive driving expertise they train in instanced Mario Kart-style races. From an precise horse to an alien in a go well with, they make for an enthralling ensemble and supply new vehicles and perks to play with, in addition to Brickbux, with which you should purchase new machines and components. You can too construct your personal automobiles brick-by-brick on the storage, which let me create some really cursed rides. Whereas the constructing system isn’t essentially the most intuitive, it does really feel like an applicable nod to Lego’s humble brick-building origins.
Throughout Bricklandia’s diverse biomes, you additionally encounter On-The-Go Occasions, ambient missions that you would be able to drop out and in of for pockets of absurd enjoyable, resembling leaping over homes or drifting by way of a minefield. Conquering the factors to earn XP and assets seems like getting your license in Gran Turismo on a schoolyard sugar excessive.
Lego 2K Drive’s fixed barrage of dialogue stored me guffawing all through, although the depth of some missions, just like the less-interesting wave-defense or NPC rescue expeditions, left me unable to concentrate on the jokes. This was at all times disappointing, given the evident expertise of the writers and voice actors, who present an efficient satire of standard racing video games.
Bashing and smashing your approach by way of the map is straightforward junk meals enjoyable, however the must-win races might be punishing on account of some devastating pickups and brutal decelerate if you veer off observe. Among the open-world missions require you to drive with dexterity and try deft actions whereas herding rockets or smashing by way of tiny robotic invaders, which might result in frustration, the place I usually felt too quick for my very own good. Whereas I relished the way it acquired my coronary heart pounding, I used to be left eager for a extra low-key strategy to exploration.
Whereas it’s a little buggy, one other pleasant shock was Lego 2K Drive’s sofa co-op, which permits you and a accomplice to peel by way of the open world collectively, pooling XP as you go. I discovered myself getting in the way in which of bombs or smashing into targets for my accomplice to ensure considered one of us acquired the highest spot. Notably, this function made the dreary defend and rescue missions rather more palatable due to the collaborative nature of the gameplay.
Sadly, the elephant within the room, or on this case, a monkey, is the sport’s storefront, Unkie’s Emporium, launched in the course of the tutorial by its eponymous primate mechanic. Right here, you should purchase premium forex with actual cash that may be exchanged to entry vehicles and characters beforehand locked behind a expensive Brickbux wall. In fact, you might earn all this stuff by grinding, however the temptation lingers, which is troubling for a sport so clearly geared towards youthful audiences.
Lego 2K Drive builds an extremely inviting world the place pace and silliness reign supreme as you race and morph throughout its delightfully destructible setting. Regardless of some irritating mission design and a smattering of bugs, Lego 2K Drive rapidly received me over with its absurd narrative stuffed with irreverent dialogue and moreish open-world challenges. If solely the specter of microtransactions didn’t loom so massive on this kid-friendly sport, it will make for an excellent smoother experience.
