Platforms: PS4, PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Open-world Builder Sandbox

I don’t care what people have to say. All I’m saying is that The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is one enjoyable open world game where I can beat baddies, destroy some LEGO property, harvest some bricks and build my own town. It’s Grand Theft Auto, without the ‘grand’, ‘theft’ and ‘auto’.

The Lego Movie 2 Videogame is not your atypical LEGO game. Gone are the days of sidescrolling LEGOs and here we are with our open LEGO world with tons of LEGO goodness.

The game is based on the movie of the same name so you can expect to see familiar characters in the game playing a role somewhere. Watching the movie beforehand rewards you with little easter eggs and references that you’ll enjoy.

Yeah, this movie.

The game is reminiscent of LEGO Worlds with added gameplay elements. This creates a magnificent experience within the game.

Feeling sleepy, Lady Liberty?

The story begins in a small town called Apocalypseburg. It also serves as your tutorial. You’ll then travel to a number of planets scattered around the Systar System. Each planet offers you the freedom to continue the string of story mission or to diverge and play side missions to create your own form of the story.

Build To Your Heart’s Content

One of the best features of the game is the use of the story’s gadgets. As you play, you gain different coloured bricks as a building material. With those bricks, you could build stuff using your Builder Page, given that you have the plans.

When you’re done with building, you can use Unikitty’s magic Paint Wand to give a little splash of colour to basically everything in the world. These gadgets create another level of fun in an already fun story.

You start off with Emmet, but you can switch to dozens of other characters, including Lucy, Rex, Unikitty, and many more.

My still empty building hub.

In other ways, I see this as a way to develop creativity. The game pitches you puzzles in which you have to solve to progress. Earlier in the game, the puzzles test simple movement mechanics such as jumping and attacking. But later on, the game incorporates more mechanics such as platforming, and the best part is solving the puzzles with gadgets. It promotes creativity, especially in young kids.

Another form of creativity that I enjoy is the freedom to build. By playing the campaign and exploring the worlds, you’ll come across props within the levels, such as street posts, rocks, wheelbarrows, dogs and whatnot. You can scan them with the Scanner Binoculars and it will stay in your collection for you to build anywhere in the game.

I thought building Emmet’s house on water would be exclusive. It drowned the population.

Not to mention, there’s a hub where you have to build a town from props, characters and buildings you find throughout the game to increase its population. It’s a nice touch of sandbox there. As long as you have the materials and the plans, you can build any building you see from the world.

Another Couch Co-op Game?

From the get-go, yeah this game seems to be very fun to be played with another friend. It’s as fun as your traditional LEGO games in terms of puzzling and gameplay.

Sure, it’s fun to play with a friend and beating up the silly enemies is easier as a team but I wish that there was more substance to local multiplayer. Even some bonus co-op missions would have been cool.

One of the silly enemies.

Unlike traditional LEGO sidescrollers where two players would be on one screen and the camera only pans in and out depending on player location, this game splits the screen ala your 2000s couch co-op game.

For some, it isn’t a huge problem. For me though, the lack of screen real estate truly affects your experience but after a while though, you seem to gloss over the issue after a few laughs here and there with your buddy.

Any Bricks To Collect?

As per LEGO game usual, the replay value is sky high. For example, you’ll have 475 Master Bricks to collect throughout the whole system. Plus, there are also 6 bonus planets within the Rex-Plorer System. In addition to all those, there will be a few more free DLC areas within the Galactic Outskirts. Studs are a common in-game LEGO currency that has been the norm since mammoths were roaming the land.

I forgot to mention, you unlock customizations through ‘loot boxes’, but fear not, no microtransactions are available in this game. There are a few types of boxes, such as;

• Character – Unlocks character
• Items – Unlocks weapons, stickers, and more customizables
• Building – Unlocks a building
• Super – Unlocks modifiers like 2x studs or visual filters
• Mega – Guaranteed no duplicates

You basically get random drops from enemies or from treasure chests scattered throughout the world.

Did I mention that the treasure chests respawn every time you load the area? So you can farm these to your heart’s content.

LEGO Battle Royale?

Glitches

With Anthem holding the crown for a glitchy and buggy game, I’m disappointed to say that this game is peppered with a lot of them. When I’m playing, I’m just waiting for them to pop up, and when it does, I’m just disappointed because the fun has been taken away from me.

You know, it’s like walking in the middle of the night, with the lights off, and the floor is full of LEGO bricks waiting to be stepped on. And when you step on one, you swear, and shake it off, then you move on.

Just like stepping on a LEGO brick, it takes just a simple fix, such as reloading the mission, to ward off the inconsistencies. I do wish the developers can tune up their game a bit even if it’s just a licensed game fare; there’s still a lot of fun in this LEGO co-op adventure game built for all ages.

Pros:

• Fun mechanics
• Simple, rewarding puzzles
• Great references from the movie
• Local Co-op
• Very accessible for kids

Cons:

• No fast travel for an open world
• Unskippable dialogues
• Tons of texts
• Glitches, tons of them

FINAL SCORE: 60/100