LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is fun for all
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 brings all your favourite Marvel heroes together in a battle against time and space. In this sequel, you will find hours of story, missions, exploration, challenges, and more puzzles than you ever imagined.
TT Games takes a veritable menagerie of characters and sprinkles them throughout a kid and family-friendly adventure that puts even the smaller names in comic book history to good use.
Game Details
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
Developer: Traveller’s Tales
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Genre: Action-adventure
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
Battle against the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conquer is trying to take over the world and as a result he has created riffs between different timelines and realities. You’ll assume the role of a variety of different heroes including characters from the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy to name a few. While it might not be the most inventive story line, I really liked that the story’s attention is equally divided amongst characters.
There isn’t a clear favourite, as characters such as Wasp and Yellow Jacket get a lot of spotlight. There is a huge cast of characters, and Marvel fans will enjoy seeing a wide array of heroes turn up to help. However, wherever there is a hero, there is always a villain.
While Kang is the central villain in the game, there are a number of other villains who you will have to face in various mini-boss battles. The city consists of multiple times and dimensions that clash together and is known as Chronopolis. Locations and plentiful and span across 18 different regions that range from Manhattan Noir to the Old West to medieval England, and so on.
Classic LEGO gameplay
TT Games did a good job of highlighting each of the character’s individual abilities more so than in previous games. For example, Wasp can shrink into mini Wasp form, and Ms. Marvel can stretch and grow. While special abilities are standard in LEGO games, TT Games does a much better job of integrating these traits into normal combat rather than just using it for puzzles.
The combat though, does leave something to be desired. Especially when you look at the gameplay improvements that were implemented with LEGO Ninjago. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 brings you back to directionless button mashing. I felt as if my hits didn’t have any impact on my enemies. Instead, it felt more like twirling and punching next to my enemy while maybe 50% of my attacks injuring them.
Additionally, if seemed as if combat had been made more difficult due to the control system. For example, the same button that is used to transform certain characters from small to large is also used to bring up the character menu to swap out different members or your team. This results in swapping characters, when you really didn’t mean to.
A variety of puzzles
I was surprised at how many different puzzles there in the game. Puzzles require different characters with unique abilities and offer a good variety along with team work. Unfortunately, the fixed camera positioning can make some puzzles hard to solve—simply because you can’t see what you are doing. Another issue that I found while playing was flying.
Usually when you fly in a game, you use the left thumb stick to accelerate and right thumb stick to control your direction and move the camera. However, in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2, the left thumb stick controls horizontal movement, while the right thumb stick controls your height and the camera. This means that you cannot get a top view of where you are flying without bringing your character to the ground.
Aside from the main story there is also a free play mode. Here you can run around doing small missions to help people, or try to find the game’s many collectibles. Side quests in LEGO games are usually pointless unless you are a completionist. However, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 has side quests in each region that ties into a special Gwenpool mission where the b-tier characters receive even more focus. This mode adds a lot of extra gameplay time as there are a ton of collectibles to try and find.
LEGO visual appeal
The world of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 looks wonderful and the environments look more realistic to explore. Camera issues from previous games are mostly fixed fortunately. However, sometimes it still can get a little whacky—although its rare.
While playing I did encounter a few random crashes but luckily I did not loose any progress. Thankfully, these issues don’t happen often and didn’t stop me from enjoying the game. Voice acting is great, aside from a few performances such as Captain America.
Overall, the voice acting gets the job done and that same LEGO humour that you have come to expect from games is here and will make you smile. I found that the epic scores in this game sounded very familiar, but that is because they accurately rival the movies of their respective rosters that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is based of off.
New local-only multiplayer mode
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 features a new local-only multiplayer mode for up to four players with two different modes. The first mode has you capturing Infinity Stones in order to build points. While, the second mode, you and your friends collected different coloured blocks and place them in a bin.
After several games, I quickly noticed just how unbalanced these modes were. Certain characters had greater advantages over others due the massive roster size. Regardless, I still had fun in this mode and found it best when playing along with three other friends rather than using the game’s AI.
Final Thoughts
Despite some minor issues, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 was an enjoyable adventure. It features the best LEGO open-world I’ve experienced thus far. I loved how the missions tied together, and the incredible amount of detail that every character receives.
Puzzles are more varied than any other in the series, and are fun to solve. I hope that in future games we will see some of the same enhancements to gameplay that LEGO Ninjago received. If you loved the first game, there’s no doubt you will love LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2.
+ Packed full of Marvel heroes to unlock
+ Lots of collectibles
+ Strange and varied open world
– Combat seems clunky compared to LEGO Ninjago
– Camera can sometimes get in the way
OVERALL
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Lasting Appeal/Replayability: 4/5
Overall Rating 3.9/5 (78%)
Get LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 for PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
