Lego Marvel’s Avengers Review

If you think about it, the Lego franchise is smart (and cheap) as they pretty much lift characters, plots and scripts from the movies itself. Lego Avenger’s revolves around plots from various Marvel movies like The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3 and Thor. Traveller’s Tales seamlessly manages to add the same slapstick Lego humor we all seem to love with a lot of visual gags being thrown in at the expense of the dialogue/shots ripped right from the films.

In case you’re new to the Lego games, you smash bricks, construct stuff, and collect other stuff (studs) that acts the in-game currency. Every level features different characters which have unique powers; Captain America puts out fires, Hulk smashes everything that falls onto his path, Thor and Iron Man can fly (which is quite useful at times when some levels are just storming with enemies and you’re stuck in a mess of Lego debris).

The game starts with a Lego replication of the opening scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), where our heroes are on the hunt for Loki’s sceptre. Just a few levels later, you find yourself in a scene that looks like Captain America: The First Avenger, that’s because it is. It is evident the game is mooching off the success of those films. This can be quite off putting for someone who did not really watch any of the Marvel movies or haven’t watched it in a while.

The game allows you to pick from a large roster of characters, which you can unlock by progressing in the game or completing side missions. As usual, each character has their own special skill that can be used on the battlefield giving them a distinct identity. Then you have Stan Lee making his mandatory appearances in various cut scenes throughout the games.

This might just be me, but from the start I had this nagging feeling that the game would be a bit sluggish. And it did prove to be exactly that at various instances. For example, in the movie Avengers when Agent Coulson visits Stark in his tower to start the Avengers initiative; a scene that hardly lasted a minute and a half in the movie turned into a proper level in the game. I’m not sure how but his apartment catches on fire and you have to kick around the furniture to get out of that self inflicted mess. This seemed like a desperate attempt to elongate game time at the risk of cutting down on the one thing everyone comes to a Lego game for….fun.

The thing about Lego Marvel’s Avengers and the Marvel movies is that they are too tempting to ignore.

A change incorporated in the combat technique that requires us to press “O” (On the PS4) and the character performs a special move to take down enemies. It requires the gamer to pay more attention to the game play instead of just button mashing, which really is a pro or con depending on the gamer. The co-op aspect remains an important part of the series but at certain junctures do not require one of the two players at all, which takes away from the co-op feel that it is known for.

And I swear I honestly think the game hides certain puzzles at times, till you explore the entire level only to find the puzzle literally right where you started. The over crowded environment doesn’t help this one bit either. You often find yourself smashing away at Lego objects hoping to figure out how to move forward.

Verdict

The game is really meant for diehard Marvel fans. Though witty, the script for the game is tightly interwoven with that of the movies and would fly right over the head of those who haven’t watched the movies recently. However, the game allows a large chunk of characters to star in a video game who might not have otherwise found a way to do so. Like I’ve said before the thing about Lego Marvel’s Avengers and the Marvel movies is that they are too tempting to ignore.

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