High quality LEGO game
The whole essence of LEGO toys is brought to the world of video game with the adaptation of The LEGO Movie. After focusing so much time on adaptations of popular series, this time Traveller’s Tales brings us a new story with characters who are as quirky as they come, varied game worlds, and gameplay where the construction factor is king.
Emmett, accidental hero
The LEGO Movie puts you in the shoes of Emmet, a young construction worker from Brickburg, a LEGO city in the style of the Big Apple. His life takes a turn when the sexy Wyldstyle appears, a girl who seems to come from a distant universe and who forces Emmett to join her adventure to retrieve an object that will restore peace to the world.
Under this pretext, Wyldstyle and Emmet live adventures in different universes, one dedicated to the Wild West and another in the pure “kawaii” Japanese style. During his tour of the universe he’ll be joined by different characters, like the wise Vitruvius, the cat-unicorn Unikitty or Batman.
A world of construction
The LEGO Movie Videogame has gameplay constants from the LEGO saga: you’ll travel through closed levels to meet various objectives. Normally you need to escape the level and to do this you have to solve puzzles and deal with many enemies.
As in other LEGO games, the role of teamwork is essential and you’ll have to combine the skills of the different characters on every level. For example, with Emmet, he has specific tools for his profession, and Wyldstyle (and in general all the female characters in the game) has the ability to access high places and climb walls like a ninja.
In the LEGO Movie there’s no shortage of classic puzzles from the franchise, this time they’re more complex than in other installments. It’s not that the difficulty increases, but rather the solution of the puzzle just isn’t as obvious as in other games: often you must explore the scene.
The puzzles consist of finding objects and combining them, destroying elements, creating small quick time events, and, above all, building. In LEGO games it’s always been about building objects to solve levels, true, but this mechanic now features more prominently. This time it’s not just about throwing the buildings up as quickly as possible, there are now two ways of developing them, depending on the character type: regular builder or master builder.
Normal builders, like Emmet, can’t build unless they have the blueprints, which are scattered in the corners of each scene. Once you’ve collected all the pages, a menu opens which imitates the construction booklets from actual LEGO kits. You have to create simple quick time events to achieve the goal. There’s no denying that this novelty is pretty fun, but it’s something very simple when it could have been a much more entertaining mini-game.
The master builders, like Vitruvius or WyldStyle can construct buildings without instructions. They can only select certain parts of the scenery and put them together. The system is a little more complex than the normal construction in LEGO games, but could have been a little better if the puzzle factor had been added.
For the first time – a 100% LEGO world
Aesthetically, The LEGO Movie Videogame is the first game of the series in which absolutely everything is made of LEGO pieces. That’s to say, there are no more realistic landscapes, as in the other games in the series.
Overall, this whole universe of cubic buildings, animals and people, plains and even weather effects such as rain, waves or fire is very successful. In addition, the various worlds visited by Emmet and company are very different, and show a wide range of shapes and colors.
Unfortunately, and for reasons unknown, the textures in The LEGO Movie Videogame are inferior to those seen in previous games from the company. So while what you see is pretty and colorful, it lacks the quality finish recently seen in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. This decline in quality is even more pronounced, as the game cinematics are made with animations like those in the film and not the game engine, which is unusual.
The sound in The LEGO Movie Videogame is definitely of high quality though, as is the music chosen and the excellent dubbing in different languages.
A good LEGO game though hardly risky
The LEGO Movie Videogame maintains the quality of the LEGO games, but as part of an original idea, the guys at Traveller’s Tales really could have taken it further. For example, the construction concept is good, but making it more complex (e.g. with the occasional mini-game) would have been more fun.
Another aspect to improve is the low quality graphics, at least in the version analyzed from the current generation. Is it because the game was made ??more quickly than other deliveries so as to coincide with the premiere of the movie?
Despite these flaws, The LEGO Movie Videogame will please fans of the franchise, as it has the humor, gameplay features and authenticity as well as plenty of thrilling moments that make you want to keep playing just a little bit longer.
