Fast and Frustrating
I have never been a huge Lego brick fan; sure, I have had a few sets as a kid but what I really enjoyed was the Lego video games. Everything from Harry Potter to my Marvel Heroes and even Star Wars, Lego games have been everywhere. So, when I first heard about Lego 2K Drive I was immediately intrigued by the promise of racing and building my own Lego vehicles.
While Disney’s just released racer Speedstorm borrows from the popular Mario Kart series, Lego 2K Drive goes their own way by instead paying homage to the Forza series with its big expansive open-ish world filled with side activities galore. Lego 2K Drive is a fantastic kart racer, filled with fun weapons like homing rockets and spiders who will toss a web across the opponents’ screens while also putting an emphasis on drifting through turns. Speaking of the drifting mechanic, it’s a weird one, it requires that players hold both the accelerator and the brake to drift. It takes a little while to get used to it and even then, it never feels right. The biggest difference with 2K Drive is that instead of penalizing players for driving off-road, Lego 2K Drive embraces its Lego nature and instead transforms vehicles into an odd-road or boat depending on the surface. This mechanic isn’t anything new and something that Ubisoft’s The Crew does very well but seeing and hearing the ‘clicks’ and ‘clacks’ of Lego bricks reshuffling is something that never got old.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
But driving off road serves a dual purpose in Lego 2K Drive, as players take damage from various attacks, they will literally lose bricks off their vehicles. Well thanks to the wild and chaotic nature of 2K Drive the buildings and really anything made of Lego bricks and be smashed into, thus repairing players vehicles with the fallen bricks. It all just feels made for the Lego brand and evokes the same joy and fun that kids and even adults feel from playing with a Lego set. I must admit that even I grinned like an idiot as I careened through Lego buildings.
The racing of 2K Drive is solid and extremely fun, only a few of the story missions for its campaign gave me issue. What it really did do was highlight what’s missing from Mario Kart, having some sort of open world campaign would do well to reinvigorate that series. Not that it has a sales issue, but it would do a lot to keep folks playing. But as good as Lego 2K Drive is it sadly couldn’t escape the dreaded monster that haunts all of 2K’s games and that monster is ‘microtransactions’. It is possible for players to earn the ‘Brickbux’ currency in game but it’s so slow that it will take HOURS before players have enough to purchase anything worth having. But what really makes this such a bad feature is that the shop sells more than just cosmetic items. Most, if not all vehicles available for purchase feature an increase in stats, for a game that has online multiplayer this is a most egregious crime.
For those creative types, Lego 2k Drive allows for them to build some truly wild vehicles. These come in 3 varieties; racing, off-road and boat and each can be customized with various Lego parts. As players progress the story, they will unlock various parts to customize their vehicles, but for those of us who just want to drive something cool the game offers a ton of blueprints of premade cars that just require resources to construct.
Even though I enjoyed the actual racing and especially the story campaign in Lego 2K Drive, but for me a player who loves to play online this game gives me pause. I don’t get a lot of time to spend on games between reviewing them, my kids and just life overall. So, sitting down to play and seeing my opponents all have super tricked out rides; I just know I am in for a loss. I don’t have an issue with microtransactions in games, but I do have an issue when players can just purchase power making it unfair for those who can’t or just won’t. If you plan on strictly playing Lego 2K Drive single player, there is a lot to enjoy here…. Even with the wonky drifting system.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
