LEGO Marvel's Avengers Video Game Review

Reviewed by KW Gaming on Feb 12, 2016

Rating:

Avengers, assemble! LEGO Marvels Avengers has some great new additions to gameplay but feels a little rushed compared to TT Games other recent efforts. Watch Kidzworlds video review here!

LEGO Marvel's Avengers Video Review

LEGO Marvel's Avengers can be a lot of fun but developer TT Games attempts to smash multiple Marvel movie plots into one story and the results are not always satisfying.

On one hand there are some fine additions to the tried and true formula, like the new quick-time combos. On the other hand the story is sloppily pieced together and technical issues rear their ugly head.

Avengers, assemble! Who's your favorite?Courtesy of WB Interactive

Tag Team Excitement

Let's talk about the good first. The charm, whit and general fun offered by the LEGO video game series is here as usual. When in the middle of the action, doing what LEGO characters do best - smashing bricks, building useful objects and punching bad guys to the other side of the screen - the fun is definitely here. TT Games have got their gameplay formula pretty much down after 20 odd licensed games now.

The new quick time and dual-character combos are pretty awesome. When in very close to an enemy, you can hit a corresponding button in time with an on-screen prompt to execute a flashy move. Captain America will toss Black Widow into the air where she can unleash a barrage of gunfire in enemies below as an example. These move s can slow things down slightly, as some animation take a while to finish, but they are worth it.

The action is crazy, bright and colorful.Courtesy of WB Interactive

The environments in which your set free in also look fantastic. The levels on display in LEGO Marvel's Avengers are easily some of the most detailed and populated yet.

There is always a good sense of pandemonium when Loki and his army of Chitauri are wreaking havoc on the streets, or when Ultron is summoning his legion of robots to bring you down. The action is fairly non-stop and I rarely felt like I was engaged in the same fight over and over.

Iron Man takes to the skies for some shoot-em-up action!Courtesy of WB Interactive

There are a few battles which were a joy to play. Like fighting The Hulk in the Hulk Buster armor. Or taking to the skies as Iron Man for a little side scrolling shoot-em-up action.

There is so much action on screen sometimes that it can actually be difficult to keep track of where your character is at times. Luckily, death feels inconsequential, so if you lose a life because you couldn't see things clearly, it matters little, you respawn exactly where you died, instantly.

Iron Man and Thor go head-to-head.Courtesy of WB Interactive

Technical Frustrations

But for each smile the game brought, it also delivered some head scratching story beats and technical issues. Twice during my run through the main campaigns, LEGO Marvel's Avengers hard crashed on me. Booting me back to the PlayStation 4 dashboard. In both these instances, I had to replay about 30 minutes of the game. Frustrating, for sure. I also had a bug pop up during a mission that wouldn't allow me to switch my characters in a needed moment. So I was forced to quit and restart that section.

Two game crashes really hurt the experience.Courtesy of RedEyeGames

The story itself is all over the place as well. LEGO Marvel's Avengers tries to squeeze The Avengers, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Captain America: The First Avenger and more into one story and it just doesn't work well here. For starters, it's completely out of order.

The opening scene has you playing the beginning moments of Age Of Ultron, but then right after that, you are back at the beginning of the first Avengers film. Then we're thrust into some Captain America: First Avenger, and then back to Age Of Ultron. The time line is confusing. Plus, midway through the game, you are presented with 10 minutes of credits. I thought the game was over, but stuck around only to find there was a whole other half of a game to play.

Use Cap's shield to activate switches!Courtesy of WB Interactive

On the bright side, voice clips are pulled right from the films. So the characters all sound as you expect them to. And as usual, there are an intimidating amount of characters to unlock and side quests to complete. Excelsior!

Final Thoughts

LEGO Marvel's Avengers simply feels a little rushed compared to recent past efforts. The new gameplay additions are great. The visuals pop with color and detail. And ultimately, I had fun. But it's technical issues and poor story telling are hard to ignore.