![]() ![]() ![]() In addition to a drift button, there's a dedicated button for quick-turns, and another for jumps. The racing controls are intuitive and easy to get a feel for, making it very satisfying to just wander around. Lego provides a wide enough range of genres to provide a rich canvas for the writing to explore. One rival, a scientist driving a space rover-like vehicle, had a story mission in which she came face to face with herself from the future. The core cast of characters-the villain, your mentor, the announcers-are rounded out by various rivals who have their own unique gimmick and personality. This could turn obnoxious if jokes end up repeating themselves, but in the time I played, I didn't hear that happen. But 2K Drive doesn't let its humor get in the way of the gameplay, as most of the funniest lines were delivered while I was out driving and exploring. The game gets a lot of mileage out of Big Butte's double entendre, for example, and I'm not ashamed to admit I chuckled at the race announcers' cheerful advertisement for Big Butte office chairs. The story is humorous and self-aware, with sharp writing that would be right at home in The Lego Movie franchise. Mowing weeds in the open world then replaces them with power crystals, which are used to charge your boost meter from then on, including in the racing and events segments. I ran across one side activity that had me mow some weeds, which unlocked a lawnmower as an off-road option. Occasionally, you can even find an optional mission that will have permanent effects on the open world. One moment you might be jumping from road to off-road to water for a time-trial, while the next you could be playing red-light, green-light with a bomb strapped to your car that will explode if you don't stop in time, and another you may be fending off evil robots with EMP blasts. The open-world activities and story missions are similarly varied. Like the quick-change vehicle mechanic, the game cleverly takes an element that's usually a momentum-killer in most arcade racers and turns it into a strength based on the familiar trappings of Lego toys. Smashing through a Lego structure or NPC vehicle breaks them into a thousand clinking pieces and helps charge your boost meter. Whereas most racing games punish you for running into pedestrians or other cars, Lego 2K Drive encourages it. That feeling of freedom is further accentuated by the integration of Lego bricks into gameplay. As you explore and unlock new vehicles, each with their own stats, you can make separate loadouts with different combinations of roadsters, off-road vehicles, and boats that will swap in automatically as you play. It feels frictionless, like the whole world is your playground and nowhere is off-limits. Score a big jump off a cliff into a nearby river and, click-clack, you're driving a boat. You can freely roam around the streets in a hot rod, and the moment you go off-road, a satisfying click-clack of Lego bricks rebuilds around you to make an ATV. Since your vehicle is made of Lego, it instantly reconstitutes itself to match the type of terrain it's on. The landscapes often have large water structures as well as off-road grounds. Your vehicles aren't limited to traditional cars. Now Playing: Lego 2K Drive Mixes Mario Kart With Burnout Paradise The vehicles themselves have a solid weight to them, gripping the road in a way that even some more traditional racing games don't quite nail.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's The open worlds in Lego 2K Drive reminded me of the best moments of Burnout Paradise or Forza Horizon, roaming the landscape and looking for fun activities, jumping into one, and then driving around to look for the next. Most of these are integrated right into the open world, so you can simply pass through a gate to start a quick event-say, a challenge to jump over several barns. Each of these is littered with garages to act as fast-travel points, races, stunt jumps, and other activities. I tried the tutorial area, Turbo Acres, as well as a large Arizona-like area called Big Butte, and the world map showed at least three more to explore. The core story mode takes place in a wide open-world environment composed of a handful of different biomes. The structure of Lego 2K Drive unfolds in layers that help to illustrate just how multifaceted the game really is. Best of all, it's an absolute blast to play. It's in that environment that we're getting Lego 2K Drive, a striking combination of influences as diverse as Mario Kart and Burnout Paradise that uses the Lego license to add both humor and smart gameplay applications. ![]() After years of being associated most closely with successful but often very similar platformers from TT Games, the last few years have given us the minimalist Lego: A Builder's Journey, the clever physics puzzler Lego Bricktales, and the ambitious Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Lego video games have seen a resurgence recently. ![]()
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