Lego 2K Drive Takes Inspiration from Mario Kart and Forza Horizon
Lego 2K Drive is an upcoming racing game that combines the open-world driving hijinks of Forza Horizon with the power-ups and drifting of Mario Kart. But being an officially licensed Lego game, it has the building blocks to be more than just its influences.
Humorous Storytelling
If you’ve played any of the Lego action-adventure games or seen the Lego movies, you’ll be familiar with the brand’s tongue-in-cheek humor. Lego 2K Drive contextualizes the open-world driving adventure with lighthearted goofiness, poking fun at the absurdity of what’s happening. Nearly every character’s name appears to be a cheesy car-related pun, and side missions task you with running silly errands for NPCs.
Customizable Vehicles
Lego blocks are integral to gameplay and the way the open world is designed. Everything you see made of Lego in the game can be built in the real world with Lego, according to the game’s director, Brian Silva. This extends to the vehicles themselves, which are the most important piece of the game’s identity. You can deck out any of these vehicles with stickers, flair, or some nonsensical configurations with blocks stacked on each other. But the more fascinating aspect is being able to build vehicles brick by brick with official Lego blocks, of which there will be over 1,000 pieces to toy around with.
Kart Racing Gameplay
Regardless of whatever monstrosity or a fine piece of Lego craftwork you come up with for your vehicles, you’re going to be taking them into races. Lego 2K Drive is largely a kart racer, with most of the meat of the game found in its competitive races. You grab power-ups and items throughout courses such as homing missiles, shields, bombs, or speed boosts, which can turn the tide of each race. In true kart-racing fashion, you’re never really safe in the first place, even on the final straightaway. Courses often feature big jumps and boost pads to keep up the momentum, and varied terrain may have you using each type of vehicle throughout the race.
Open-World Exploration
There’s a vast open world to explore and wreck, but most of the game’s emphasis is on its competitive races. The setup is fairly standard fare: you’re the new kid on the block and must raise your reputation by winning races and completing side quests. Eventually, you’ll gain enough notoriety to challenge the big-name characters in the story and open up new areas of the map.
Side Quests and Missions
Most side quests felt like basic tasks, like timed runs from point A to B or quick chase-downs. Other missions pop up for chunks of XP, like one where you have to defend three towers by crashing into aliens descending from UFOs. It plays into the silly tone, but it isn’t necessarily playing into the game’s strengths gameplay-wise. It’s one aspect that felt weaker based on the hands-on demo.
Driving around the map is effortless, and there’s a good gameplay foundation. Lego 2K Drive is cool to see in the kart-racing genre, especially with a collaboration like Lego to help it stand out, but it needs more to elevate it above the competition.
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