LEGO Marvel Superheroes is the second to last lego game to have come out (based on a licensed property, at least (including the LEGO movie video game), maybe period). Since it came out last October, it's available on pretty much every platform you can think of that's out right now. My copy is for the Xbox 360, though I'm sure all of the console versions and the PC version are the same, pretty much.
The Silver Surfer shows up on earth, and is subsequently found by SHIELD as he's flying around. They send in Iron Man to get him, thinking he might be a threat, but then both of them are shot out of the sky by a helicopter. The Silver Surfer's board breaks into a bunch of lego bricks that fall all over the place, and he disappears. Cut to Doctor Doom talking about some evil plans he has with a mysterious person over the computer (though if you know your marvel you'll figure out who it is pretty quickly). He has a bunch of the bricks from the Surfer's board and is gonna use them for... something. But he needs more of them, and this leads into the first level, in which Sandman and The Abomination hold the entirety of Grand Central Station hostage so they can get their hands on one of the bricks (which Nick Fury later coins 'cosmic bricks'). Iron Man and The Hulk go in to take care of it. The game pretty much goes on from there, as bricks are moved, stolen, and recovered, more heroes and villains get involved, and more of the sinister plan is unveiled.
So, good things first. In my very, very, personal opinion, this game is GREAT. I got it for Christmas and am currently in my second playthrough. I found the story to be interesting and engaging. There are a nice few twists thrown in there to keep things from getting too predictable (though you might see them coming from a little ways away if you're paying attention). There isn't any filler, due to the fact that all of the side missions are only accessible after you've beaten the main game, and that's really nice; all 15 of the main game levels are relevant to the story somehow. I thought they did a pretty good job handling the fairly large amount of characters they had, at least in terms of playing; the game doesn't do a lot of character building because it relies on you to have to have some knowledge of what these characters are already like based on their film and comic appearances. Since this is a licensed game, that's all fine and well. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the characters, and I like how self aware the game is, even without Deadpool breaking the fourth wall. And I love the open world of Manhattan and all of the landmarks, from the Marvel Universes and real life.
Also, when you go to Liberty Island in free play mode, the Statue of Liberty winks at you. How cute is that???
The thing I like the most about this game, though, is how easy it is to navigate the levels. Not as in playing the game, but as in replaying the levels. They give you two separate ways to access the game levels (You can choose icons off of the world map, or you can go to the control station on the SHIELD helicarrier) which is really nice. This is a big step up from something like LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, where I had a time trying to figure out how to go back and replay the main game to get 100%. It's not as straightforward as the version in LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, but I'm fine with that.
Now for the complaints. With the exception of the first, most of these are probably nitpicks, because i like this game a lot and can't find any glaring problems with it. The most common complaint I've seen on the internet about this game is "<insert character here> isn't in the game", which is totally valid in one direction and kind of not in the other. If you aren't familiar with the LEGO video games, once the game is complete and you're in free play, there are usually a number of other characters you can unlock and play with (some you gain during the main game, but you can't play as them until it's over). In this game there are something like 116 extra characters you can unlock, if I'm remembering correctly, and I'm not so sure that includes the people you play during the main game, and it definitely doesn't include the additional characters you can get from the DLCs. When it comes to this side of things, I totally get why people would be upset when certain characters aren't included in that huge number. I know there's a limit to how many characters can be in the game, but when people like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are left out, the decision as to who can and can't be in it is pretty suspect.
Of course there is the other side, which is when people complain that a certain character is playable in the main game. The most common one I've seen is people asking why Deadpool isn't playable. And, like... i get this -- there's something really cool about seeing you're favorite characters be a part of the game-game -- but at the same time it's just not feasible. As it is, this game has an ensemble cast of characters that it has to spread out over these 15 levels, and each of them has to be useful in some way, shape, or form. There's also the fact that when it comes to who's in the main game, they want to use the most popular characters, the ones that people who don't know too much about marvel will still recognize -- i.e. the ones with popular, half decent movies (the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men). There isn't a single character in the main game that hasn't been featured in a decent marvel movie in the last ten years. I keep emphasizing that the movies included were somewhat good, because I am well aware that Deadpool was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that movie wasn't good -- that's why Gambit and the Blob aren't in the main game either. That's something that's pretty important to remember when going into this. It's a marketing thing, above all, and to get the widest audience it's best to use the most well known and easily recognizable characters at the moment.
My other complaints are small, like the fact once you beat all of the side missions there isn't much left to do in the free play world unless you leave all of the vehicles and characters until the very end. By the time you're done you've pretty much sucked the map dry of all of the gold bricks, and even if you do leave all of the characters until the end, there's nothing to do with them. The timeline that this takes place in is really unclear: it's like two-thirds the mainstream marvel universe and one-third the marvel cinematic universe, with portions of the new Spider-Man franchise thrown in for good measure, but still completely disregards certain things. Like, apparently, in this universe the Avengers happened, like the 2012 movie, but for some reason Loki is locked up in the Raft instead of on Asgard, which is how that movie ended. Again, I realize that this is a marketing thing and they want to reference the super successful MCU (which is why there's a whole level that references Iron Man 3), but like... you'd think they'd keep at least some of that stuff in line, or at least explain it. Why is the Red Skull alive? Why is Coulson alive and walking around the Avengers? Though, in their defense, I didn't think about this at all during the game, so I guess that's all that matters. OH, and there is a severe lack of female characters, both in the main game and as unlockables, even with the DLC. I can count on one hand the number of girls you can play as in story mode (It's Jean Grey, Black Widow, Storm, and the Invisible Woman. That's it.). That's actually a bigger complaint, because there are buttloads of cool girls in the comics, but there aren't enough of them in this game. Also, why is Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel and not Captain Marvel? What's up with that?
Overall, though, I really do like this game, despite any problems I've pointed out. If you're a fan of the LEGO video game and you haven't played this yet, you really should.
-whispers- i rarely do plugs for my own stuff here (that's what my personal is for) but i'm writing a fan fic based loosely on this game, and i posted the first chapter here. again, it's loosely based; they aren't even legos, but hey.
