One of the first video games we reported on at ComicUI was LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, the first Marvel entry into the venerable, yet incredibly innovative LEGO franchise. From the early days of Star Wars, to DC super heroes, the LEGO games are all the same but with some spins on the gameplay and always feature an incredible roster of characters.
I’ve recently purchased LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and can say that if you’re a fan of the LEGO games, especially the previous Marvel entry, then you’ll definitely find your money’s worth in this one. Hailing the largest cast of characters yet, filling up the alphabet from A-Z for the first time, the game puts care and personality into each one so it doesn’t feel repetitive or copy/paste and re-skins of other characters. My favorite, the Sentry makes his first console game appearance and I refuse to play as anyone else (unless he lacks their abilities), but it also makes me question the usefulness of power-less characters, as they can’t fly or run or really do anything than shoot sometimes. To each their own!
While the previous game had over 150+ characters, this removes a lot of them including all X-Men, Fantastic Four, most Inhumans, Spider-Man and others in place of characters you can see in the Cinematic Universe, as well as some of the newer comic books. There are more places to find characters as well, meaning 3 per level, 10 in each hub world, and a bunch you can unlock in Manhattan. You’ll definitely be racking your brain to solve all the puzzles they throw at you in this sequel.
The story follows 6 movies, mostly focusing on Avengers and Age of Ultron, while sprinkling in both Captain America films, Iron Man 3, and Thor: The Dark World for fun. The hub worlds have expanded from Manhattan to include other locations you see in the films, like South Africa, Malibu, SHIELD base and the Barton farm. While its not a very cohesive story, it jumps around quite a bit, it doesn’t distract from how well the levels are translate to the game. They’re each unique and well thought out.
This game is amazing throughout, but the presentation could be refined. I would expect this to be the first LEGO game from the franchise, but seeing its the sequel, this lack of polish and what feels like a cheaper movie tie-in than a creative spin on the character doesn’t gain it any favors either. In comparison, I’d also say its an easier game than the original. New tedious missions are in place of old ones, but they removed a lot of the grind from Super Heroes, and instead put more basic things. I often found myself not frustrated but rolling my eyes at some of the things they’ve added, but the humor and fun is all there.
With the knowledge they’ll be adding Ant-Man and Civil War levels in the future, as well as probably more adaptations of films or TV shows, that gives me hope that these games can expand their life beyond DLC characters.
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is available on pretty much every console out right now.
