Lego 2K Drive

While Traveller's Tales has done a fantastic job of bringing Lego to life since its debut with Lego Star Wars back in 2005, the success came at a price. Over time, Lego games became predictable and formulaic - in stark contrast to the creative spirit of the actual toys. Fortunately, the Lego brick is now free again and a number of developers, big and small, have been allowed to toy around with the iconic license.

The latest addition, Lego 2K Drive, comes from 2K and developer Visual Concepts, known primarily for their solid work on the WWE 2K and NBA 2K series. Without bending the definitions too much, Lego 2K Drive can also be categorised as a sports title, as it is an open world racer with a focus on exploration and being first over the finish line.

If you've played the latest Need for Speed games or Forza Horizon, then you know what you're getting into with Lego 2K Drive. Equipped with a seemingly infinite amount of fuel, you'll be driving across a vast world in search of virtual currency, upgrades and new cars. The formula has achieved great success, but games in the genre also have a tendency to run out of gas long before the finish line, as you get bogged down in monotonous activities and a pointless story.

Thankfully, that's not the case in Lego 2K Drive - not by a long shot. Let's start with the story, which is admittedly pretty bland. As an unknown racer, your goal is to defeat the corrupt and self-centred racer Shadow Z, whose misdeeds cast a shadow over the otherwise happy world of Bricklandia. It's not just about honour though. Victory will also bring with it a large cash prize that could save your mentor Clutch Racington and his workshop from bankruptcy. And that's pretty much it.

Despite the simple premise, the story manages to entertain because of the charming and amusing mini figures you meet along the way. Visual Concepts has clearly been inspired by the The Lego Movie and its sequels. This is evident from the stop motion-like animation in the cutscenes, but more importantly, it can be felt in the satirical tone of the game.

Just like in Forza Horizon, every character you'll encounter is seriously over-hyped and treats you like you're Jesus Christ on a comeback tour. However, unlike the "serious" racing games, the writers behind Lego 2K Drive know that this premise is utterly ridiculous, and they constantly poke fun at the conventions of the genre through hilarious dialogue that often breaks the fourth wall. It's often lowbrow humour. After all, the game is aimed at a younger audience. But there were still plenty of clever moments that made me laugh out loud. Like when the two self-centred commentators start talking about the amazing weather while I was driving through a gloomy and dark forest - "Oops, that was the desktop background I was looking at," one of them then exclaimed. If that isn't insightful media criticism, then I don't know what is!

The charm is not limited to the well-written and well-spoken dialogue. Visually, the game is a feast for the eyes despite a file size that barely reaches 10 GB. There's a real attention to detail, whether it's the charming square clouds on the horizon or the individual Lego bits and pieces on your car. If you take your foot off the pedal, you'll also find plenty of fun environmental details like a doughnut shop that's completely surrounded by police cars. Most importantly, the game world still looks great at high speed. My Xbox Series S had no trouble keeping a steady 60fps in the open world with a few small but relatively unimportant hiccups during races.

Where many open world racing games starts feeling like empty wastelands, Lego 2K Drive takes a different approach. Each of the game's four separate landscapes are very distinct - from a haunted biome to a rural town gripped by gold fever - and they're packed to the brim with fun activities. You'll go on police chases (now armed with missiles), push a gold nugget through the rocky landscape like it's a golf game, make precision jumps over ravines, crush skeletons and monsters and much, much more.

While Lego 2K Drive's biomes aren't particularly large, it's possible to explore every square metre, as there's nothing to slow you down. Almost every object, apart from large buildings and rock formations, can be driven straight through, resulting in a satisfying explosion of Lego bricks. You can even drive on any terrain, as your car automatically transforms into an off-road vehicle when you leave the road or a boat if you hit the waters. The vehicles change automatically, but if you miss the manual transmission, you can change a setting so that you have to switch between them yourself.

The changing vehicles gives great variety. Yet they also represent a missed opportunity, as the difference in handling is not as significant as one would think. So, don't go in expecting the game to suddenly turn into either MotorStorm or Wave Race just because the surface changes.

This doesn't matter much, though, as Lego 2K Drive still provides an excellent driving experience. Every single vehicle, whether it's a tractor, a sports car, a speedboat or a doughnut on wheels, handles fabulously. Unlike a kart racer, the momentum of the vehicles is crucial to whether you gracefully round a curve or roll over a cliff. At first I often used the handbrake (X/Square), which lets you change direction at lightning speed, but while drifting (activated by holding down the throttle and brake simultaneously) is harder to master, it also pays off, as it fills your boost bar. Drifting is especially important towards the end of the game when you unlock an extra powerful boost. Strategic use of the jump button (Y/Triangle) often lets you take useful shortcuts, and whether you're on water, land or in the air, the sense of control is simply excellent.

Of course, driving isn't the same as racing. And unfortunately, Lego 2K Drive fails in this crucial aspect. While the game's 24 tracks leads you around all the nooks and crannies of the open world, they're rarely that exciting - the very last track being a noticeable exception. Only a few of the tracks contain interesting obstacles, which means that a lot of the time you're mostly driving on auto-pilot.

In theory, this should give you plenty of time to focus on the game's power ups, which include a heat-seeking rocket, an exploding EMP shield, a spider web and a sort of wormhole that warps you further up the track. It's reminiscent of Mario Kart, but as the weapons only do a little damage, rather than temporarily stopping vehicles or knocking them off course, they rarely have much of an effect. This is especially true, as you're instantly teleported back onto the track when your vehicle falls apart.

Did you get off to a bad start? Well, there's no need to worry. Lego 2K Drive has one of the most aggressive and clumsy implementations of rubber-banding I've seen in a racing game for quite a while. If you fall just a little bit behind, your speed-crazed competitors suddenly turn into Sunday drivers, and unfortunately, this only gets more evident the closer you get to the finish line.

Almost all races became identical. I switched off my brain and put the pedal to the metal until I got to the last lap or the home straight. Then I had to make sure to use my boosts and power-ups with at least a minute amount of thought, but it was still largely a matter of form to win most of the races. And while I in several cases won races by mere hundredths of a second, it never felt exciting. In Mario Kart and other racing games, such close finishes often lead to an increased heart rate and a few involuntary outbursts. Here, I didn't even get sweaty palms.

Before its release, Lego 2K Drive made headlines for its microtransactions, season passes and expensive pre-order versions. After completing the game, however, I can report that it isn't as bad as feared. Yes, a little monkey mechanic asks a few times along the way if I want to stop by his garage, which is a badly-disguised shop, but he is drowned out by all the chatter from the other, less commercially focused characters.

At the same time, the game is fairly generous in naturally rewarding me with new cars and minifigures on top of the 20,000 or so Lego banknotes, I naturally earned during my approximate 15-hour-long playthrough. That's enough to buy 3-4 cars or 7-8 minifigures in the digital store. However, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that 2K will use the four announced season passes to introduce content based on popular Lego licences such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Marvel. That's the kind of thing that probably will have little drivers pestering their parents for additional purchases.

Conversely, Lego 2K Drive can also serve as an illustration of the joy of DIY. With thousands of pieces available and a robust editor mode, you can build the Lego car of your dreams. Without having to pay any extra bucks. All it takes is a little imagination and a lot of patience. Other game modes include cups and individual races, as seen in Mario Kart. Unfortunately, you can't win any medals or other rewards. Split-screen works fine, but suffers from the same problems as the solo races. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to try out the online part properly.

So, should you buy Lego 2K Drive? It largely depends on what you're looking for. I rarely had a dull moment in the open world, which is brilliantly designed right down to the smallest 1x1 Lego piece. The activities are varied and thanks to the precise controls, exploring every nook and cranny of Bricklandia is a pure joy. On the other hand, the actual races was a disappointing affair, which more than anything else made me long for the almost 25-year-old Lego Racers. For kids, the lack of challenge probably matters less. In fact, it might even be an advantage. So if you're not afraid of microtransactions, this is an ideal birthday or Christmas present for younger family members.