LEGO Marvel Avengers Review

If you have ever played a LEGO video game, you will be right at home with the latest installment of the hit franchise and this time its the Marvel Super Heroes from the hit Cinematic Universe movies like Avengers, Age Of Ultron, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor.

I think its best to get this right out in the open, this is not far removed from every other LEGO video game released in the past decade, there have been some improvements to the characters and extra things added here and there, but generally its not too different from anything they’ve released so far.  So if you have enjoyed previous installments, you know what to expect and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, they have a format that works and they are keeping with it.

The main story mode of the game will keep you entertained for hours alone, going through and retelling many of the major moments from some of the biggest Marvel movies, with some great cut scenes and extra LEGO style jokes thrown in for good measure, and with audio pulled directly from the movies, this is a good movie tie-in.   This hasn’t just been thrown together for the latest Civil War movie, this is a combination title and thus does feel like its had time to develop.  While the game does focus primarily on the events of the two main Avenger movies, it does a great job of delivering great cut scenes and action.

There are some issues with the way the story is told, it tends to jump around a little between the movies, starting with Age of Ultron, jumping back to the First Avenger, then skipping to Avengers before going back to an epic battle with Ultron etc.  So if you aren’t familiar with the movies, it could be a little confusing, though I wouldn’t effect the general story too much.

While the main story took me about 8 hours to complete, there is plenty of replay-ability in going back through those levels, finding all the hidden items like gold bricks and rescuing Stan Lee, plus being able to use all the other characters that you couldn’t use in the first play through, means it can bring many more hours of fun to the initial story mode.

Not only does the game feature a great story mode, it has a huge open world to investigate, actually there is more than one open world, there is Asgard, South Africa, Washington DC, Slovakia, South Africa, The Barton Farm, S.H.I.E.L.D’s Helicarrier, Tony’s Malibu mansion and a huge Manhattan.  Having the different locations is great, however once you’ve flown around the New York massive map, the others feel a little restricted, especially with the fliers, some of the areas like Washington DC felt so small, that the time spent on them might have been better used adding more to the smaller maps.    But with loads of side missions, collectibles, races and characters to unlock, there is plenty to keep gamers occupied once the initial story mode is completed.

With the new massive open areas, its very noticeable that the flying has been drastically improved over the previous version, its a lot more easier to control though the charging off for takeover is slightly annoying if you want to drop, pick something up and go, but that’s not a major issue.

I did find the combat for the game to be a little difficult in close combat, while large heroes like the Hulk can clear out enemies with ease with a simple punch, using the special attack that the characters have seem to be very slow, especially when you’re surrounded with enemies and you have to go through the same attack with every character, there isn’t much variety in the styles for each character.  There might be hundreds of characters and many of them feel different, switching to the Hulk is good for close combat, but in the story mode, this isn’t possible.  Melee attacks on the other hand work very well, multiple targets mean you can take out lots of enemies and items really quickly, which makes close combat even more annoying.

One big issue with this game that is very noticeable is the lack of some huge Marvel characters including Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men like Wolverine and many others.  It looks like the Guardians of the Galaxy are being held back for another game, as there is a little hint at the end that they might be the headline act of the next game (probably along side Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 hitting theaters).  Of course Marvel have a well known issue with characters they don’t have full rights too, with Fox holding the movie rights, Marvel don’t want to promote these characters to a new audience, be it games, merchandise, comics or TV shows, (they still have the rights to do this).

Now the lack of those recognisable names might sound a bad thing, but with over 200 characters including lesser known characters like Squirrel Girl and newer versions of Captain American and Thor, it doesn’t impact too much.  But many of these characters can feel similar and its only the major characters who have feel very different.  Also with the Marvel Super Heroes being much more focused on Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, it makes sense to highlight different characters to make the game feel different to its predecessor.

Graphically the game is one of the best looking LEGO games I’ve played, the cut scenes are great and the overall look of the characters and areas is greatly improved on the PS4 version that I was playing.

The game features lots of different puzzles that can take a little bit of working out, switching between the characters and figuring out what combination is going to work, there is also some on the rails action, but once you get into the LEGO mindset, it can be a lot of fun, if a little frustrating when you miss something so obvious. There is a Season Pass for this game which will bring in some additional levels and characters to the game, along side additional content for Playstation owners with content from movies like Civil War and Ant-Man.  The season pass isn’t that expensive compared to other titles like Battlefront and comparing the price of this game to it’s most recent rival, LEGO Dimensions, this game comes in much cheaper with no additional real life toys to play.

LEGO Marvel Avengers is a great LEGO game, it has all the big moments from the movies, hundreds of characters to choose from and is a lot of fun to play.   Missing some of the big well known characters like Spider-Man does feel slightly odd and the gameplay for LEGO games has stayed the same for so long.  It’s a lot of fun if you like LEGO games, but with multiple versions of the same game engine coming each year, I was hoping for something more than just a few tweaks.  Marvel and LEGO fans can’t go too wrong with this game, its perfect title for children, family’s and adult fans alike.

Check out our latest Podcast, where we discuss the game: