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I admit that after I first sat right down to play LEGO 2K Drive, I used to be skeptical. In spite of everything, Forza Horizon, which way back mastered open-world arcade-y driving, already did the entire LEGO factor with Forza Horizon 4’s stellar LEGO Velocity Champions enlargement from 2019. However LEGO 2K Drive received me over pretty shortly due to its fuller embrace of the LEGO universe.
What do I imply by that? For starters, it leans more durable into the facility of creativeness that outlined my meatspace LEGO expertise as a child and possibly yours too. Whenever you go away the pavement in 2K Drive, your LEGO automotive mechanically transforms into an off-road ATV, identical to you’d think about it while you had been a child. And if you happen to go within the water, you do not “drown” and get respawned alongside the shore. As a substitute, your car transforms once more into a ship. These are the issues I might think about whereas I used to be taking part in with my LEGO car creations as a child, however right here that spirit of play is baked proper into the sport on the display. And it’s this car loadout strategy – sure, you earn a number of automobiles in every class and might create customized loadouts relying on the biome you are in and the exercise you are taking part in – that differentiates LEGO 2K Drive from the four-year-old Forza Horizon 4 enlargement pack.
It isn’t the one factor, although. It is a LEGO expertise from the bottom up, in contrast to Forza. There is a story mode, voiced by appropriately tacky announcers and that includes goofy characters with foolish names like Clutch Racington and Parker Carr (get it?), together with mini-games, and a storage in which you’ll construct your personal LEGO car creations (although sadly not share them, the builders confirmed. Replace: 2K reached to to make clear that this function will likely be added after launch). 2K Drive additionally consists of two-player split-screen and six-player on-line play.
I began my playtime with LEGO 2K Drive in Turbo Acres, the introductory area the place you may study all the fundamentals, like turbo boosting, drifting, and handbrake turns. It is all commonplace arcade-racing stuff. However 2K Drive takes away a variety of the literal limitations that may impede your progress as you cruise across the space by permitting you to easily smash by means of them. Every part is product of LEGO bricks, in spite of everything. You’ll be able to’t barrel by means of the whole lot, naturally, however a variety of the obstacles that might maintain you up in different driving video games turn out to be fodder for the entrance finish of your car.
Naturally, you may want to finish plenty of races and actions so as to unlock the subsequent biome, Large Butte (LOL). One early sidequest has you drifting by means of a subject of LEGO-fied big mushrooms in a concentrated space till you have smashed all of them. One other has you utilizing your car to push an enormous egg into an enormous skillet. And, clearly, there are many races. In them, you decide up and elegantly deploy Mario Kart-like powerups similar to homing missiles, an EMP blast, an invisibility gadget that may allow you to move by means of rivals for a short while, spider webs to gradual up your opponents, and extra.
Whenever you hit the water, you are feeling such as you’re taking part in Hydro Thunder.
However for me, probably the most enjoyable side of LEGO 2K Drive was that three-vehicle hook. Whenever you hit the water, you are feeling such as you’re taking part in Hydro Thunder (which, maybe not coincidentally, 2K Drive inventive director Brian Silva labored on). Off-road, your traction eases up and you may go for large jumps and drifts, and while you’re on the streets, pace and handbrake turns turn out to be the main focus. And also you’ll hardly discover any real-world vehicles right here, except for a LEGO McLaren I noticed. As a substitute, it’s stuff the builders at Visible Ideas have cooked up together with some basic LEGO automotive builds of yesteryear.
In all, LEGO 2K Drive has an much more all-ages enchantment than Forza Horizon 4’s LEGO Velocity Champions DLC does. It has the LEGO DNA in each pixel you see on the display, and if there’s sufficient to do within the open world over the course of many hours as you attempt to finally qualify for and win the Sky Cup Grand Prix, then it’s received likelihood to search out success. Creating your personal LEGO automobiles is a pleasant addition, however as I discussed, it’s downright legal that you may’t export and share them with your pals at launch. However, LEGO 2K Drive stands likelihood to be a welcome addition to all members of your family no matter their age when it’s launched on all main platforms on Could 19.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s govt editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
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