NEED TO KNOW
What’s it? A Lego kart racer the place you possibly can construct your personal automobiles.
Launch date Could 19, 2023
Count on to pay $70 / £50
Developer Visible Ideas
Writer 2K
Reviewed on GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, i7-7820X, 64GB RAM
Multiplayer Sure
Steam Deck N/A
Hyperlink Official web site
Each time I play a brand new “kart” racing sport, I am all the time disappointedly stunned on the lack of innovation throughout the style—and Lego 2K Drive is nothing new in that respect. Each drift round a nook, each enhance off a ramp, I had the identical thought: I’ve performed this sport earlier than. You’ve got, undoubtedly, performed this sport earlier than. That is Mario Kart. That is Crash Workforce Racing. That is Garfield Kart.
That being mentioned, Lego 2K Drive’s tackle kart racing does really feel extraordinarily polished. The controls really feel weighty and responsive, and there is loads of suggestions in its turns and drifts based mostly on the dimensions and specs of your car. The programs themselves are decently various, even when personally I might have most popular a larger give attention to shortcuts and alternate routes, and the open-world maps within the story marketing campaign really feel appropriately expansive.
Lego 2K Drive’s story mode is completely stuffed filled with content material, although that is largely to its detriment. The precise story missions solely took me about 5 hours to finish, however there is a wealth of aspect missions and challenges to work by as soon as you have overwhelmed them. These further actions are very reduce and paste nevertheless, and you will be repeating the identical missions a number of occasions throughout each map for those who’re going for 100% completion or, worse, attempting to grind by missions in an try to earn extra “Brickbux” – Lego 2K Drive’s in-game foreign money for its microtransaction retailer (extra on that later…).
The story missions have the type of quirky aptitude and foolish jokes which have come to be anticipated of the Lego model. Gamers above a sure age will almost certainly discover themselves groaning by infinite puns in an try to skip to the subsequent race. Youngsters will completely love the unending stream of gags nevertheless, and so they’ll particularly love the primary villain and star of the present, Shadow Z. The humour in Lego 2K Drive does really feel a little bit bit extra juvenile than your customary Lego sport—they appear to be focusing on an excellent youthful demographic than ordinary. I’ll admit although, whilst a grown man with greying hairs, a number of the jokes did handle to get a number of chuckles out of me—largely because of Shadow Z’s voice actor Rene Mujica absolutely committing to the position.
Want for greed
The one function that does truly set Lego 2K Drive other than its contemporaries is, sadly, each its greatest draw and its greatest disadvantage: the kart constructing system. It is genuinely spectacular, permitting you to craft any method of automobile, boat, or off-road car you would probably think about. Utilizing the Lego elements you have acquired by finishing missions, you possibly can craft any method of four-wheeled monstrosity which you can probably think about. The system itself is straightforward to familiarize yourself with, nicely defined and successfully limitless (exterior of literal weight limitations). All the pieces is 1-to-1 by way of real-life Lego specs too, that means that for those who can construct it in-game you would 100% replicate mentioned creation with actual Legos.
However to get essentially the most out of construct mode, you’re going to want the most effective elements—elements which might be solely in the stores with actual cash. The best engines, the most effective wanting tyres, and the sharpest-dressed drivers are all locked in Unkie’s Emporium, a colourful-looking storefront that permits you to use the Brickbux you’ve spent actual cash on. The micro-transactions on this sport are predatory, and I do not use that time period calmly. They utterly detract from what would in any other case be a family-friendly sport that folks and youngsters alike may get pleasure from. The construct system and its easy tutorials, a lightweight and humourous marketing campaign, and offline break up display make for an ideal child-appropriate romp by the world of Lego, however sadly revenue margins have taken priority over crafting a healthful expertise.
Lego 2K Drive can be very upfront about ensuring you already know it is a sport for youngsters. All the pieces from the story mode, which consistently refers to you as “child”, to the microtransaction retailer itself, which asks you to get your mother or father’s permission earlier than accessing it, consistently reminds you that it is a sport focused at a youthful demographic—which makes the wildly overpriced bundles, such because the $50 coin pack, and the in-your-face nature of its micro-transactions all of the extra brazen. After ending the marketing campaign and bulk of Lego 2K Drive’s aspect missions, I barely had sufficient in-game credit score to buy greater than three automobiles from the shop, not to mention any of the shiny extras provided up alongside them.
Simply to make clear, at launch on current-gen platforms, it is a $70 sport—a $70 youngsters’s sport that is launched with a season cross and an overstuffed micro-transaction laden retailer. Even placing apart its demographic, is it actually acceptable {that a} full-priced sport has so many extras locked behind the usage of a bank card at launch?
Kart assault
Efficiency-wise, Lego 2K Drive ran extraordinarily nicely on each builds I examined it on. The lower-end construct (i7-7820X, GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, 16GB RAM) nearly managed to run Lego 2K Drive on its highest settings, though this did have a barely noticeable but general minor impact on the framerate. Even in split-screen, the i7-7820X construct managed to carry out nicely with comparatively little in the way in which of efficiency points. My increased finish construct (Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX 4080, 64GB RAM) ran the sport with completely no points, at a wonderfully constant framerate. Admittedly, though Lego 2K Drive seems to be fairly good and a number of the destruction mechanics are spectacular sufficient that you’d anticipate them to influence the body price, it isn’t precisely pushing the envelope with regard to its graphics—neither is it attempting to. But, at the moment, a PC sport that appears good and runs nicely at launch is uncommon sufficient to be price lauding.
There’s a lot to like in Lego 2K Drive, particularly in case you are a fan of kart racers or Lego typically. The sport runs nicely, it is obtained a wealth of content material to work by, and there’s a clear love for the Lego franchise that permeates the whole lot from the sport design to the maps themselves. Certain, exterior of its construct system, Lego 2K Drive is not precisely attempting to be revolutionary, however strong, enjoyable gameplay greater than makes up for an absence of ambition. This makes it all of the extra disappointing that the rapacious nature of the microtransactions in Lego 2K Drive makes it inconceivable to advocate to anybody inside its goal demographic.