LEGO 2K DRIVE

Visual Concepts/2K's LEGO 2K Drive is an arcade racing game set in a world made of... LEGO. No surprise there, after all, the franchise with its distinctive aesthetic needs no special introduction anywhere in the world, as it's been a favorite children's (and not only) game for over half a century.

The atmosphere is undoubtedly LEGO, how else could it be otherwise? In terms of design and gameplay, however, it only takes a few minutes of engagement with the game to make it obvious that L2KDrive draws inspiration from, and wants to combine, two other series of driving games.

One is Forza Horizon, from which L2KDrive recruits the open, activity-filled world. The other is Super Mario Kart, or, if you're such avid PC gamers that you don't know what they are, I'll remind you of Whacky Wheels from DOS days - practically the gameplay of these games is the core of actual racing on L2KDrive.

Unfortunately, the design of these two pillars of the game is not of the same quality, and this makes their combination to fall significantly short. Let's look at them one by one.

The most well implemented and fun part of L2KDrive is racing in its purest form. After some tutorial tracks where we learn the basics of drifting, boosting, and jumping, we can participate in races against other gas guzzlers, of course with the goal of winning.

There are two main differences compared to more realistic games of the genre. One is that for each of the available terrains (smooth road, bumpy road, water masses) we have different vehicles, switching between them is automatic and on-the-fly. It never ceases to be fun to drive the something-like-tractor-with-a-like-lawn-mower-vehicle straight into the cliff, and watch it transform into something-like-fish-boat-with-turbine-super-yacht to continue the journey down the river.

The other difference is the existence of power-ups and abilities scattered along the way, which we can collect and use either defensively or (the most fun) offensively against our opponents. Can't get past the annoying noob that's leading the way? A missile strike can remedy this gross injustice.

The whole thing is amusingly chaotic even in offline mode with CPU controlled opponents. The little bit I tried online mode, I got my ass kicked, as humans are clearly more worthy opponents, and I suspect the game offers strong thrills as a party game with friends, but unfortunately there was no opportunity to try that.

Participating in these races is the main campaign of the game, which has the simplest possible scenario. There's the head "fast and furious" guy who for some reason doesn't like us, and we want to take his title and become the "fast and furious" guy in the "fast and furious" place. That's it. Of course, to get to the level of even doing a challenge, we have to prove our worth by beating opponents lower in the hierarchy of races, who in turn require us to be of a certain level to deal with us. And this is where the problems start.

In-game currency and xp for levelling are earned as we engage in the various activities scattered throughout the open world of the game. Many of them have, of course, to do with various driving challenges, but there are others that are quite different in their objectives and gameplay, as well as some side-quests offered by various crazy characters.

The problems are basically two. One is that the rewards from most challenges are stingy to the point of being annoying, leading to the need to grind just so the player can participate in better/main campaign races. And this would be a problem even if the various activities were the most fun activities in an open world game ever - but unfortunately that's not the case. Practically none of the activities that do not involve driving are fun, and some, like the ones that ask you to either find fleas in the haystacks or pick up little people being chased by robots/skeletons/aliens, are annoying. The situation both in terms of rewards and fun is somewhat saved by the side-quests, but they are quite limited in number - they should be practically twice as many to offer a real alternative to the meaningless grind.

All of this covers the gameplay of the game, but not the collectibles, cosmetics and garage builds. There are problems in this part too, and in fact it's quite easy to argue that these are by design, to push players into microtransactions.

The fact is that there is a well-designed editor via the garage, which the player can use to configure many, many parameters of their vehicles - at least in terms of appearance, because although there is the possibility to install mods and power-ups, the difference in vehicle performance is negligible.

Alongside this feature, there is also the official emporium where vehicles, decals, drivers and various other knick-knacks offered for sale. The thing is that the prices are very high in in-game currency, so there is a clear push towards buying premium currency. Given that the game's target group is for all ages, but is definitely expected to have a greater appeal to children, it is in my opinion a situation that is clearly aimed at the wallet of parents, and this is after they have already paid a minimum of 60 euros for the basic version of the game.

Ultimately LEGO 2K Drive is an arcade kart racing game with a solid core, but it trips itself up with design choices that try to increase the so-called engagement time, in the hope that the player will always nab something from the emporium. It's not bad, but it's certainly not as fun as the games it draws inspiration from.

We would like to thank CD Media for providing the review code.

Go to discussion...