LEGO 2K Drive from the good folks at 2K and Visual Concepts is both a childhood dream come true and at times a cumbersome game that drags here and there.
First, the memorable and positive. Way back in the 1980s, my brothers and I used to build LEGO vehicles and try to see who could survive multiple head-on collisions. Just typing that out makes it feel warped, but trying to construct one of the most durable machines you can with random LEGOs was a breathtaking and creative experience, and doubly so when I remember how happy the process made us as kids.
Anyway, playing this game brought me back to those feelings of creative freedom with LEGO pieces in a quest to build the perfect car and see how well it does against other cars. While the crashing part only applied to certain aspects of 2K Drive, the creative construction part made this game far deeper than expected. What about that cumbersome part that I mentioned? Well, navigating the controls to build was a pain, as was trying to stay on task with overwhelming options to choose from and a less-than-straight line of gameplay. The flickering shadows of greatness were there at times with this game but there is certainly more work to be done before it gets there.
On that note, let’s get to building on this review.
Building towards something great
If you’re not familiar with the family of LEGO games out there, mostly movie-licensed based, then you need to pick up the pace and get to familiarizing yourself with them. Most of the LEGO games out in the LEGO video game world revolve around a story-based experience that has cute LEGO people falling apart. At the same time, the player progresses in a linear adventure. Up until the emergence of the Skywalker Saga, which was open-world, LEGO games usually were a seek-and-find adventure with collecting and conquering linearly as a driving point. The devs at Tt Games kept refreshing the LEGO experience with a mix of humor, meta, and real adventure. They also kept it incredibly simple, as they wanted it to be about the experience for all ages. They have rarely gotten that formula wrong.
Well, Visual Concepts decided not to go that direction and open the world up entirely in the most non-linear fashion to LEGO fans. It’s a bold move for a racing-based game, especially one that doesn’t have a familiar storyline leading it all. No Star Wars. No Indiana Jones. No Harry Potter. It’s just pure racing in an open-world environment. On top of that decision, they also created a slick driving game to push the fun. While on the surface I can see the limitations of this driving game, the execution had fantastic intentions that mostly paid off.
Now, to get to that payoff, the game is divided into three clear categories of fun: playing the story, playing online, and building your own car. All three work together well, though the online portion of the game is more about just pure racing, ala Mario Kart than it is about progressing in the game. Anyway, let’s break down some modes!
Story is telling
The story mode of the game is simply putting your driver (who you create) to the test through different races, quests, and customization. The goal in this mode of the game is to conquer evil drivers in races through slow progression and to gain flags from successful races against rivals to open more lands and gain more vehicles. As you win races and capture rival flags, you get closer and closer to main cup races that are run by a group of evil drivers led by a LEGO named Shadow Z. There is a shallow layer of story on top of the racing that is just thick enough to help push everything forward and make the gamer feel connected with the content. You need that connection to make a game successful, and this connection is there, though not the strongest.
Anyway, the actual races in this mode are so much fun. They’re what you expect them to be, especially if you have ever played Mario Kart. You race down linear paths on a variety of maps, sometimes it could be an alien-driven map, a 50s-esque city map, or something like a farm-driven map. The different maps and the obstacles brought with them make for an interesting and engaging racing time. There is enough change in the map design, and destructive elements unique to the maps, such as a dust devil, to make them feel very individualized and unique. You want that in this type of racing experience. To make it even more interesting, you also can gain power-ups on the levels, fire destructive weaponry at enemies, and even take shortcuts on the map to gain an advantage. Again, pure Mario Kart.
To make these more than just single-serving races, as you win races, you gain flags. When you gather enough flags, you unlock more races, quests, and new land maps. There are multiple lands to visit, and each contains its own set of races, quests, and other goodies. The motivation to keep racing, winning, and unlocking new content makes for a fun and slightly addictive time. To find those moments and to keep the progression going, you must wade through a lot of confusion in the game and overwhelming moments of not knowing where to go next.
There are so many non-racing places in the story mode that it can get overwhelming at times, if not downright confusing. My biggest gripe with this game is how overloaded it can become. As an adult, I can see the quests and the variety of different types of short stints of gameplay the game brings. The quests can be as simple as gathering pigs that have escaped a farm, or as complicated as saving city folk from a West World-like robopocalypse. Regardless of what type of quest you run into in the game, there are a lot of them and they’re short in stature when compared to regular races, but overwhelmingly hard to keep up with at times. The quantity certainly outweighs the quality, though I wasn’t ever expecting anything deep or meaningful when it came to quests in this game. They seem like they’re fillers until the next race unlocks from leveling up. For the younger gamers out there, they’ll love having to do these small tasks that don’t have much barring on the story, as they are just there to level the LEGO character up, collect money from successful quests, and/or act as road bumps to unlock the next big event. I’m 47 years old and they didn’t quite hook me as I thought they would given the scope of the game. As I said previously, I think younger gamers could get some amazing value out of these short adventures. They may not realize how disconnected some of the quests can be from the story, but I would bet money those kids wouldn’t care. But, again, it can be overwhelming at the sheer number of these short quests thrown at you, that it’s tough to figure out what is going on and what you should be completing.
The quests and overall structure of the game can be confusing and directionless at times. There were more than a few times where I would race, win it, and then come back to the map only to find that I have no indication where the heck I should be going next, and being visually drowned out by the number of other icons on the map didn’t help. Having some sort of flashing indicator regularly would have been nice. Even at times when there was an indicator, sometimes icons would be stacked on top of it, then I would have to zoom in to find it. The lack of consistent direction in the story mode concerns me when it comes to younger gamers playing. They may get overwhelmed by the lack of ‘next’ in the gameplay, or they may just feel so lost that they don’t want to play anymore. Regardless, the game needs a bit more solidarity in how it progresses the game through the story. It needs some obvious organization to its visuals. The game tries to do this with a legend system, but it still doesn’t alleviate the distracting number of icons that seem to keep one’s eyes from following the game’s direction.
I realize the game wants to be this open-world extravaganza with all of these quests and points of interest to check out, and it isn’t too far away from achieving it, but too much open-world means not enough direction, which hinders progression and harms gamer engagement. Story mode should be a focused ‘next thing up’ progression system. Even a giant game like Skyrim or Fallout 3 has the best of both worlds – a solid line pointing to the next step, as well as quests that act as a break when you need a breather. Not fully understanding that architecture when you create an open-world game can be disastrous. There are plenty of bad games out there that are huge in scope, and I would bet money the worst part about them is how directionless they feel. LEGO 2K Drive tip-toes that line between being great and being too big without a road sign to guide the gamer. That’s not a place any game of this type should be, especially the first time out.
As the story stands, it has road signs that manage to pop up here and there, but not enough consistency to keep focused and assured to keep gamers on track in knowing what they’re doing and where they should be going. I have 40 years of gaming under my belt and there were times when I didn’t understand what the next piece to the game’s puzzle lay. It was frustrating at times.
When you do find those pieces, you will find a fun story that has some wacky characters leading the way. Beating each driver to snag a flag becomes a fun process when it’s kicking on all cylinders. The different drivers, personalities, and vehicles they drive give you enough motivation to see who the big-bad racer is going to be after every win. Winning their vehicles doesn’t hurt either. Overall, I think the story takes a hit in its confusing design but does manage to show signs of greatness when races and mouthy racers rear their head.
Rev the engine you build
To keep those races and the entire story mode interesting, Visual Concepts implements an incredibly deep customization mode to keep the gamer-focused and motivated. As you level up and win, you will gain LEGO pieces and parts. With those parts, you can start constructing your own designed vehicles. This harkens back to my original comment about being excited as a kid to build and crash LEGO cars with my brothers. There is nothing quite like designing your masterpiece and seeing how well it works.
The unfortunate downer to this is how complicated and sometimes difficult it is to build that masterpiece. If I had this on PC, I would not have this complaint. The PlayStation 5 controller is not a good device to build a LEGO vehicle with at all. The sheer number of different ways to make your vehicle and customize it to your liking is spectacular. There is a deep dive into this process. The difficulty in navigating those customizations and placing LEGO pieces down accurately to create the vehicle can be downright infuriating to the point that you just want to win cars and be done with it. I honestly could see the majesty of the building process, but it needed more accessible ways to build other than a controller. It just felt like it wasn’t meant for that type of device.
Overall, I do appreciate the depth of the customization, but I do wish it was done on something other than a PS5 controller. It just seems more like a chore than a good payoff.
Licensed to progress
Another element the story mode uses to keep the game interesting is implementing a very well-known licensing system. It’s nearly identical to the structure of how the Gran Turismo series does it, though not as complicated and precise. By completing tasks and quests, you level up. When you reach a specific level, you unlock a different license. For example, you start with license C. When you get to level 10 in the game, you unlock license B. For every license you unlock, the game becomes more challenging, and the rewards become sweeter. You get added motivation through this method and the game starts to open more. I love this type of motivation and gameplay design for a racing game. It feels like you’re earning your keep and properly-being rewarded for it. It’s a great design for this type of game, even if it’s made for a younger audience.
Online is fine
The online modes are incredibly simple in LEGO 2K Drive. You have a cup mode and a race mode. The former is self-explanatory, as you play through cups (major races). The latter is where the fun begins, as you constantly pour through races against other players. There is a long playlist of tracks you compete on, and you just go from track to track playing against the world. Online mode is fun, though not as many people are currently on Cup as they are on Race. It’s a fun and quick departure from story mode.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this lengthy review up.
Conclusion
If you come in expecting LEGO 2K Driver to fit firmly with previously released LEGO games, then you’re in for a world of disappointment. This is a game of its own based purely on racing and open-world exploration. While not all of it works completely, it does have enough charm and creativity to push it through as a game worth playing.
