Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not
where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he
stands at times of challenge and controversy.” I’m going to pretend
that he he was talking about Travellers’ Tales’ LEGO series, and not
something far more important. I’m not one to be coy about my
love for the LEGO games, so I
jumped at the chance to check out the newest installment, LEGO
Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. For
their second foray into the world of Caped Crusaders, TT is
concentrating on a much larger scale of conflict. Instead of just
handling heroes and villains from Batman’s history, they’re pulling in
characters from across the entire DC Universe. Joker and Lex Luther
have teamed up to cause all sorts of blocky chaos, and it’s up to
Batman, Superman and other members of the Justice League to stop them.
Though LEGO titles have never
been known for their hardware-destroying visuals, this installment in
the series is by far the best looking. Particularly gorgeous was the
Arkham Asylum portion of the demo. The infamous prison was slowly
sinking into the bay off of Gotham City, which made for some great
moments of nature bursting through the walls. Having to slog through
torrents of water while navigating the halls of the prison provided the
most impressive visuals the series has ever seen. As for the action
itself, character swapping is still going to play an important role in
the game, but a new emphasis has been placed on costume changes that
give your heroes newfound abilities. For instance, Batman can don an
Electricity Suit that allows him to harness otherwise dangerous
currents and use them to power machinery. We also spotted Robin’s
Acrobat Suit, which allowed the Boy Wonder to embrace his circus roots
by using his staff to vault around the environment. It was nice to see
these costumes add a bit of depth to both combat and puzzles.
While the first half of the
demo played out more or less like a touched up version of the LEGO
experience fans
have come to enjoy, what we saw next was possibly the biggest departure
we’ve seen from the series. While exploring the Batcave, we witnessed
Superman take flight and burst out of the confines of the cave towards
Gotham City. Suddenly our perspective changed, and instead of viewing
the action from an isometric, semi-fixed perspective, the camera
rotated directly behind our hero. As he flew through the streets of
Gotham, the game suddenly took on a Grand
Theft Auto vibe. The world is an
open playground with ample opportunity to grab vehicles, scale
buildings, and engage in a number of side-quests. The city is by far
the largest environment ever seen in a LEGO title, with the short romp
taking us to familiar locations like Wayne Tower, the Botanical
Gardens, and the Gotham Fairgrounds. While this inclusion of a massive
playground to explore seems great on paper, the onus is on TT to
provide a high density of activities to populate Gotham City.
Aside from the DC stalwarts
I’ve already mentioned, we caught glimpses of more obscure characters
like Cyborg and Killer Croc. We also heard snippets of John Williams’
Superman Theme as well as Danny Elfman’s Batman Theme. While the
developers stated that the music
isn’t finalized yet, they hinted that
they’ll be drawing specific selections from the heroes’ past. You have
to give TT credit for their complete love and admiration for the
properties that they tackle. The amount of small details and fan
service in their versions of Pirates
of the Caribbean, Star
Wars, and Harry
Potter is really staggering.
Unlike the quick, surface level scrape that seems to go into a majority
of video games based on licensed properties, TT really understands why
fans gravitate towards the things they love.
The demo culminated with a
quick trailer that highlighted the other major change to the series;
characters will no longer communicate via pantomime, but rather honest
to goodness speech. It featured the Joker delivering some puns, though
it wasn’t Mark Hamill voicing the madman. I know that in
2012, having one of your bullet points be “Fully Voiced!” is more than
a bit silly, but this drastic change in the LEGO series leaves me
worried. Part of the series’ charm is the short, silent vignettes that
manage to bring theatrical humor to these beloved properties. The move
to voiced cut-scenes has me feeling that the game may be deviating from
its roots a bit too much. That being said, I’ve been a fan of the LEGO
titles since the beginning, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt
until we see more of it in action. I remain shaken, yet optimistic
about LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes’ release this Summer.
Article source: http://www.1up.com/previews/lego-batman-2-super-heroes