Lego 2K Drive builds on the tracks laid by Mario Kart and Forza Horizon

“Yes, the comparison between Mario Kart and Forza Horizon, I take it,” says Brian Silva, director of the forthcoming Lego 2K Drive, during a preview of Visual Concepts’ new racing game. The comparison was the first thing that came to my mind after about three hours of getting started Lego 2K Drive‘s open-world driving hijinx and races full of power-ups, boost pads and lots of drifting.

However, since it is an officially licensed Lego game, Lego 2K Drive seems to have the building blocks to be more than just the influences.

The setup for Lego 2K Drive is pretty standard fare: you’re the newbie and need to improve your reputation by winning races and completing side-quests, eventually gaining enough notoriety to challenge the major characters in the story and open up new areas of the map. It’s how the stage is set for these kinds of games, but the key is in what only Lego can offer.

If you’ve played any of the Lego action adventure games or seen the Lego movies, you’ll be familiar with the brand’s tongue-in-cheek humor. That same lighthearted weirdness works as the basis for Lego 2K Drive to put the open world driving adventure into context. The in-universe story broadcasters narrate game events with irreverent self-awareness, poking fun at the absurdity of what is happening. Nearly every character’s name seems to be a cheesy car-related pun, and side missions task you with running crazy errands for NPCs – though I think I’ve done one too many quests to help the cops do their goddamn job and now I’m part of the problem, but that’s on me.

Lego blocks themselves are an integral part of the gameplay and the way the open world is designed. “Everything you see in the game from Lego can be built with Lego in the real world,” Silva said of the buildings, foliage and other objects you see in the game. This extends to the vehicles themselves, which are the most important part of the game’s identity.

The open world of Blocklandia consists of different types of terrain. Your vehicle automatically and instantly transforms into the right vehicle to match the topography: a road racer, an off-roader in the sand, and a speedboat for cruising the water. There’s a nice seamlessness to navigating the world and being able to use the different types of vehicles on the fly, and this puts more emphasis on the extensive vehicle customization features.

You can equip each of these vehicles with decals, flair, or any number of nonsensical configurations with blocks stacked on top of each other. But the most fascinating aspect is that you can build vehicles brick by brick with official Lego blocks, of which there are more than 1,000 pieces to play with. It took some time to master the controls in the customization garage, as there are several moving parts, layers, and small pieces to manage within a 3D space. It’s not as easy as clicking any brick you want into place when you come up with ready-made designs, so I imagine it’s going to take a lot of effort and wrestling with the systems to get the most out of the game’s customization options. to fetch. . However, after about 30 minutes I was able to whip up a modest car myself, so with more time and creativity I’m sure people could make some wild whips. And while he couldn’t confirm specific details, Silva said players will be able to share designs online (and there will be a review process for inappropriate content).

Image: Visual Concepts/2K Games

Whatever monstrosity or beautiful piece of Lego craft you come up with for your vehicles, you’re going to take them to races. And I think what stands out the most from a gameplay perspective is that Lego 2K Drive is largely a kart racer. There’s a huge open world to explore and smash, but most of the game’s meat is found in the competitive races, and it has all the trappings you’d expect. You grab power-ups and items during courses, such as homing missiles, shields, bombs or speed boosts, which can turn the tide of any race. In real go-kart racing, you’re never really safe in first place, not even straight into the final – a well-timed rocket can stop you just before you cross the finish line.

Courses often feature big jumps and boost pads to maintain momentum, and varied terrain may require you to use every type of vehicle during the race. Each racer also has its own NOS-like speed boost meter that builds faster the more destruction you do on a track, encouraging a controlled recklessness with your driving. Drifting is the key to making sharp turns at high speeds – it’s made easy by just pulling the right trigger to let your car break traction and slide. It is quite easy to drive, even through a hairpin turn. The courses themselves change based on the three levels of difficulty available; not only do they make the AI ​​more difficult, they throw extra twists, turns and obstacles on the track for more chaotic races.

It’s cool to see someone else give the kart racing genre a shot, especially with a collaboration like Lego to make it stand out, but also integrate it into a larger setting with other activities in between. However, that’s where I’d like to see more of the game. Most of the side missions felt like basic tasks, like timed runs from point A to B or high-speed chases. Other missions pop up for chunks of XP, like one where I had to defend three towers by crashing into aliens descended from UFOs. It played on the silly tone, but it didn’t necessarily play to its gameplay-wise strengths. It’s an aspect that felt weaker based on the hands-on demo.

Image: Visual Concepts/2K Games

However, there is a good gameplay base. Driving around the map is effortless and unlike its contemporaries it never feels like you’re stuck or needing to reset; your Lego vehicle just changes for the situation and keeps things moving. Having a dedicated jump button also makes exploration easier so you don’t have to be grounded all the time. Silva said she wanted to create a sense of exploration, saying, “It’s not called [Lego 2K] To race for good reason. We didn’t want this to be your traditional racing game where you pick and track your vehicle and repeat. We wanted it to feel like a driving adventure.” With so many more parts of the map to unlock, I hope the adventurous spirit of Lego 2K Drive will make itself clearer as the game progresses.

General, Lego 2K Drive has a lot of potential as both a kart racer and an easy open world driving experience. I’m curious to see if the kart racing aspect offers enough to sustain long-term interest, as it seems the potential is there, especially with an emphasis on multiplayer racing and open-world activities. With a campaign lasting around 15 hours, it boils down to things outside of kart racing to support the rest of the game, be it the wacky atmosphere, deeper vehicle customization, or the side content within Blocklandia.

It won’t be long before you can start moving bricks yourself. Lego 2K Drive launches on May 19 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.