LEGO MARVEL’S AVENGERS review

Earth’s mightiest heroes (aka The Avengers) take up the LEGO mantle, following on from the brick-building exploits of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. But is it a case of bigger and better the second time around?

Whereas the previous game focused on the Marvel comics themselves, what we have here is TT Games’ take on the Marvel cinematic universe. Primarily centered around the events of Avengers Assemble and Age of Ultron, you will also encounter levels dedicated to Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: Winter Soldier. And if you think cramming all those films into one game sounds potentially confusing, you’ll be pretty much spot on.

The biggest niggle about Marvel’s Avengers is the story – it is all over the place. Before you begin a level, a cutscene introduces you action, but herein lies the problem – each levels jumps between the movies in a seemingly random order. For example, the game begins with the opening scene from Age of Ultron, which is then followed by the opening scene from Avengers Assemble, and then Captain America: The First Avenger. It all gets very confusing from a story point of view, but if you can forgive this messy approach, there is good fun to be had here.

It is fair to say fans of the movies will be in their element; scenes from Marvel’s blockbusters are all replicated with some great visual gags thrown in. With dialogue lifted straight from the movies, the slapstick humour presents a different take on the scenes, and can’t fail to raise a smile.

Good news for the game too. That tried and tested LEGO gameplay formula is present in all its glory, and whilst it may be getting slightly tired now after so many releases, you can knock the playability factor. The puzzles are inventive and each level is packed with hidden extras that demand a number of revisits to fully complete them.

With over 200 characters to unlock, there is plenty to keep you coming back long after you have finished the solo game. Whilst they are unique in terms of visuals and name, the core powers tend to be repeated from character to character. The reason for this, of course, is that the various in-game puzzles can be solved by any number of different heroes. It is a shame, however, that more effort wasn’t given to make each character truly unique.

Speaking of unique, you can also argue that once you have played one LEGO game, you have played them all. That is pretty much the case with LEGO Marvel’s Avengers. There really isn’t anything new here, it is just more polished and honed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – this scores extremely high in the playability stakes – but be warned; it really is a case of more of the same. Something to bear in mind, perhaps, before you decide to re-assemble those Avengers…

Mark Pilkington