Initial Impessions of Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4)

This game is...not a sony exclusive. As I have expressed in the past, the playstation 4 experienced what I would call a lacklustre lineup of launch games. I have found most of my enjoyment has come from playing either this game or Resogun, the game that came free with my playstation plus membership. This is not something that's out of the ordinary, as launch lineups often leave you wanting and it is what it is. That said, due to it being a busy last month for me, I also haven't finished this game yet, so don't hold that against me, but here are my initial impressions for the latest in the Lego series of video games.

I'll try to keep this one short, as Lego games require almost no introduction at this point. With so many entries in the series, from Batman to Star Wars, and an original movie on the way, folks are mostly familiar with Lego's brand of kid tested adult approved cartoon style action. You are a Lego recreation of a character from a popular franchise punching other lego characters from that franchise, destroying various structures throughout the world, and rebuilding the pieces to solve puzzles. There are collectibles (a lot of them) and crazy people like me find it rewarding to get them all. Let's move on

In the last few entries in the Lego series, (Lego Batman 2, Lego City Undercover) the games have been playing around with the idea of an open world. In a lot of ways it was the next logical step for the franchise, but the worlds seem unfortunately underwhelming in the aforementioned games. From what I have played so far, Lego Marvel seems to be the most well realized open world in a Lego game to date. There are seemingly endless collectibles scattered throughout the world, and side missions to go out and complete when you aren't running, flying or swinging to the next main story mission. These missions seem reminiscent of missions that would be found in something like the early open world Spider Man games. They're simplistic, but its fun to explore the world. They often result in a collectible as well, so its rewarding to seek out and complete these missions when you're in the open world.

One of the most interesting parts of the game to me so far is how they've managed to make each Lego character feel different. There are 3 basic classes that you'll be playing as throughout the game: big guy (tank), brawler/acrobat, and projectile focused. But each character has their own set of powers that let them access part of the world that other's can't. Only Spiderman can pull down walls with his webs, only Hulk can lift that heavy object. Elements like this make it potentially exciting to revisit areas and try to complete them with other characters to collect everything. Did I mention that there were a lot of collectibles. This method of gating players' progress has been in previous Lego games, but because they have managed to make each character feel somewhat unique, I don't believe that it has been done any better than in this case.

Overall, Lego Marvel Super heroes is a blast to play, especially if you get your hands on another controller and play it through with a friend. This game won't show off the technical prowess of your new console, but it is certainly a fun ride.