LEGO 2K Drive Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos, Multiplayer Features and More

It isn't often a new contender attempts to drift into the cart-racing video game landscape, a niche monopolized moreso than perhaps any other thanks to Mario Kart at the top of the mountain.

But none of those would-be contenders have the cultural presence and seemingly unlimited potential of Lego, which is what makes Lego 2K Drive from developer Visual Concepts so intriguing.

It only helps that the hotly anticipated release is quite a bit more than a traditional racing experience one might expect from something like Mario Kart. It's more Burnout or Need for Speed in that it boasts an open world with minigames, challenges and varied places to explore.

The formula seems simple enough for all ages—an open-world Lego racing game. If done right, Lego 2K Drive has a chance to seriously shake up the market, especially as it launches with lengthy support planned.

Graphics and Gameplay

One might already be able to guess one of Lego 2K Drive's most appealing features—the environment.

The land of BrickLandia is as diverse as one might expect from an open-world offering in this era of next-generation titles. Most everything in the game is sculpted from individual Lego blocks, be it the mountains, buildings and details in the landscape.

Across multiple distinct-feeling biomes, nearly everything is destructible, too, making it both a pleasure to explore and destroy, which isn't something many games can say—call it another bonus of the Lego brand.

Even communities feature this destructibility with little Lego guys and gals running around if the player causes mischief, such as drifting into a parked vehicle and sending loads of bricks across the ground.

Understandably, a Lego game isn't pushing the boundaries of immersive, sim-like realism in visuals or immersion. But it looks great for what it is, might just be too colorful and the Lego characters are expressive and well voice-acted, with sound design as a whole an underrated, satisfying element of the experience.

Again, this is not a simulation and the marriage between arcade elements and Legos really hits a nice balance.

To streamline the experience, the player's vehicle automatically shifts to a boat or off-roading ride as needed. It's a nice, simplistic design choice for younger audiences and makes exploring the vast world and regions easier.

This also means there aren't track design limitations, helping most become memorable and keeping variety high. Like racers such as Mario Kart, each of the rather large list of tracks features discoverable shortcuts that are a blast to discover and provide an advantage.

It's a cart racer in the sense players can pick up items as they strive for the finish line. Blowing another racer's car into little individual bricks is a sheer joy, plus it's hard not to laugh when the player's ride befalls a similar fate. This isn't a huge aspect of the game, but its rarity makes it even more enjoyable.

The game even encourages reckless (also read: fun) driving. Smashing things builds a boost meter, which obviously comes in handy.

The feel of the game is simply fantastic too. Not that this is a surprise—an arcade Lego racer with jumping and drifting around wacky courses in a brick-built land is hard to mess up. Learning the ropes hardly takes any time at all, letting players rip off wicked drifts and course navigation like a pro quickly.

All that said, difficulty leaves something to be desired for a non-kids audience. It feels like there is blatant catch-up rubberbanding, whether the player is in first place or attempting to catch up. Opponent A.I. is spotty and feels often more worried about crashing the player than actually reaching the finish line first.

Similarly, there are stat bars on vehicles, though a lack of numbers makes it tough to figure things out in that area. Sometimes while progressing through the game, it's best to pick vehicles based on look, not performance. That's not a terrible thing and might indeed be a design decision for kid-reasons, but worth pointing out. Perk selections are better in this regard, though check in under the basic column as well.

That's a bit of nitpicking from an adult perspective, though. Lego 2K Drive is a blast to pick up and play, never takes itself too seriously and really excels where it needs to—it's just a fun experience within a race or out exploring.

Story, Multiplayer and More

The story of Lego 2K Drive sets the funny narrative tone right out of the gates—the rival to the player's character dislikes them for unexplained reasons. It's the "obvious bad guy" vs. the "no-named nobody" right out of the gates. Go win the 'chip to grow that dislike. For adults who have enjoyed the tone of recent Lego movies, this should be a fun ride. Kids will obviously love the story and funny moments.

Over the course of the story, players will get nice little scenes that move things along. Actually progressing things can be a grind at times, though, if players aren't really vibing with the side missions that aren't just straight-up races.

The minigames, challenges and side missions range from the standard time trials to missions where players have to collect things or even save citizens of the world from insert bad thing here, with a Lego slant.

These aren't bad, but a your-mileage-may-very detail and sometimes feels like it takes a little too long to work through in order to reach the next story beat.

Of course, a Lego game would flop in this day and age without proper customization.

Lego 2K Drive offers it in droves, to say the least. The game boasts around 1,000 Lego pieces to tinker with in the garage. There are specific instructions to follow, though players are free to hop in and craft to their heart's desire.

For some, the wealth of options and a blank slate might come off as intimidating. But for adults who grew up with Legos, it's like bringing the imagination right to a screen. It's safe to presume kids will get lost in the mode for a long time—and it's only a matter of time before the online community starts bringing downright incredible creations to social media.

Unfortunately, microtransactions register as a bit of a black eye for the game.

The game does let players unlock brick parts while they complete missions and such. But there are some unlocked within the store, too. And the game's economy does feel a little unnecessarily grindy. Purchasing a full vehicle from the microtransactions store is very expensive, meaning earning more than one pre-built could be steep of a grind.

This problem is a little more nuanced than usual given the game's intended younger target audience. And season pass and things that can extend the game's lifespan by adding things for even the grindiest of players to do can be a good thing, but the weighting of it feels off given the circumstances (and is always tweakable).

Part of the joy of online play is seeing the wacky vehicles players come up with during events. But with the immense customization, it's also nice to see the game has taken steps to protect younger players by requiring 2K accounts before hopping online. And there are always balancing concerns (much as one can have those in a Lego racer) if players can just up and bring purchased creations into the fray.

Despite some concerns, it's clear there is a robust package here and a game that could have very, very long legs, especially online.

LEGO 2K Drive runs well throughout the experience and has an array of options tucked into the menu systems, to boot. Hopping in and changing up a loadout is easy and different keybindings is good to see. A glossary and tutorials help things along in simple enough fashion, too.

Conclusion

In an unexpected twist, it's Lego pushing the cart-racing genre forward by smashing some Mario Kart into Forza and stamping the experience with its own brand of reckless, streamlined arcade driving.

LEGO 2K Drive is, in a word, fun. That's an important barrier to hit these days. Atop this, somehow, the innovation is worth the raise of an eyebrow—it's hard not to think about how a franchise like Mario Kart could link all of its tracks into an overworld hub like this, to say the least.

For now, LEGO 2K Drive stands strong as a sleeper of a release with rather big implications. The pick-up-and-play potential for all ages and game's structure suggests it will stick around for a long time, too.