They say it’s good to be bad, which is the premise of the latest LEGO® adventure from TT Games. Who return to the world of DC Comics, with fourth outing for the DC comic book characters. This time around you join up start as part of the Rogue’s Gallery, causing mischief alongside the likes of The Joker, Harley Quinn and Lex Luthor. It’s also the first time you create your own anti-hero, who becomes an integral part of the games storyline. But how does the game fair on a whole? Let’s take a look at what’s new and improved in TT Games’ LEGO DC Super-Villains.
Product Description
Embark on an all-new LEGO adventure by becoming the best villain the universe has seen in LEGO DC Super-Villains. For the first time, a LEGO game is giving players the ability to play as a super-villain throughout the game, unleashing mischievous antics and wreak havoc in an action-packed, hilarious story written in collaboration with DC Comics. Set in an expansive, open world experience within the DC Universe, the Justice League has disappeared, leaving Earth’s protection to their counterparts from a parallel universe, who have proclaimed themselves as the ‘Justice Syndicate’. Sometimes, it takes more than a superhero to get the job done and it’s up to the player and a crazed group of misfits to uncover the intentions of Earth’s new, strange, wannabe superheroes. Joined by renowned super-villains: The Joker, Harley Quinn, Lex Luthor, Deathstroke, Killer Frost, Sinestro, and countless others from the Injustice League, players will set out on an epic adventure to ensure their villainy remains unrivaled.
- Game Title: LEGO DC Super-Villains
- Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: TT Games/TT Fusion
- RRP: from £39.99
- Features: 2 Player Co-op, Remote Play, Switch Play
- Availability: Physical Media, Download
The Gameplay
If you’ve played any of the past LEGO games, you’ll instantly be familiar with the controls and the structure of gameplay. But the beginning of the game opens unlike any other LEGO title. Instead of jumping into the blocky shoes of iconic characters from well-known universes, you have to build your anti-hero. After Jim Gordon arrives at Stryker Island to enlist Lex Luthor’s assistance, you’re shown a file when acts as introduction to the all-new character creator. Being able to build virtual LEGO characters has been a part of LEGO games for numerous years now but this is the first time you can create a character who become an integral part of the games storyline. It’s also the most in-depth character creator to appear in a LEGO game. Every single aspect of your character can be tweaked to your liking. Appearance, colour, voice, powers and even the colour of effects you creation will unleash can be changed to your liking. Here’s my first creation the Bricktickler, I also created Doctor Croc, who you’ll see a little further down.
It’s like you’ve been given an almost endless box of LEGO elements to build any Minifigure you can imagine. The only limits are your creativity and the LEGO build system. There’s a nice selection of pieces available from the off, but these expand as you play the game. For every new character you unlock, new elements are added to the character customiser. After constructing your custom character, you are then dropped into the game as a fully playable character known as the Rookie. You may be the strong silent type, but your character is front and centre for most of the game.
As well as collecting new elements, you can also absorb new powers. This is your unique superpower and a clever way to see you advance through the game without becoming a new character. But that doesn’t mean you don’t play as some of the DC universes well-known faces. The Rookie is joined by various villains for each level and at some points during the story, your custom character is side-lined altogether. Which did feel a little odd, after all the effort you spend creating the Rookie.
Beyond the core story of the game, for me LEGO games really come into their own after the story has ended. The vast hub world is where the bulk of the fun can be had. Both Gotham and Metropolis feature heavily as well as Smallville and a mysterious alien planet. Each location is filled with things to do such as races, fetch missions, puzzles and more. Mostly resulting in those all important Gold Bricks, new characters and vehicles. Tracking them down can be tricky, but in recent LEGO games, there have been ways to track them such as Red Brick unlocks. However this time around you have to find Information Terminals which populate your location with all collectibles and quests. These are then displayed on a new on-screen mobile phone.
This acts a both a radar and a way to delivery TT Games trademark brand of humour. You’ll receive text messages as you play, sometimes these relate to things you’ve just completed or they will be totally random but chucklesome puntastic jokes. Which is where the real charm of LEGO games can be found, from the main story to NPCs milling around the game. Some of the stuff they come out with is genuinely funny. I’ve heard references to Animaniacs, Shenmue, Lois & Clark and even League of Gentlemen.
The integration of LEGO is well done, every single piece of virtual LEGO brick or element seen in the game, can be built in the real world. I love the little microscale cityscape which appears on the loading screen. This small slice of the game goes to show how much effort TT Games put into their LEGO titles. Something which is also true of source material. With so many characters to unlock, some of DC Comics lesser known superfolk have been added to the game alongside the well-known characters you’d expect to find. From Batman to Detective Chimp, each character features a little information file. These gives a little backstory and where the character first appeared in the source material. The level of fandom expressed by TT Games has also translates to the extensive voice cast. Many of those who have voiced iconic characters in other forms, return to breath life into characters once again. The biggest of these are of course Mark Hamill’s Joker and Kevin Conray’s Batman. Famous for the roles in the highly acclaimed Batman Animated Series and WB Games Arkham games.
As well as the main game story and huge number of quests in the hubworld, once you’ve finished the main story, you’ll have a choice to make which then opens up a number of additional levels. These are played in the same style as some of the past Season Pass offerings. So Lobo narrates you through a few more adventures, featuring the awesome LEGO artwork of Dan Veesenmeyer, who will also be providing content for the LEGO DC Super-Villains Season Pass. There are also a few fun additions to gameplay including a Flash focused minigame, in which you pop on the Cosmic Treadmill to collect a series of parts needed to create a build, these drop you into a Sonic-esque ‘on-rail’ runner. A nice nod to TT Games gaming past.
The Minifigure
It’s become a tradition to include an exclusive Minifigure with certain editions of each LEGO Games release and DC Super-Villains continues that trend with an exclusive Lex Luthor ‘Rebirth’ Superman minifigure. This Superman branded version of Lux come with his armoured super suit and cape.
Inspired to become the hero of Metropolis that his sister could be proud of when she awakens from a coma, Lex Luthor buys out the Daily Planet to retrieve Superman’s cape and declared himself the new Superman. This is taken from the DC Rebirth series of comics. His reason for wearing the super suit in the game are a little different, with the real heroes gone, their replacement ‘heroes’ turn out to be a little more evil than the evil guys. Who in turn decided to be ‘good’ well as good as a gang of super-villains can be. The minifigure is a nice addition to your DC Comics collection and certainly not one who will appear in a set anytime soon.
The Season Pass
The Season Pass will feature six Level Packs and four Character Packs, including two Aquaman Movie Level Packs inspired by the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film, Aquaman, in theaters nationwide on 2nd December and two Shazam! Movie Level Packs inspired by the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film Shazam! in theaters nationwide April 2019.The DC Super Heroes TV Series Character Pack and DC Super-Villains TV Series Character Pack will add favorites from Warner Bros. Television, including DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Black Lightning TV series. Additional packs include the DC Films Character Pack, plus Batman: The Animated Series Level Pack and Young Justice Level Pack inspired by the Warner Bros. Animation series. The Season Pass can be downloaded now and content will be available over the next few weeks and into early 2019. Find a link to additional content via the games main menu or in the digital store of your platform.
Overall
It’s a well-known fact the long list of LEGO titles are fairly similar, but it’s also worth remembering they are aimed at younger gamers. However I genuinely enjoy pottering around the games, mopping up collectibles and earning all the trophies/achievements. With each new title TT Games, tries to implement a new style of play or features. The character creator is by far a vast addition to the LEGO games franchise, not only offering you a virtual toybox of LEGO parts to play with but also directly affecting the games story. I can see an expanded character creator appearing in future LEGO titles. But the real draw is the level of dedication the TT Games give to the license they are working on. Obscure characters, references, locations, and almost every aspect of the world the LEGO inhabits, not only shows the knowledge of those working on it but also their continued love of LEGO. Sure they are similar but they continue to be fun and that’s what really matters.
LEGO DC Super-Villains is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Thanks to Warner Bros. UK for supplying us with a copy to review, the opinions within this review of those of our own and do not reflect those of WBIE, DC Comics or The LEGO Group. Version review: PlayStation 4.
