Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 – Review
I’ve been waiting for a sequel and TT games have provided – Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 has arrived. Following the events of 2013’s Lego Marvel Super Heroes, it picks up directly where LMSH left off, and this time around, Kang the Conqueror is trying to take over time and space (If you’re into the comics, think of it as the Secret Wars but with different villains.)
Kang the Conqueror uses the powers of the Infinity Stone of Time, which allows him to gather forces from all over the Marvel multiverse – Chronopolis, composed of Marvel Universe areas ripped from time and space into one big mash-up area, is LMSH2’s open world hub. New York City does feature, both in past and future tenses, but you’ll also see a version of Asgard, the Kree home world Hala, the Inhuman city of Attilan and more. All these locations in Chronopolis have a ton of missions and characters to unlock by taking part in races and solving puzzles.
After an eventful opening mission with the Guardians of the Galaxy (which involves saving the planet Xandar from Kang and his summoned celestial), the focus will switch the Avengers who are enjoying a “Save the World Party ” before being called into action by Nick Fury. The Avengers and allies gather together and throughout the game, they are split into teams to find Nexus shards that they accidentally destroyed. The plan is to open a portal with the Nexus, find more help and then mount an all-out assault on Kang’s citadel. These Nexus shards are scattered all over Chronopolis, having been recovered by the many Marvel villains either allied with Kang, or those who want to use the power of the Nexus to overthrow him.
Some missions can be quick for boss battles; others are full levels where you will have to get past many barricades or puzzles to reach the boss at the end. Implemented from the recent Lego Marvel Avengers game, Team Ups can be executed when your characters’ combo bar fills, to signal your teammate to execute a nicely animated combo move. If you have some of the bar filled, you can do a special attack by pressing “B” (Xbox One) to grab an enemy and then “B” again to execute it.
The health meter above enemies is a new feature; some enemies will have special conditions attached to destroying them, such as timing your attacks right, or may only be attacked by a certain character – Silver Lego vest-wearing enemies can be only destroyed by rockets from either Iron Man or Rocket Racoon, as an example.
Along with a plethora of well-known characters in the roster, there are others that you may have to consult the Marvel encyclopaedia to learn more about – Klaw, the Black Knight, the Inhumans, etc. If you were looking for the Xmen and Fantastic Four, you’re out of luck this time; even though they were in the first game. However, don’t let that put you off; with the massive roster of Marvel characters in the game as it is, there’s more than enough fun to go around.
As with most Lego games, Marvel superheroes can be played with a friend in split-screen mode (which is always the best way to play any Lego title). There is a new local-only multiplayer mode for up to four players, which offers two modes: picking up and holding the Infinity Stones for as long as possible to build points, and collecting coloured blocks and dropping them into a bin. Certain characters have more of an advantage in this mode than others, so a scramble for the best characters will inevitably take place. We’ll let you figure out which ones.
Due of the SAG-AFTRA strike last year, LMSH2 was directly impacted – it was in development at the time of the strike, and so, new non-striking voice actors and actresses were cast – so if you’re wondering why the characters sound somewhat different in this game, this is the reason why. Read more about it here. Thor was my favourite character, but the experience is somewhat jarring, not hearing the familiar voice of the first game – and I feel the same about other recast characters. Peter Serafinowicz does a good job and holds his own as Kang the Conqueror though.
Several missions had to be restarted throughout the levels multiple times due to a few bug issues – NPCs permanently stuck and unreachable, red brick detector issues, etc. – at the time of writing, it’s unclear as to when TT Games will release patches for the bugs, but we will update the article when the time comes.
The Season Pass, which is also available now, includes 6 new playable levels, and 4 new character packs inspired by the films and comics of the Marvel universe, which consists of:
Classic Guardians of the Galaxy Character Pack
Agents of Atlas Character Pack
Out of Time Character Pack
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 Movie Character and Level Pack
Champions Character Pack
Marvel’s Black Panther Movie Character and Level Pack
Cloak And Dagger Character and Level Pack
Runaways Character and Level Pack
Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War Movie Character and Level Pack
Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp Movie Character and Level Pack
As LEGO is and has continually proven to be for all ages, so too is LMSH2; there is more than enough to enjoy for both adults and children playing this game, even without the Season Pass. Overall, LMSH2 is a good sequel, with plenty of content, hours of gameplay, loads of characters and items to unlock – an all-round fun game in which everyone will find something to enjoy.
-Cian Crowdy
4/5
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