2K Drive pays homage to that game with a customisation tool of its own that would’ve seemed like witchcraft in the late ’90s. Now, the last LEGO racing game I played – beyond Forza Horizon’s take on it – was LEGO Racers back in 1999, which is fondly remembered by gamers of a particular vintage for its rudimentary custom car building. My kids loved the villain, who is frankly far funnier than the token bad guy in a licensed racing game probably had any right to be. I absolutely found myself smiling along with the cutscenes, which emulate the same photoreal stop-motion style nailed by The LEGO Movie. It does a slightly poor job of spelling out why certain later missions are unavailable until you unlock the next batch of races, especially since younger players may just stumble across them and think they’re broken, but the story is very cute. The story itself lasted me around 10 hours sticking at it, but I have been left with a lot of uncompleted side objectives. The collection missions are the most egregious and they’re essentially just padding to stretch out proceedings.
Lego island racer speed portal series#
2K Drive performs smoothly on Xbox Series X, but I have had a friend lose hours of save game progress on PS5 without warning, which appears to be a known issue.ĢK Drive is probably guilty of leaning a little too heavily on some of its non-racing mission types, some of which are riffed upon several times throughout the career mode. The track design is also generally strong, with plenty of technical segments, environmental hazards, and rewarding shortcuts. The rubber-banding might be a fraction too flagrant at times, but it does at least keep the racing chaotic and close, and it rarely feels unfair.
It’s very useful for tight switchbacks and an absolute necessity to effectively complete some of the missions – particularly the destruction-based ones that require swift changes of direction. Also, the dedicated handbrake button – or quick turn, as 2K Drive dubs it – is a crucial and welcome addition. It’s simple to pick up and play but arguably more complex than it first seems – especially once you start to exploit the mild air controls possible via the rocket jump and nitro boost, or feel the subtle effects of weight as your vehicles lose bricks from collisions and combat (in a clever touch, crashing through trackside objects will replenish the LEGO in your own damaged ride). That said, the sensation of long, high-speed powerslides is well translated by 2K Drive’s handling model. It’s possible to switch to a more typical tap-to-drift mechanic but that’s a little less predictable and I have found my drifts ending prematurely, leaving me to battle understeer or jam down the brake mid-corner to get another drift going. It’s actually very easy to grasp, but it does feel a little odd to have the brake squeezed fully down for considerable parts of a race. On that note, drifting is executed in a slightly peculiar way in 2K Drive, and by default it requires us to hold both the brake and throttle at the same time throughout an entire drift. If you’re unfamiliar with The Crew 2, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed’s similarly mighty take on morphing motors may give you some idea of what to expect – their brands of multi-terrain, vehicle-swapping racing around regularly crazy courses while blasting opponents with weapons are very alike. The effect of your ride rapidly blinking from street to offroad and back again, after spending just a split-second on the shoulder, is a bit manic – but you can turn automatic switching off if you’d rather swap manually. The ability to have multiple different trios of vehicles saved in your loadouts is very handy, though I would say the system is a little overzealous when set to shift automatically. Vehicles in 2K Drive transform between street rides, offroad racers, and boats as the terrain changes, complete with a satisfying brick-clicking sound effect. However, despite that obvious LEGO link, 2K Drive is arguably more in-line with Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 and its hot-swapping system. Forza Horizon 4’s dearly-loved LEGO expansion rates as an automatic mention as a fellow open-world, LEGO-themed racer (and they certainly both share the idea of having races and challenges spread out across the map to organically discover as we explore).
LEGO 2K Drive cribs from a lot of existing racers, which makes it fairly easy to explain.
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