Game review 24 May 2023, 15:42

author: Giancarlo Saldana

LEGO 2K Drive Review: Some Missing Pieces

Mixing LEGO bricks with an open-world cart racing experience, LEGO 2K Drive is lighthearted fun that could build way more with its working parts.

The review is based on the PS5 version. It's also relevant to PC, XSX, XONE, PS4, Switch version(s).

The LEGO brand is all about giving its audience the freedom to build and create whatever their heart desires. We have also seen a wide gamut of games that range from humorous versions of popular titles like Star Wars and Harry Potter to more original puzzlers like LEGO Bricktales that let you play with LEGO bricks without needing to worry about picking up all those tiny pieces when you are done.

It’s not surprising, then, to now have an open-world racing game like LEGO 2K Drive. Kids love racing their LEGO figurines every chance they get, and even adults enjoy a good racing game like Mario Kart and Forza Horizon that offers you plenty to do. Mix all this together, and you get a game filled with some family-friendly humor, plenty of colorful worlds to explore, and lots of things to keep you busy even if they’re not all winning builds.

LEGO Charm Behind the Wheel

Akin to Forza Horizon, 2K Drive drops you off in the open-world of Bricklandia and sees you being recruited by local legend Clutch Racington. The game offers you a traditional racing experience as you can access all of its 26 tracks from the start, but at its core is a story mode that sees your character rank up and beat out other rival racers in your quest to win the coveted Sky Cup.

If you have played any LEGO game before, you already know what to expect from its narrative. It’s simple, straight to the point, and filled with self-referential humor. Take the commentators Vikki Wheeler and Parker Carr, for example—just their names give away the kind of tone you should expect. And while this works at first, eventually it does get a bit old and you just want to skip cutscenes to get to the racing. Younger audiences, however, will like all the puns and hilarity that ensues when you crash into LEGO people and see them fumble around.

Most of what you will be doing in story mode is exploring four different biomes in search of things to do. You get some direction to compete in races, cups, and challenges and side missions, but after the introductory phase, you have full control over what you can do. Now, that does come with a grain of salt, however, as the game requires you to be at a certain level to compete in certain races and the only way to level up is to complete side challenges for experience.

These challenges also have their highs and lows as they are not all winners, but they do offer you with plenty to do as you explore the game’s world. Sometimes you’ll need to push a giant egg onto a frying pan as fast as you can or help a scientist wrangle up her missing live rockets, and other times, you’ll need to defend people from the onslaught of zombies. They’re not all bad, but the issue that the game soon runs into is that you need to do a lot of them to gain enough experience to finish the main story.

For a game that lasts about 10 hours, it’s understandable to want to stretch someone’s playtime, but walling you off from other missions and main races doesn’t seem like the best approach considering most of what you do is limited to four worlds that are not very big and one of them is the introductory world that is even smaller. In fact, two of those worlds, Prospecto Valley and Big Butte, are similar in design so you may mistake them at times—even their soundtracks lack any memorable tunes. Bigger maps or even an additional world would make things seem more interesting and varied.

Yellow-Bricked Roads

Take the action to the track and the game does a lot of things right. As you progress through the story, you’ll be challenged with winning races for money, medals, and to simply make your way to the final cup at the end. Races come in three different classes (C, B, and A) and you will unlock the fastest A class as you level up. Like previous cart racers, expect a good amount of craziness on the tracks, weapons being thrown around, and tracks that showcase the fun of the LEGO world including its destructive elements as crashing into things only powers up your boost meter.

I did, however, notice that the game relies heavily on rubber band mechanics causing most races to have a similar progressions system. At the start, you will always fall behind and the first place racer will be way ahead. After the third lap, you will catch up and be neck and neck with everyone else. This leads to finishing first feeling like a close call when, in fact, the game feels programmed to let you have the win. This approach is fine for younger gamers who want to enjoy the thrill of winning first place, but after a while, you start to notice your AI opponents are up to something. Luckily, online races against other humans are smooth and suffered from no setbacks or lag.

The tracks and the overall enjoyment during a race is up there with the likes of Mario Kart and Team Sonic Racing. Weapons like rockets will home in on your opponents and other more powerful weapons like cannons will continuously blast your foes until their cars literally explode in front of you causing them to respawn. Shortcuts are also plentiful and being able to jump and boost whenever you want can lead to some tricky maneuvers you will want to master. One annoying item is the spider web trap that is great when you use it but horrible if you are trapped in it as it will cause you to mash the jump button to free yourself from it, an odd choice as you will nearly always jump when you weren’t planning to. Perhaps that was the trap’s evil intention all along?

Winning Builds

During any race, your vehicle will actually morph from street car to off-roader to speedboat automatically depending on the terrain you are on. Not only do you get three vehicles to race with at all times, but it’s also a nice touch watching your racer conform to your environment as racing on dirt with a luxury sports car probably isn’t smart unless you have some nice traction on those wheels. You unlock more cars as you complete in races, and while their stats remain balanced, they do feature different combinations that make them feel a bit different from one another. There is also a perk system that lets you customize how your vehicles perform, which some depth to the overall cart-racing experience.

2K Drive also lets you edit these vehicles or create ones of your very own via its impressive build mode. The cool thing about this mode is that it lets you unleash your creativity in whatever way you want. Say you want to build something from scratch. If you have the time to sit there and put everything together, why not? And if you want some assistance, you can also use templates to give you a head’s start. If you want to build something but need some added inspiration, for instance, you can always copy an unlocked vehicle and edit it as much as you want to make it your own. This mode is subjective to the kind of player you are, but if you find comfort in building LEGOs sets, it could easily be the one you go to first. The only downside to creating your own vehicle is that you can’t customize your driver and are forced to select pre-made LEGO people.

Final Thoughts

One great thing about LEGO 2K Drive is that the game can be played alongside someone else, making it an ideal experience for families to enjoy together. Cup races, mini-games, and even story mode can be played with two people as both players need to agree to start a race while anyone can complete the various challenges and quests while someone else goes out exploring. It’s good enough for cart-aficionados to enjoy both offline and online and a no-brainer for families who are both competitive and creative.

Completing challenges and races can unlock vehicles, perks, and Brickbux that can be used to purchase new cars, drivers, and even LEGO bricks that give you more tools to build more fanciful creations. Grinding for money is ultimately a chore and a letdown as simply purchasing a car can cost you a third of the income you get for completing the story so it feels as though 2K wants you to dish out real money to unlock the things you (or your kids) may really want.

For what it’s worth, LEGO 2K Drive is a solid racing game with open-world elements that give it life beyond just completing laps and winning trophies. Its offerings are limited, unfortunately, as it’s not as big as you would hope and even your creativity can be halted if you don’t have the parts or the money on hand to build what you want. It checks off all the right boxes for what a fun cart racing game should be—and its quintessential LEGO charm is there—but it feels like a missed opportunity to really build a world teeming with excitement.