PSLS • • • • Another year, another trek through a building block infested world. The LEGO series of games has put us in Batman’s suit, holding Indiana Jones whip, and now we travel to the world of hobbits and orcs with LEGO The Hobbit. Like a yearly sports release, the LEGO series has shown small improvements each year to the formula and this year is no different. However, it would have been nice to see the developers finally solve some key issues and add much-requested features.LEGO The Hobbit follows the events of the first two hobbit movies, as Bilbo Baggins has teamed up with a group of Dwarfs to try and claim back their homeland Erebor from the dragon Smaug. It makes sense that the game follows along with the first two movies as the third hasn’t released yet, but it really makes the ending to the game a bit awkward as there really isn’t a true ending. As someone who has seen both movies, it was really cool to see the great sense of humor added to very serious scenes of the movies.
Cooperative play is the name of the game when it comes to the LEGO series and The Hobbit is no different. The game takes it a bit further than past titles however, as you have anywhere close to 8 characters on screen at once during some levels and you have some new coop elements to play with. Stack up dwarf’s at certain areas of levels to reach higher places or buddy up with your teammate to perform a buddy attack. This attack can be used at anytime during the level but comes in most handy when trying to break a wall or take down a large enemy.As you have so many possible choices during levels, the game actually provides you a reason to use most of the characters in your party. One of the dwarfs has a bow, one has a slingshot, and then one has a big hammer. All of these weapons will need to be used at some point throughout each level, whether you are weighing down something with the slingshot or knocking a boulder out of the way with the hammer. Each dwarf has multiple weapons and abilities which helps spice up the gameplay a bit, giving you plenty of options throughout each level.
Outside of the main story levels, which once beaten can be played in free play mode, there will be plenty for players to do throughout the world. The world, which is bigger than you might expect for a LEGO game, allows you to travel all around it, performing quests for NPCs and collecting bricks and loot. Loot is something new to the series, as you collect boards, fish, stone, and much more. This loot can be used during the levels to build a needed device or used at the Blacksmith to craft special weapons or items. Bricks can be collected throughout the game which allows you once purchased to unlock different cheats to use during your playthrough and like past LEGO games, you can also purchase multiple different characters to use during the game.Now I mentioned earlier how there were some issues here in The Hobbit that sadly has been there for almost every LEGO game and hasn’t been fixed. This is namely the glitches and freezes in the game. During my playthrough, I had the game freeze up completely over 6 times, with 3 of those coming at the same exact part of a level when I switched characters too fast.
I could forgive these issues a little bit if they didn’t happen every single time they released a LEGO game. There were also a few occasions where I completed a quest, only to have the game not recognize it and making me redo the quest to complete it again.A minor issue I found too was while playing co-op with my wife. The game lets you visit two different areas of the map and work on separate things, which is nice. However, if I was working on a specific quest and then my wife started talking to an NPC to gain a new quest, the game collapses the split screen and reads you the quest. This becomes increasingly annoying when one person is in the middle of doing something and a quest is started, sometimes accidentally. This would be fixed with an option for online co-op, however that has still not been realized in the series sadly.Outside of some issues, LEGO The Hobbit is a step forward in the series. Gathering loot and buddy attacks are super additions that do just enough to improve the series.
It is obvious that the devs were strapped to reach a big amount of playable characters and it is annoying to see issues not fixed. For fans of the LEGO series, you will be happy you picked this up and for those new to the series, this is a good entry into the LEGO realm.Buddy Attacks and multiple weaponsGathering loot to craft weapons and itemsBig world to exploreGreat musical scoreHumor aboundGame can randomly freeze upNo online componentToo many co-op interruptionsPlaying Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham after Lego Marvel Super Heroes does little to hide the comparative paucity of star power in DC’s lineup. Beyond the Batman and Superman universes, you’re almost constantly left shrugging your shoulders at the characters on your screen. This is notable from an early cutscene with a selection of naughty Lanterns messing about in space, which will have all but regular DC readers shrugging their shoulders with indifference until the Joker and Lex Luthor show up to add a bit of class to the villains stable.
The story sees the members of the Justice League taking on Brainiac who has started collecting cities again in miniature form. For the most part, you’ll be playing as Batman and Robin, who once again have changeable suits to give them special powers like explosives, lasers, underwater diving, hacking and so on. Batman seems even more grumpy than usual and comes off as a bit of a jerk on more than one occasion. Still, what do you expect when having to put up with Robin all day? Most characters seem to be exaggerated versions of themselves, but to be fair, as much as we adults like playing the Lego games, they are aimed at children, so we shouldn’t judge this too harshly. The Flash is admittedly amusing throughout, with his obsessive collecting and hoarding of pretty much anything in the cutscenes, never failing to extract a chuckle or two. Let’s get into some gameplay though. Unlike the last game, you can swap into a different suit at any time instead of having to find a specific station.
It’s a big improvement, only slightly let down by a clunky radial menu and a slow process when wanting to swap to a different character in freeplay mode. Nearby teammates can be quickly hopped into by facing them and pressing triangle, but if there’s more than one, you’ll often select everyone but them in a taunting game of piggy in the middle. There’s not much to say about gameplay if you’ve ever played a Lego game. Each stage is packed with breakable objects, some of which can then be rebuilt to form an unlikely construction to help you reach a new area. It rarely makes sense and the only tactic you’ll need will be to break everything and look out for the telltale bouncing blocks to indicate a new build. Combat seems even more basic than before and oddly unresponsive. The QTE elements briefly introduced in Lego The Hobbit have been nixed too. Best bet: switch to Superman and fry them all with laser vision from above whenever possible. As the game’s subtitle implies, the action takes place in locations other than the Dark Knight’s backyard.
You’ll travel to Europe and enjoy stomping around miniaturised versions of Paris and London like Godzilla on holiday. There are a few too many space station stages for my liking, but at least a tour of the lantern planets changes things up a little. A few Resogun-esque shooter levels have been squeezed in, although they’re a little sparse in enemy numbers compared to Housemarque’s well received PS4 blaster. I played through the entire campaign in co-op with my better half, although it took a bit of convincing after 37 hours into Lego The Hobbit we were screwed out of a Trophy thanks to a glitch, scuppering our plans for a Platinum. On the plus side, for the first time, both players will earn Trophies when signed into their individual accounts, rather than all the silverware going to player one. No progress file is created for player two though, so they can’t fire up the game alone and resume the collection, but requirements for the Trophies are rounded enough to make sure the other player is able to catch up easily next time they play with you.
There are some downsides to co-op play though. There’s still no online functionality, despite the newspaper on my coffee table pretending it’s the year 2014. The ‘dynamic camera’ option is still powered by lunacy too, spinning around with its ever shifting split often leaving one player absent from both sides or cramped into a tiny corner, making aiming projectiles an exercise in frustration. If the camera would just zoom out a bit more before opting for a split, things would be much better. The alternative locked split option never feels right as it’s a vertical one meaning you can’t see much of the world around you, making searching and exploring a pain – horizontal split or nothing next time please, Traveller’s Tales. The endgame is more focussed than the likes of Lego Hobbit and Lego Marvel as there’s not a huge hub world to explore between revisiting campaign missions in freeplay with unlocked characters to gather up remaining bricks and minikits. Instead, there are missions dotted around The Watchtower and a few rounded versions of the Lantern planets that are similar to the explorable moons found in the Ratchet & Clank series.