To the great surprise of no one, the Lego games are finally going there and, well, not quite back again in Lego The Hobbit. The game follows the first two films of the Hobbit movie trilogy, giving us a chance to lead Bilbo and company all the way from the comforts of Bag End to the dwarf home beneath the Lonely Mountain. It’s a fun journey to be sure, but confusing at times, and not entirely satisfying. Lego The Hobbit clings to the series’ standard combat and exploration, but, as usual, a handful of welcome twists make things a bit more interesting this time around. A few different rhythm-based challenges, an item creation system tied to resource collection, and the “find the missing piece” mini-game from February’s Lego Movie game make The Hobbit more than just a button masher, although it is still mostly just that. Thankfully, the environmental challenges and enemies are sophisticated enough to keep the action engaging. In comparison to the roster in last year’s Lego Marvel game, many of the characters in the Hobbit feel like, at best, minor variations of each other.
It certainly doesn’t help that they all sort of look alike, and it can get a little confusing to tell the dwarves apart. But you’ll need to pay attention, as each dwarf has one unique ability, like Bombur’s ability to turn into a bouncing platform or Bofur’s mining power, that needs to be applied to the narrowly scripted environmental challenges. Chip the Glasses and Crack the Plates The extended action sequences and sometimes slapstick humor of The Hobbit films make a good fit for a Lego game. Honestly, there’s always been something a little disjointed about watching Cyclops wreck the X-Mansion or Luke Skywalker destroy Yoda’s house, but seeing the Dwarves go to town demolishing absolutely everything in Bag End or Rivendell makes perfect sense. When you see them literally start smashing Bilbo’s cupboards and Elrond’s tables, it just feels right. From the plate juggling in Bilbo’s kitchen to the golden toilets in Smaug’s hoard, there are also loads of humorous little touches that keep the charm going.
Lego The Hobbit also looks beautiful. The settings are very convincing, with loads of little details and plenty of suitably moody lighting. The world is filled with fantastic creatures and monsters, and developer Traveller’s Tales has done a great job adapting the giant eagles, goblin kings, and dragons to the standard Lego models. The only real problem with the graphics is that the more realistic color palette and sheer density of some of the scenes can make it very difficult to see who you are or what you’re doing. The sometimes inconsistent camera angles don’t help things much. More than once, I just found myself just attacking and jumping at random in the hopes that I would eventually figure out where I was. To Dungeons Deep and Caverns Old The main story clocks in at about six hours, but there’s much more to do and see in the world once you’ve completed the main missions. Each mission unlocks events around the map, and you’ll be able to spend hours digging into the recipes, errands, and encounters around Middle-earth.
A campfire system lets you change the time of day to open up new events, and you can always call on a giant eagle to get you from one end of the map to the other. While most of the missions are fairly predictable, I was impressed with the Hobbit’s take on the solo sections. For Riddles in the Dark, Bilbo’s joined by a dazed goblin, for instance. There are also some tremendous set pieces where the characters are facing off against the dragon, or climbing up the body of a very active and very angry stone giant. Unfortunately, the story sort of goes by in a flash. Last year’s Lego Marvel showed what Travelers Tales can do with an original story, so The Hobbit’s abbreviated, sometimes scattered storytelling feels like a step back. There are narrative bits tying the missions together, but the whole game presumes that you already know the source material well enough to fill in the gaps yourself. (You probably do, but if you’re playing with kids it might not be clear to them.) It’s particularly troublesome to track the events between the spider attack and the dwarves’ arrival at Lake Town.
The game also ends where the second movie ends, which left me wanting more – and not in a good way. Lego The Hobbit won’t surprise fans of the Lego series, but the new gameplay systems add just enough complexity to keep things interesting. New events and mining opportunities make exploration of the open world almost as fun as the main missions. The storytelling presumes you already know the source material by heart, which means things are sometimes a bit disjointed, and the game, like the movies it’s based on, ends at an awkward place. But like almost all the Lego games, this is a journey worth taking.When I first went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in theaters, I couldn't help but feel excited that I was finally venturing back to the majestic Middle-earth. After getting my hands on LEGO: The Hobbit recently, those same butterflies returned. I was heading back to a series with a world and characters I already loved from playing LEGO The Lord of the Rings. Even though there are more dwarves than you know what to do with this time around, our demo in The Goblin Town area held a few refreshing surprises along with the silly LEGO charm I've come to adore.
Our demo began in the middle of a fight with the Goblin King, who, just like in the movie, is a bit silly instead of scary. His massive LEGO gullet is just as disturbing, though. LEGO Goblin Town looks just as brown and cavernous as it does in the film and it's incredible how Traveler's Tales once again brings these vast set pieces and iconic characters to life with LEGO bricks. The Goblin King battle was broken in to multiple stages, each showing off a new element of LEGO gameplay. In the first section, Bilbo fell underground and I had to fight off a few goblins using the stalwart Thorin Oakenshield LEGO. Equipped with an Elven blade and shield, he's an excellent fighter. Much to my amusement, the goblins he fought went flying off the screen as he took them out, rather than simply falling at his feet. To make combat more than simply bashing and smashing everything, a few goblins have easy quick time events in place that you'll have to execute to bring down. What's more interesting is how every LEGO dwarf also has a strong finishing attack, and it's funny how they can all smash cracked walls like Gimli in LEGO: Lord of the Rings.
Thorin could knock enemies up with his shield then thrash them down with his sword. Dwalin had a gargantuan hammer perfect for pummeling areas of enemies, Kili could fire three arrows instead of one, and the giant dwarf Bofur could charge up in a ball then go rolling towards his foes with brutal force. Aside from the silly animations, they were useful for quickly disposing goblins. Not to mention an extra added element of LEGO combat is always welcome. Another staple feature of LEGO: The Hobbit is a nod to just how many dwarves there are in the movies. The new buddy-up ability allows multiple dwarves to be used together in combination. After taking out some goblins and dropping a few well-placed blocks on the Goblin King's head, the next step was to run next to another dwarf and buddy, or link, up with him by pressing circle on the PlayStation 4 controller. While linked, I was able to control both dwarves as one unit to execute devastating attacks to finish the Goblin King off. You can buddy-up anytime, but it seemed necessary during the boss fight.
In combat, buddy-up is amazing for taking out large numbers of enemies. One dwarf generally swings the other by his feet in a huge circle, creating a dwarf tornado of death that deals damage to anything they come in contact with. Other puzzles later on down the tunnels had me buddying-up three staff-wielding dwarves to create a sort of totem pole for a fourth dwarf to climb up. Already in this small section of Goblin Town, buddy-up was used in a handful of ways, and and considering Thorin, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori and Ori all have different ways of interacting with the environment and one another, I'm excited to see how else the mechanic will play out. As I smashed my way through Goblin Town using a different set of dwarves for each section, to my surprise, I began acquiring tons of loot. Destroying barrels, enemies, and everything else earned me things like planks, ore, rocks, and rope that I then used to unlock a building mini-game. It's always fun to break all the LEGOs in a level, and now loot drops give me even more incentive to do so.
The building mini-game in LEGO: The Hobbit is almost identical to the version in The LEGO Movie Videogame. Basically, you're shown a virtual LEGO playset and have to select the LEGO bricks that are missing. Once you complete the playset, your work of art will be recreated in-game to help you access new areas. These sequences are realistic, and especially neat for those who love building LEGOs in real life as they're all based on actual playsets. The time-based building sections are also terrific for earning extra studs, as the faster you select the correct missing pieces, the more studs you'll be rewarded with. However, for each wrong LEGO you select, you'll lose some bonus studs. I earned almost 11,000 studs from one build, and knowing that I have to save up for things like stud multipliers and other characters, it's great there are new ways to collect the blocky currency. The variety of collectibles to obtain in LEGO: The Hobbit is huge, as the journey will take you through an open-world LEGO Middle-earth from the first two Hobbit films.