As I’ve become older, my taste in video games has changed. When I met my wife, she played a variety of games, but ones she enjoyed most were from the LEGO series. I, myself, have become a fan of LEGO games and love playing these co-op titles with my wife. That is why I am excited to be here today to review LEGO DC Super Villains.
THE STORY DC HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR
The game’s story puts the villains at the forefront for the first time in the series. The Justice League has vanished and a group called the Justice Syndicate has taken their place. DC’s villains are tasked with discovering what’s happened to the Justice League while stopping the fake do-gooders. The story is loosely based around the events of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which is also based on the Crime Syndicate of America that first appeared in DC Comics in 1964.
After playing previous DC titles with the heroes leading the way, it was very refreshing to see the change of good to evil. Throughout the story, we see Joker, Lex Luthor, and the crew go from caring about their own agenda to defending the Earth (in a way) for their own purpose.
Unexpectedly, I made a connection with the villains and their quirky personalities. The addition of Darkseid and his minions to the storyline made me feel like I was watching a DC movie marathon. I really feel as though the writing of the story is of film quality. When I say that, I mean in the sense that the script and story layout is so good I can see WB making this into their next Lego DC film!
Most superhero LEGO games have numerous guest characters to make the game universe seem big, while still keeping the focus on just a handful of characters. The pacing and layout are set perfectly for a LEGO game, but what really sold the story for me was hearing the voices I know and love. With voices like Mark Hamill (as Joker), Kevin Conroy (as Batman), Tara Strong (as Harley Quinn), and many more, this was the perfect all-star crew to be assembled for bringing this game to life.
GLITCHES ARE OKAY… SOMETIMES
There are sometimes in video games that some glitches just can’t be avoided. Disappearing animals in Skyrim, shooting with no gun in Call of Duty, we have seen them all. In LEGO DC Super-Villains, the two button combat is fun and simple but remains hindered somewhat by the spotty and sporadic camera system. Dara and I found ourselves either having to stop playing or one of us drop out of the game, several times due to the chaos of the camera movements.
The overall in-game hud, for both players, was also crowding a large portion of the static split screen. The reason we never had this issue before is a little feature called Dynamic Split Screen. This split screen mode didn’t just split the screen vertically or horizontally, as you moved around the level the dynamic split screen would rotate. Making it easier to see where you were going or what you were doing. I feel that if TT Games would have applied the dynamic split screen loved by fans it would have made the CO-OP gameplay seem more fluid.
We also ran into a few issues with frame rate and puzzle glitches. While playing one of the final boss battles, we were prompted to shrink our character for a quick circuit puzzle. The circuit puzzles are set up like a maze, you use the left and right bumper to turn the maze, which then drops your character to a lower or higher stop. The end goal is to make it to the end of the maze and hit a switch. There were multiple times that my character was either unable to move or glitched to the outside of the maze.
This was aggravating because we had to complete said task to move on with the story. We also had time a few times were the frame rates would drop, but only on certain areas of the screen. This may have been an issue with just the PS4 version of the game, but I cannot say for sure. WB and TT Games have been getting way better at making sure these bugs and glitches are not in their titles day one, I would just say these may have been unseen until now.
A GOOD GAME, IS A GOOD GAME
The controls, as usual, were very easy to pick up and understand for all ages. One of the more exciting changes this year was the character customization. During the customizing process, you can choose your abilities, voice, skin, hair, personality, mannerisms, the whole persona from top to bottom. In the pre-mission hub, you can simply press the start button to begin personalizing your character. This is easily the best customization in a LEGO game to date and is a pivotal feature point from start to finish.
Although we did encounter some problems in the game, I have to say my overall experience with LEGO DC SUPER-VILLAINS has been pretty fun. The cast, story, cute LEGO graphics, and overall music presentation of the game was something that made me smile from ear to ear the whole time I was playing it. To hear voices in the game that I have heard in some of my favorite superhero cartoons since I was a child was very gratifying and in itself an amazing experience.
Just thinking that this could be the last time we hear Mark Hamill as the Joker is sad, but I’m glad I got to hear him in a LEGO game before he stepped down as the Clown Prince of Crime. As said before, we had a lot of fun with this title and plan on playing all the Season Pass content day one! If you are a LEGO fan you really cannot pass up on this title!
