I've been wanting to talk about Lego 2K Drive for a while now. Though I didn't do the preview myself (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:you can read ours here), ever since the event was set up I've been aware of its existence, and if 2K gets things right, it could be the perfect game for me. There's still no racing game that has replicated the thrill of Burnout 3: Takedown, Mashed, or Destruction Derby 64, and I have high hopes that the cartoonish carnage of Lego with 2K's competence in the sports game market will combine to create exactly that. An open world Lego driving game sounds like a bunch of random popular words thrown together, but just like the best Lego creations, this mash-up of disconnected ideas could combine into something beautiful.
I played with Lego all t📖he time as a kid, a habit that has not lasted into adulthood. Mostly because when I was little Lego meant getting a big bucket of bricks and building a cool robot or whatever, and now it means shelling our triple figures and reading a thick instruction booklet to intricately construct the toiletඣ from the Batcave. To me, Lego is all about doing your own thing, and thankfully the same rings true for 2K Drive.
There are a multitude of original worlds, each with pretty classic themes like dinosaurs, futuristic, or cowboys, and the game will allow you to create your own riffs on them. It's selling itself as a live-service game that will constantly update over time, and that means more worlds could be added to explore, offering more tools at our fingertips. At its best, this will mean pouring more bricks into the big red bucket for us to play with. But at its worst, it will mean kicking our bricks to the side and trying to tempt us with the opportunity to spend hours making the hat rack where Indiana Jones keeps his trusty fedora.
Lego has mainly had success in gaming via licensed games, and has still been pursuing that recently - Guardians of the Galaxy and a Disney mash-up including Frozen were reportedly scrapped earlier🐻 this year. Lego Batman 4 is still going ahead, that same report claimed. So, while 2K Drive has endless possibilities, does t𝓡hat just mean endless crossovers? It would be a shame to see it become an IP farm, as well as a little dishonest when the positive preview coverage has been built around the world a▨nd the mechanics.
Crossovers wouldn't necessarily mean doom - Fortnite is constantly crossing over, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:still finds ways to innovate - but it feels like a temptation 2K Drive needs to avoid. Lego is a funky aesthetic and allows for a lot of slapstick with its energetic characters and ability to rebuild its entire environment, and that should be enough. Sure, I'm disappointed that the Lego Frozen game isn't coming to fruition, but this is a fresh start for Lego, and if it relies on microtransaction stuffed crossover expansions to survive, I'm not sure fans will stick around.
I understand worries, perhaps even coming from inside 2K, that there's not much longevity in an open-world driving game where you collect a bunch of stuff, race some rivals, and have fun making your own tracks. But then, it doesn't need a lot of longevity. It's fine for a game to be good and then to be over. Not everything needs to last forever, especially not if it basically amounts to a subscription charge to play with my big box of bricks.
Lego 2K Drive has the simple, childish, slightly chaotic appeal that I've wanted from a driving game for a long time. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it this summer, and I hope it can deliver on its promise. But if it sees its path to success as endless IP crossovers that add nothing of note to the game besides characters we recognise, it might never reach top gear.