Familiar enough with some new twists!
As for the hub levels, I really enjoyed kicking around in those levels, exploring and collecting. I liked how the story flowed from these areas, and the addition of the bonus levels added a nice little twist, although those boards were put together fairly quickly it seemed. The replay Treasure modes of the Story boards was good fun too, since it required a little thought into who you must use in order to complete them. The split screen addition was great for those of us that play with 7-year olds since I could focus on the tedious tasks while he ran around driving the cars and riding the camels.
My gripes are with the driving. The controls and handling were terrible, especially in terms of determining depth and such. Gotta be honest, hated the driving mechanics and those boards with a passion.
I also didn't find any pleasure in the Builder aspect either. Those aspects are just not my cup of tea, although the kid enjoyed it to an extent.
The game was good for a single play through. If I ever hit it up again, though, I would only be playing it on my profile to accumulate the trophies, which seem to weighted a little too much towards silver for completing rather simple achievements. It does add to the series, but this Lego probably still ranks behind Batman for me though.