I for one was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content that exists in Lego Marvel. Sure, it still follows the same ole "beat em up, solve puzzle & build it" themed gameplay but what makes Leg Marvel stand out from some of the other titles is the amount of content and the welcomed feature of replayability. Which was becoming all too unheard of these days until here recently when games started offering players more play time and more reasons to play through games for a 2nd consecutive time.
The cast of playable characters is almost hard to keep up with cuz of the wide array characters never before seen in the Lego universe as well & some familiar faces. From Aquaman to Lex Luthor to XMen, they are probably here if they ever had anything at all to do with Marvel Comics. And that my friend, is a lot of interesting characters. The Incredible Hulk is a well known character who can transform into the green monster at the press of triangle. He can launch cars and other massive objects at enemies, and also has other abilities unique and only accessible by select few othe characters in the game. Sure, this is not a new introduced theme, but I cant help but love the character uniqueness in Marvel Lego, and the fact that it can still be played by kids who are younger. You need simply try and remember who has what special ability or trait and where to use these said abilities. There is so MANY vast wide areas in thegame players will find themselves revisiting a lot of areas where they previously did not posses the necessities to do a task. Bunch of replayable hidden goodies out there to discover.
While there are no groundbreaking changes to the gameplay here from other Lego games and the repetitive can become tedious & boring, I still felt Marvel Lego does enough to stand out in terms of interesting characters & villains and the familiar worlds you will get to traverse. I'm not sure if this was the first to allow players to choose where they wanted to travel to and what mission they wanted to complete next but its present in Marvel Lego. Whether it is next in order of the main storyline or not is irrelevant as the game allows players freedom of travel and exploration as they see fit, with a few exceptions. The game does not allow players to tavel to missions or worlds that are like 3 missions ahead of where they currently are until they have managed to get to a certain spot, then the options could become available to travel to several different places. Its completely up to you as the player now to warp to revisit old places or try out new missions. But to get to the end game locations will require players to advance further into the story.
The PS4 does a great job of bringing the Lego figures alive and the gamplay is so smooth and visually stunning to watch. Superman shooting beautiful shiny pieces of gold with his red fiery laser and the particles and reflections bouncing off the wall can be quite immersive to watch. And all the same time while The Flash is on the ground putting the blocks that are falling to the ground and building some device needed to get through an area and doing all this at faster than light speed is amazing. The characters here are all fun to play as and a joy to watch interact with others.
The puzzles are simple enough and sometimes can be tricky especially if you missed the memento or tutorial that the game attempts to give you by little icons that can be found as you progress through the game. Unlike Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Lego, the game will eventually give hints and attempt to help players adavance if time in excess of what it should take has been spent at certain locations. I got stuck a few times, but never for too lengthy of a time, the game does a great job of trying to help players unfamiliar with the Lego style of gameplay.
A ton of replayablity and a huge world with excerptional story elements makes Lego Marvel an easy winner in my eyes. You can grab it today for $20 and that is definitely worth as its packed with stuff to do. And if that's not enough, just watching how each character from different backgrounds & stories, such as Spiderman & Iron Man or Incredible Hulk react to each other is a rewarding feature as well, at least it was to me. Its a fun good time that will surely be enjoyed by anyone who has ever liked any previous Lego games in this huge growing franchise. Must buy for Lego fans!!