Lego MARVEL’S Avengers is a child friendly, action adventure Lego adaption of The Avengers movies and comics. It offers a good amount of kid friendly puzzle solving, free world exploration, crimes to stop and plenty of collectables and characters to unlock, but not much that is new to the series. If you are looking for a suitable couch co-op game to play with a younger player you wouldn’t go wrong with this, and I recommend picking it up. Any kids who like superpowers should love playing with the custom hero maker, allowing them to fly, web sling, race or shoot their around the city or through the many majors scenes from the franchise. The only complaint would be that the DLC is required for achievements, and not everything is included in the season pass.

Story
The majority of the campaign follows the major events from the Avengers movie, followed by the Avengers: Age of Ultron. There are singular stages that follow the events of Iron Man 3, Captain America, Thor 2 and The Winter Solider. A lot of the darker moments (like heroes and villains being killed) have been changed so they survive in line with other Lego games.

Gameplay
You play as characters from each of the major events of each movie, and each stage generally follows what happens in the movies. You control multiple characters at a time, all which have different superpowers or abilities and are required at certain parts of the stage to progress through puzzles. You have the option to do the stages in any order, or visit any of the 8 hub worlds to complete the challenges in each area. After a mission has been completed it opens up free play, where you can change to any character you have unlocked, which allows more exploration and secrets to be found.

While the environments aren’t completely made out of Lego, they look fairly detailed, and there are plenty of destructible objects that drop studs to collect. Studs are used for purchasing characters, vehicles and red bricks, but aren’t really an issue once you have a few of the multiplier red bricks enabled. Red bricks are given for finding objects The Collector wants in each stage, while mini-kits award a comic that has been converted to look like a Lego version. There is an insanely large cast characters to collect (over 200), taken from the Movies, TV shows and comics, with 3 being hidden in each stage and the rest as quest rewards around the hub worlds. Races are easier and award new vehicles though I do wish the next gate you have to go through were better marked on the screen. Stan Lee makes a cameo in each stage (you need to help rescue him), which I thought was a great way of keeping his traditional appearances alive in the game.

The menu UI isn’t too bad, but there have been Lego games that have done it better. You go to space to select your missions, and in a kind gesture the game actually advises your tally for collectable items in each stage (each stage in broken into 3 parts). The hub stages are really well designed, and where you will likely spend more time in game find items that the main missions. New York City is gigantic and where most of your free roam time will be spent, though the game lacks a proper map so you have to make do using the radar mini-map. It would have been great being able to filter what’s shown (for jump pads, vehicle spawn points ect). I for the life of me couldn’t find the collectors room where you go to purchase red bricks without consulting an online guide, so everything’s not as intuitive as you would hope.

The game does have low level violence, with “killed” players exploding into their lego bits, but they are respawned instantly to continue on and should be suitable for younger players. There is a fair amount of fighting (as to be expected) and the enemies do shoot guns or explosives, but it’s fairly tame in a cartoony way. Boss battles are just QTE events or follow a simple logic of removing a few hearts, waiting out their next special attack, then following the process. In places where people would have died in the movies, they instead get covered in ice-cream, or survive in keeping with a younger audience in mind.

The controls are intuitive if using a controller, and I found easy to pick up. Using the mid stage saves seems to bug achievements for that stage (so you have to replay them), which can be fairly annoying.

Graphics
I thought the stage design and environment were really well done. While they aren’t all made of Lego objects, there’s a ton of different powers you need to interact with certain objects, the puzzles aren’t mind numbing easy but not too difficult for kids to work out and there are plenty of objects for players to smash along the way. Most of the Lego object you build are object that certain characters can use (like the lightning chargers that Thor can power, shield locks for Captain America ect), not the more random things that some of the other Lego games have you building. Each of the hub worlds are well designed, and have enough things to do in them (though only New York city is really big enough and has enemies to fight).

Kids will love the custom super hero creator, which functions the same as in other previous Lego games (where you get to mix bits of heroes you have already own). Each character looks great, and the idle animations are great to watch (and are linked to the abilities of each hero). The Character menu is easy to navigate (its alphabetical), but the DLC chatacters are added at the end by DLC number.
Iron Man has 14 variants, with most of them have different suiting animations that are nods to the movies.

Music
All of the music has been copied from the movies (which was pretty good), with majority of the voice work also being copied from the movies (Stan Lee did his own VA) for his cameos. The narration for the stages and DLC was good.

Multiplayer
This game was made of couch co-op. A second local player (no online play available) can easily join your game and take control of any of the spare characters. In story missions this is locked to who is available to play as, but in free play you can play as who you want. The screens split vertically, and merge together when both players are near each other. Both players can be anywhere in the city, but if anyone starts a mission or fast travels then both are teleported to the same location. In some missions the second player might be forced to be outside the area (like when the hulk buster is fighting the hulk, or when fighting Loki at the stark tower), which can be not as immersive (as their actions are only required at set times). If someone also tries to change what iron man suit they are in, it blocks the screen for both players.

DLC
The game has a season pass that consists of quests from the comics (not movies) of Captain Marvel, Doc Strange, Black Panther and the masters of Evil. There’s also a stage that ties into the Agents of SHIELD TV series. There’s also a separate paid Ant-Man DLC available (which is from the Ant man Movie). They aren’t bad and add a maybe a extra hour to 2 to the game, but are required for 100% achievements.

Achievements
The achievements are easy to get, though many of them are a wink to long-time fans that would likely go right over the heads of the younger target audience. Many of them were quite well thought out, and aren’t just awarded for doing basic things. In a somewhat annoying trend, you need to purchase the season pass and the separate Ant-man pack if you want to get 100%

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/

Lego MARVEL’S Avengers is a child friendly, action adventure Lego adaption of The Avengers movies and comics. It offers a good amount of kid friendly puzzle solving, free world exploration, crimes to stop and plenty of collectables and characters to unlock, but not much that is new to the series. If you are looking for a suitable couch co-op game to play with a younger player you wouldn’t go wrong with this, and I recommend picking it up. Any kids who like superpowers should love playing with the custom hero maker, allowing them to fly, web sling, race or shoot their around the city or through the many majors scenes from the franchise. The only complaint would be that the DLC is required for achievements, and not everything is included in the season pass. [B]Story[/B] The majority of the campaign follows the major events from the Avengers movie, followed by the Avengers: Age of Ultron. There are singular stages that follow the events of Iron Man 3, Captain America, Thor 2 and The Winter Solider. A lot of the darker moments (like heroes and villains being killed) have been changed so they survive in line with other Lego games. [B]Gameplay[/B] You play as characters from each of the major events of each movie, and each stage generally follows what happens in the movies. You control multiple characters at a time, all which have different superpowers or abilities and are required at certain parts of the stage to progress through puzzles. You have the option to do the stages in any order, or visit any of the 8 hub worlds to complete the challenges in each area. After a mission has been completed it opens up free play, where you can change to any character you have unlocked, which allows more exploration and secrets to be found. While the environments aren’t completely made out of Lego, they look fairly detailed, and there are plenty of destructible objects that drop studs to collect. Studs are used for purchasing characters, vehicles and red bricks, but aren’t really an issue once you have a few of the multiplier red bricks enabled. Red bricks are given for finding objects The Collector wants in each stage, while mini-kits award a comic that has been converted to look like a Lego version. There is an insanely large cast characters to collect (over 200), taken from the Movies, TV shows and comics, with 3 being hidden in each stage and the rest as quest rewards around the hub worlds. Races are easier and award new vehicles though I do wish the next gate you have to go through were better marked on the screen. Stan Lee makes a cameo in each stage (you need to help rescue him), which I thought was a great way of keeping his traditional appearances alive in the game. The menu UI isn’t too bad, but there have been Lego games that have done it better. You go to space to select your missions, and in a kind gesture the game actually advises your tally for collectable items in each stage (each stage in broken into 3 parts). The hub stages are really well designed, and where you will likely spend more time in game find items that the main missions. New York City is gigantic and where most of your free roam time will be spent, though the game lacks a proper map so you have to make do using the radar mini-map. It would have been great being able to filter what’s shown (for jump pads, vehicle spawn points ect). I for the life of me couldn’t find the collectors room where you go to purchase red bricks without consulting an online guide, so everything’s not as intuitive as you would hope. The game does have low level violence, with “killed” players exploding into their lego bits, but they are respawned instantly to continue on and should be suitable for younger players. There is a fair amount of fighting (as to be expected) and the enemies do shoot guns or explosives, but it’s fairly tame in a cartoony way. Boss battles are just QTE events or follow a simple logic of removing a few hearts, waiting out their next special attack, then following the process. In places where people would have died in the movies, they instead get covered in ice-cream, or survive in keeping with a younger audience in mind. The controls are intuitive if using a controller, and I found easy to pick up. Using the mid stage saves seems to bug achievements for that stage (so you have to replay them), which can be fairly annoying. [B]Graphics[/B] I thought the stage design and environment were really well done. While they aren’t all made of Lego objects, there’s a ton of different powers you need to interact with certain objects, the puzzles aren’t mind numbing easy but not too difficult for kids to work out and there are plenty of objects for players to smash along the way. Most of the Lego object you build are object that certain characters can use (like the lightning chargers that Thor can power, shield locks for Captain America ect), not the more random things that some of the other Lego games have you building. Each of the hub worlds are well designed, and have enough things to do in them (though only New York city is really big enough and has enemies to fight). Kids will love the custom super hero creator, which functions the same as in other previous Lego games (where you get to mix bits of heroes you have already own). Each character looks great, and the idle animations are great to watch (and are linked to the abilities of each hero). The Character menu is easy to navigate (its alphabetical), but the DLC chatacters are added at the end by DLC number. Iron Man has 14 variants, with most of them have different suiting animations that are nods to the movies. [B]Music[/B] All of the music has been copied from the movies (which was pretty good), with majority of the voice work also being copied from the movies (Stan Lee did his own VA) for his cameos. The narration for the stages and DLC was good. [B]Multiplayer[/B] This game was made of couch co-op. A second local player (no online play available) can easily join your game and take control of any of the spare characters. In story missions this is locked to who is available to play as, but in free play you can play as who you want. The screens split vertically, and merge together when both players are near each other. Both players can be anywhere in the city, but if anyone starts a mission or fast travels then both are teleported to the same location. In some missions the second player might be forced to be outside the area (like when the hulk buster is fighting the hulk, or when fighting Loki at the stark tower), which can be not as immersive (as their actions are only required at set times). If someone also tries to change what iron man suit they are in, it blocks the screen for both players. [B]DLC [/b] The game has a season pass that consists of quests from the comics (not movies) of Captain Marvel, Doc Strange, Black Panther and the masters of Evil. There’s also a stage that ties into the Agents of SHIELD TV series. There’s also a separate paid Ant-Man DLC available (which is from the Ant man Movie). They aren’t bad and add a maybe a extra hour to 2 to the game, but are required for 100% achievements. [B]Achievements[/B] The achievements are easy to get, though many of them are a wink to long-time fans that would likely go right over the heads of the younger target audience. Many of them were quite well thought out, and aren’t just awarded for doing basic things. In a somewhat annoying trend, you need to purchase the season pass and the separate Ant-man pack if you want to get 100% For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/