DCember Prologue; Lego DC Supervillains:Well, at least I'm not smelling corporate bias?

It is no secret that I hated Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. I personally found it a slog to go through, the DLC was broken, the over world wasn’t fun to travel through, the levels got shorter as I went through, and even at the 100% mark, I never really felt satisfied with the experience. I got so mad at the experience that I was genuinely considering not getting another one, and became extremely cynical towards DC Super villains. Against my better judgement, I picked up DC Super villains thinking that, at the very least, it would be a good review for this week, seeing as most of, if not all of next month’s content is going to be focused on DC. Was I wrong to be so overly cautious? In a word: No. It’s times like this when I’m glad I don’t do number scores or submit reviews to Metacritic and the like, because I’d probably piss someone off at WB for this, not that it matters, I don’t get review copies, and any ad space they may get here is through Google, not me.

Our main villains... no I mean the bad guys... I mean the, never mind. The people we fight in this game (primarily) are the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League that have taken the Justice League away from Earth, taking their place as a way to cover up their hunt for a special item. What is it? I hear you ask. They’re looking for a Motherbox; for it turns out they are working for Darkside. Because of the missing heroes and the fake heroes running around, the villains of the DC universe decide to team up to try and take them down, thanks in part to a mysterious ally that has the ability to absorb energy and develop new powers throughout the game. This ally is the customizable character they’ve been hyping up, in a way to convince themselves the character customization in the Lego games isn’t somewhat pointless... It still is. I was not a fan of the character customization in this game, especially because when and where the customization could happen seemed to be overly picky. There were times when I wanted to edit my character to change his weapons and clothes, but even in the hub world, the game wouldn’t let me. I don’t know if it’s because it’s locked until the post game for whatever reason, but it seems to defeat the point of a character customization system if the only thing you can do after making the character is change the attributes of new powers.

I don’t know if the full customization is open in the post game purely because I’m not there at time of writing. I stopped playing after a crash happened because I was just so bored of the story. It’s passable, but it feels like there wasn’t a lot of effort put in. The writing is on point as many of the character interactions are great, but a good chunk of that comes from the voice acting cast. The cast itself is solid, but it feels disjointed. It’s a mix of DC animation talent, and the regular cast of the Lego DC games, and while it’s not a bad thing, it feels weird to hear Kevin Conroy’s Batman talk to Travis Willingham’s Superman, and nothing against the voice actors for this, this is entirely a problem because I’ve seen both, I enjoy (or at least did for one of them) both, and am just used to specific sets of voices, not a mix of the two.

 

These games are so repetetive now I can't think to talk about the visuals other then "it looks like a normal Lego game"

In regards to the game play, it’s more of the same, which only makes this worse. If you think I mean “oh it’s just more of the same when compared to other Lego games, like it’s in the same series or something, that’s not a big problem”. No. I mean it’s more of the same as Lego Marvel 2, in that it has all of the problems Marvel 2 had. The levels felt like they were getting smaller as I went on, though what helps hide that (to some, not to me) are the parts of the hub levels which play like normal levels, but aren’t a part of normal levels for some stupid reason. There was one part that I was beginning a breakout of Arkham Asylum, it was The Joker and Captain Cold. Nothing was outside, it was all inside, playing like a part of a normal level, but then after breaking a hole in one of the walls, the real level started. And what was the level? Breaking out of Arkham Asylum... the point of that mini part of the hub world was what exactly? A clear split between hub world and levels? How about, as an idea, you go to the Asylum as Mercy in the hub world, and then have the section with the Joker and Captain Cold be the start of the level. You’ve already cut down on collectables anyway with this one, was it just another shortcut to have?

On the subject of the collectibles, I can’t even tell you what most of them do. There’s the usual red bricks, character tokens, 5 mini kits per level, and things you have to vandalize. I think the last two get you more character tokens, but I have no idea, and honestly don’t care enough to find out because most of your hunting is going to be done in the over world. An over world that has the same problems as Lego Marvel 2, and even less of an excuse for it. I genuinely think Pokémon cities and towns are bigger then some of these places, or at least feel bigger. Why does Saffron City feel like a bigger place to explore then Metropolis TT Games? Don’t use the Speedster excuse, you know as well as I do that those characters are far more reliable to control then your cars and trucks are! At least you had an in universe reason for the small space in Marvel 2, you don’t even have that going for you here.

I’ll be honest, the main reason I stopped playing this, which was around the time of the Power Ring fight, and it’s the last thing I remember at least, was because my game crashed, in the same way as Marvel 2 did, in that it did so for no visible reason. I didn’t put it back in because I found the whole thing so forgetful. Good character interactions don’t make up for a game play experience that gave no reason to keep playing. What pains me the most about both this and Marvel 2 is that I want them to be good, and there are still ideas that they could announce and I’d be excited for, things like a kart racer like the old Lego Racers, that has a mix of old and new Lego themes, or something like Dimensions that mixes up the IP’s into something original and interesting. But I know those won’t happen, and to be honest, I’m surprised these games aren’t any worse. The cynical side of me can’t help but wonder why WB games hasn’t tried to further monetize these games with things like Micro transactions and Loot boxes. Because they’re for kids? Ask the Harry Potter fans what they thought of that phone game that came out recently and get back to me on that one. While these games have always had problems, there is still a charm in the older titles that I feel has been lost in the grind, of reskin after reskin after reskin. How many of these are there going to be before something changes? When the spark of passion, of creativity is reignited at TT games and some actual effort is made to fix the problems, or at least try something genuinely new. 

Some people may point out the irony in that as I am a fan of the Pokémon series, and while it’s true that those games are getting stale too, there is at least a glimmer of hope for next year, if the talk of “Pokémon’s equivalent of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” is accurate. I can’t say the same thing for the Lego games. For a series based on one of the most creative toys ever made, a brand so closely bound to imagination, creativity, constructing worlds unique to each kid playing them, a series of games that are so stale, mindless, unimaginative, repetitive, bland, debatably lifeless should be seen as an insult. But, based on what I’ve seen, maybe I’m alone in this, but that could be for any number of reasons. I’m actually glad I don’t get anything from them when I cover these games. A part of me thinks that there is some marketing team meddling going on when it comes to coverage of these games, and that’s something I hate to admit because of what that entails. I honestly don’t know what I’d do if they came to me with an early copy for their next game. All I do know is that I’m trusting my better judgement when it comes to the next one. Maybe I’ll give a clear spin off a chance, especially if it’s that kart racer. But in terms of reviewing the next inevitable “main line” Lego game, they’ll need to do a lot to make me consider giving it any time of day, let alone any money. I was mad when reviewing Lego Marvel 2. Now? I’m just disappointed. At least the corporate meddling would imply more effort then what’s needed to earn that pay check went into the game. While I might be done with this Lego Batman for now, I’m not done with Lego DC, because DCember starts, and it opens with the Lego Batman Movie. Hopefully I’ll have something for Sunday too, but that’ll depend on a few factors.