LEGO 2K Drive First Impressions
GamesRadar Mahin Kesore and Heather Wald reviews Lego 2K Drive is a surprisingly flesh kart racer that's seemed to come out of nowhere! But can it stand up against the kart racing giants?
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00:00and essentially it's an open-world driving adventure so the best way I
00:06could describe it is it's a bit like a mash-up between Balls of Horizon and
00:10Mario Kart so you can kind of drive around this open world and you're in a
00:15car but it's got this like sort of transformer quality to it so when you
00:20are on a road you're in a streetcar and then as soon as you go off-road onto
00:23like grass or dirt it will the car will change up to an off-road car right and
00:28then once you hit the water the vehicle will change up to a boat and it very
00:32Mario Kart 8s sounds like yeah yeah it is a bit like that on the tracks like
00:37the way it changes the actual races are very Mario Kart like because you drive
00:43into these floating question marks give you items all of the cars have boosters
00:51which once you use the meter up if you smash into things and break up bricks it
00:55will fill back up again and you can keep boostering kind of like how you get
00:59bricks and points in like the Lego Star Wars and the Lego whatever yeah yeah
01:07it's similar in the way that they're like trying to encourage you to smash up
01:10stuff which is really fun and satisfying it makes that like break brick noise
01:15yeah the classic Lego noise is there any customization to the cars and stuff like
01:19that yeah there is so you will when you're doing races unlock new vehicles
01:25and different rewards and outside of the races there's also missions on-the-go
01:30events and challenges that you can do which will also unlock more cars but you
01:34also have a garage and in the garage you can build your own cars so you can build
01:39your own boat streetcar and off-road car and they all have different build bases
01:45that you can choose from and then you can just mess around all the different
01:48pieces I think there's like over a thousand pieces you can play around with
01:51all Lego obviously I made my own sort of street racer car and I picked from a
01:57build that's called tiny terror so it's like a really small base with wheels
02:00like a little square and I built up a little car and put like pigs either side
02:05of it and it's just made a tiny little pig car and then you can test drive it
02:10so that pig car will live on in my dreams but once you make the car you get
02:15to test drive it around a sort of lap and and mess around with all of the
02:19features it can do you can also tune it up a little bit and so it's quite
02:23intuitive the way the pieces just click together in the garage right it sounds
02:27like everyone's car that's gonna play this game is gonna be a little different
02:31it's all gonna be customizable is that like the main selling point of this game
02:35that it's Lego and it's customizable I guess it's definitely a big part of it I
02:40think because if you've ever wanted to make your own Lego car and drive it
02:43around this is the perfect way to do that and your own Lego boat I guess as
02:48well but it's also as an online game I think they're really trying to sell it
02:53as a great way to you know play with your pals so you can I think it's got up
02:58to six players online and because the open world is quite big you can sort of
03:04just drive around with each other and just enjoy being in the same world or
03:08you can do races together and do little activities with each because there's
03:12also like arenas where you do sort of little crazy challenges and yeah there's
03:18there's just so much to do from the little time I spent with it it's the
03:22open world is very much there to encourage you to discover different
03:26things to do when you're driving around it'll just be like on-the-go event
03:30discovered and then you can go up to it and be like I want to try this and
03:34certain races will be locked off to you until you reach a certain level so you
03:38have to like complete challenges level up and then you can it sounds very
03:42Diddy Kong Racing on classic yeah is that what they're going for yeah it's
03:48it's really interesting because it has such a Mario Kart feel or Diddy Kong
03:52Racing feel actually in some respect in the racing but they were really trying
03:57to position it as a driving adventure so it's got races in it but it's really at
04:03its heart a driving adventure so while you can take part in races they've got
04:07all of these different activities they're really trying to push the
04:10experience of driving in a Lego car rather than just racing just pure racing
04:15is there like a battle mode not that I was aware of I think the most
04:20competitive mode I tried was the just straight-up races there are sort of like
04:26mission quests littered around as well so a little like Lego person will be
04:31there being like hey can you help me herd my pigs and then you'll go and
04:35collect pigs in your car and drop them off at some point it sounds a little bit
04:39like Mario Kart DS if there's like all these little missions that you do where
04:43you can like fight a boss or race a boss around a track and you know they're OP
04:48and really fast or whatever okay so that's the kind of feel that they're
04:51going for who are the characters in this um so they're deaf I think they're new
04:57Lego characters I think I might get called out by yeah the Lego stands but
05:04the first character you meet in it in the turbo acres area which is the first
05:09sort of hub area you'll go into there are different biomes in the open world
05:13that you'll unlock and venture to and the first one turbo acres is where you
05:17learn how to drift and do all the basics like boosting and you meet a fellow
05:23called clutch racington and he will sort of teach you teach you the ropes a
05:28little bit and you also have a trusty little robot called stud S T U D with
05:35like all caps and and he will give you he's kind of there to just guide you
05:40throughout the experience he'll pop up every now and then be like hey you can
05:43now go here or you can fast travel here there is fast travel too we got to go to
05:49after turbo acres we got to go to a place called Big Butte County Big Butte
05:55County it's sort of a country western esque kind of area and it's got desert
06:03land and lots of cowboys and horses and yeah it's got that kind of vibe to it
06:09thank you stranger so if you load up the game in single-player mode what is
06:28the objective is there a story are you just kind of open world zooming about I
06:33think it's to be like the best racer I I'm pretty sure there's like a proper
06:37name for it but as you sort of go through all of the races and earn flags
06:43so each time you win a race you earn a flag once you have enough flags you can
06:47unlock an arena and so I think there's a progression system where you're trying
06:51to basically beat all of those races and all those arenas in all of the areas
06:55yeah I think it's it's really just to be the best racer in Bricklandia yeah
07:02Bricklandia right so a lot of us would have Mario Kart 8 as the standard and
07:09are used to the physics the drifting and the handling and the feel and the
07:13gameplay of Mario Kart 8 what does the handling of all the different karts and
07:18stuff and the physics and stuff feel different compared to the standard which
07:22is Mario Kart 8 it's interesting I think Lego 2k drive the races feel a bit more
07:28chaotic to me especially when I was playing multiplayer with some other
07:33people it's but it feels very fast-paced so you have all of these bit like Lego
07:41vehicles boosting away in front of you left right and center we're all fighting
07:45for first place and then you'll have items thrown at you like a spider web
07:50obviously a Lego spider web and you have to mash a button to get it off you or
07:56they'll have sort of more cheesier items one reminds me a bit of bullet bill in
08:02that it will sort of jettison you forward like light speed and push you
08:06forward in the track so sometimes I would go from fourth to first place
08:09using that item and then missiles are the worst they like the red shell yes
08:16they're like the red shell so but instead of just you know getting shelled
08:20and you get twirled in the air or whatever and you stop for a bit
08:23sometimes a missile if you get hit enough by various items will completely
08:27obliterate and break apart your vehicle oh that's what I was gonna ask yes so
08:31your your vehicle starts deteriorating as you play yeah so it's it's very much
08:37like the pieces start falling apart as it was a Lego set would theoretically
08:41yeah and then there'll be a point your car just blows up oh yeah so then you'll
08:45really get pushed back a little bit there were a few times where I was in
08:49first place just got absolutely obliterated and then was you know way
08:53back there how do you get your car to back to normal whilst you're racing it
08:57will sort of automatically come back over yeah it doesn't take too long it's
09:02quite quite quick to get back into the race but it you are like set back a
09:06little bit from it okay that's very interesting because like Mario Kart 8
09:09sorry to always bring it back to that but that is the standard great you have
09:12like coins and stuff and that is kind of what makes you go faster is trying to
09:16make you collect more coins but I guess the similar thing to that in this would
09:20be the state of your car and how put together it is yeah definitely the the
09:25boost is like a huge thing as well it really helps to move you forward so if
09:30you're smashing into stuff that helps you as well because you're filling that
09:33booster meter up again but you have to sort of be careful not to like hit
09:36something that's gonna actually stop you so you just want to hit like little
09:40fences and decorative things that will smash so you can fill that meter back up
09:44in a world where like you know there is already a great kart racing game that's
09:49doing and so amazingly that even a game that second best or third best will
09:53still make 2k and Lego a lot of money so I can definitely see why they want to
09:58throw their hats into the kart racing ring compared to other kart racers what's
10:04your overall opinion on it do you think it will it's one that will stand the
10:08greats like Mario and crash bandicoot and all that I think because it's also
10:12an open-world driving adventure it's not just like a kart racer where it's
10:16that's all you do it's definitely got an appeal and the fact that it's got so
10:20much so much sense of humor like it's it's still got that very like Lego
10:25goofiness so if you've got a kid who is absolutely in love with Lego or an adult
10:30who loves Lego it's got that signature humor there's so much to do in it from
10:35what I've seen and I think it would be a laugh to play with your mates so I think
10:40because it's it's positioned as a full proper open-world driving experience
10:45rather than just a racing game it definitely has an appeal and yeah it's
10:50it's interesting that it does feel like a mash-up of Forza Horizon it's
10:54definitely like an arcade racing adventure or driving adventure as they
10:59say because immediately it made me think of Forza Horizon a little bit in its
11:03arcade-y sensibilities and then Mario Kart too obviously.
11:08All right cool well I hope you've enjoyed that chat and I hope you all
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11:14time, see ya!
11:33you