MadCap's Game Reviews - "LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2"

It's come to my attention that there's an oddly disproportionate amount of Marvel Comics related content on my blog. It's something that really goes back to my childhood where some of the first comics I ever read were Amazing Spider-Man and the X-Men stuff, and I likewise grew up watching their animated series stuff. What with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last ten years, I've become even more of a fan as I've been exposed to facets of the comics that I would have never have considered before.

Right now, for the record, I'm reading Doctor Strange and Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider pretty much diligently.



But, yes, the fact remains I go very much more for Marvel than DC. And since this is my blog, I'll do what I like, so here's more Marvel content with LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2. You may remember that I reviewed the first game ages ago. So long ago, in fact, that I had to go back into my blog's history to make sure that - yes, I had actually reviewed it. It was a fun game, though I had some minor problems with the flight controls for Iron Man and the fact that Loki was not voiced by Tim Curry (and I still have a problem with that).

However, with this game I have a brand new problem - where in the hell are the X-Men and the Fantastic Four?!

Seriously, where are they? For a sequel to a game that so prominently featured the likes of Doctor Doom, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and Magneto...as well as others...none of them are here. They're not even mentioned. Because it's all about the MCU, apparently.

And granted, this game came out before the Marvel-Fox deal...but I never thought that Marvel had lost the rights to their characters in the games. Was it some creative decision? What?

With no answers on that - and no opportunity to play as my favorite villain without some DLC (hopefully) - I have to complain about the game in general.

Oh, and no friggin' DEADPOOL in a Marvel game!

It's a carbon copy of the first as far as the mechanics go. There are some alternate costumes and some new abilities, but very little has changed. There's a character creation mechanic that allows you to create your own characters as in LEGO games...which is exhaustively varied in not only potential appearances, but in powers as well.

Also, did I mention that Deadpool isn't in this game?!

Oh, but Gwenpool is!

Because, y'know...of course.

Y'know, a character that isn't in the MCU and wouldn't stand on her own merits, so they had to put her into canon as a female Deadpool even though we already have that character, and we already have the fangirl stereotypes played out with Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel. And the worst part is that you can't kill the NPC version of her! And. She. Is. So. Annoying.

Taking out Deadpool for this is like replacing Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation with BUBSY THE CAT!

But no, don't get the popular character who people know outside of the comics. Pick the virtual nobody who couldn't even hold her own series for more than twenty-five issues, and now is a supporting character of Howard the Duck and a member of the poorly-conceived relaunch of the West Coast Avengers. Sure. Whatever. Seems legit.

Oh, people were cosplaying as her? People cosplay as the friggin' Arthur clenched first meme. Nobody cares.

...I had a point here, didn't I?

Yes, LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 does keep a variety of interesting heroes and villains, usually keeping to the MCU or its direct satellites. There are a few outside of that orbit - in particular Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider, which pleased me somewhat - but otherwise it sticks largely to the MCU. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it limits choices such as with the aforementioned lack of non-MCU characters.

But yet, for some reason, we get 500 versions of Captain America.

Also, there is one big thing that nags me about this and has almost broken the game for me on several occasions - the glitches. It hasn't been so often that it completely ruined the game for me, but it's also something that bares bringing up. Occasionally, a trigger won't trigger and I'll be stuck in an area or on a questline...forever.

Reloading my console usually fixes this, although I've had to peruse the internet several times to try to find fixes and, unfortunately, no patches that have come up seem to have addressed some issues. Several quests, I've just not been able to complete, as if the game is taunting me. C'mon, Traveller's Tales, you guys are better than this!

To give one last bit of praise, the game does put to use one of my favorite things about Marvel - the multiverse. There's a lot you can do with it, and could make for a very interesting setting for a game. And here, it does...to some extent. You have the main Marvel universe (as presented in this game), the 2099 universe, the Noir universe, a variation on the Old West to allow for some of Marvel's lesser-known Western characters like Kid Colt, and then other places like Sakaar, Wakanda, and even Xandar - all MCU-friendly, of course.

There's even Attilan...and it doesn't look like some CGI nightmare and uses the comic versions of the Inhumans rather than the MCU versions.

Hmmmmmmm...weird, that.

On the whole, rather like the preceding game, Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 isn't bad. It's also not great. It's a completionist game and it does use the license it has for more than just an artificial shell to lacquer over you usual LEGO nonsense...though you do have plenty of that.

Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 is now available from Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and macOS.

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