The LEGO Movie was definitely a different take on the idea of a LEGO movie than Clutch Powers or the BIONICLE movies were. Instead of being about LEGO minifigures within a real universe, it turned out that they were really just toys being played with by some kid. I can't say I was a big fan of that part - I think it was interesting, but not as appealing as the parts with minifigures.

I got the game recently. All I knew to expect was the new kind of building (instruction builds) and a game where the entire world was made of bricks. I own the last three games for PC (Marvel Heroes, Batman 2, and LotR), so I'll be comparing it to those, mostly.

I was quite pleasantly surprised. Not only was the world made out of bricks, but almost every effect was too. It worked quite well, which I was not expecting. Everything was smoothly done. The ocean, especially, was great. I was expecting some weird thing looking like a stop motion and it was actually very good.

The Gameplay

The gameplay itself was, for the most part, quite similar to previous games. The new building with instructions was probably my least favorite feature in the game, for a few reasons. First is the amount of time you have to find a piece - doing a one or two piece build flawlessly isn't too hard with a little practice, but by four it's pretty much impossible to get it in time (at least for me). The exact type of piece that you're looking for is sometimes difficult to determine - a good example of this is in the Octan ship build - there's a piece that looks like it could be one of two pieces, and if you guess wrong you lose at least 2000 coins you could have gotten (one from time, one from missing). Lastly is the issue of pieces that aren't already in your field of view. If the model has to move/rotate to show you the place with the missing piece, it will still track the amount of time and deduct coins from your reward, even though there's no way of seeing the piece for a second.

Another new feature was secret knocks, which was basically the same as fishing in LotR but for characters with staffs (Vitruvius and Gandalf). The character of Vitruvius (and his ghost form) is also the only character who can walk on blue ledges - everyone else is too scared to, even flying characters, but Vitruvius, being blind, has no such fear. There are also some objects which can only be smashed and built by Uni-Kitty, although most of them are built into catapult tiles or butterflies. Other than that, the gameplay was more or less the same in type, except for the mecha level, for which the closest analogy would be a vehicle level from Indiana Jones 2.

One issue that bugged me within gameplay was glitches. Obviously you can't avoid all of them, but I noticed quite a few, especially during story mode. Fortunately, you can exit a level with everything that you earned at any time, unlike in Batman 2, where saving and exiting a level gives you nothing until you return and complete the level. This feature is really helpful in free-play mode once you have all six collectibles.

Another issue I have with the gameplay is that characters tell you what you should do all the time. Almost every "puzzle" is very simple and the steps are clearly marked out, and the characters always tell you what you need to do (under the guise of communication between characters).

Lastly is flight. Flying as a character, introduced in Batman 2, is an interesting concept. Within levels and without the flight is more or less the same as Batman 2, except that you can't maintain the high speed flight for any amount of time. You only have a flying character in one story level (first Superman and then Green Lantern), but using them in Free-Play removes any feeling of difficulty or puzzle

The Worlds

The worlds were all directly taken from The LEGO Movie, excepting the Bonus Room, in which you explore the kid's room and collect gold bricks and coins (as well as build massive vehicles, most of which cannot be used in story). The Cloud Cuckoo Land world actually changes in style after you reach it and it is attacked and reverts back to normal once you win, which was cool. The worlds were quite small, and I believe (but am not sure about) that if you added them together, side by side, they wouldn't be nearly as big as the worlds of Batman 2, LotR, or Marvel and they definitely weren't as difficult to fully complete or explore. Each world (excepting the bonus one) has three pages hidden around the world to build some object.

The Story

The story is pretty much identical to the movie, except that the part about the minifigures being actual LEGO sets and not 'real' (I don't have a good way to describe the situation) is reduced to a single scene where Emmett drops down the vortex and then is returned by the child almost immediately. It definitely works better without the father-son scenes (as there wouldn't have been a good way to integrate them into gameplay, in my opinion).

The Music

The music was not to my liking. It's mostly simple electronic stuff, whereas I am a diehard classic rock fan who hates almost all synthesized music. The bonus room has a nice track or two, though. The music is very repetitive, especially in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

The Levels

The levels are all taken from the movie with some artistic license.. For the most part, the game expands dramatically on scenes within the movie. All cutscenes (before and after levels) are from the movie and as a result look different from the game (photorealistic LEGO models instead of digital LEGO bricks). It's interesting, although I'm not sure how well the scenes fit with the levels. As mentioned above, gameplay in levels was fairly routine; it was fun at times, but it also felt quite formulaic. The worst parts of levels are the parts where you have to use Metalbeard; he is big and bulky, he walks weirdly, he is bad at collecting coins, and he feels slow. I had the same problem with Emmet's Mech.

I don't want to give away the entire game, but I want to discuss two specific levels - ones that I feel were the best and the worst of the game. The worst, by a long shot, was a swimming level. Basically, you shoot a missile to break a wall and it bores through your ship, letting the water in. You have to take a long path around to reach the back, where the rest of your team is safe and sound. The first part is normal, but once you get into the water, you get to deal with the problem of oxygen loss. Obviously this is intended to be realistic, but it just isn't fun. There's also a TON of stuff underwater to smash. Not only that, but the areas are just...weird. You're maneuvering in a 2D environment (or 2.5D, I guess, as you can attack the background and foreground). There are a lot of secret holes which literally require you to run into walls to discover, which I think is uninteresting. Maybe I'm weird, but I absolutely hated that level. On the other hand, my favorite level was probably the construction level. I don't know why this is, but I love non-combat levels. I'm a HUGE City fan, even if I don't buy the sets, and the fact that I may never play LEGO City: Undercover until people are selling used Wii U's at garage sales for 10 bucks has irritated me to no end. The construction level (the first level, not counting the introductory area from the beginning of the movie (the prophecy)) is definitely similar in some ways to the construction site stuff in LEGO City: Undercover (which looks like the best LEGO Tt game there is...). It's a bit simple, being the first level of the game (one in which your characters are identical excepting one power). It's fun, though. It has a great atmosphere.

Miscellaneous Comments and Wrap-Up

Would I recommend this game? Sure, if you liked the movie or are a fan of Traveler's Tales games. Would I recommend it to someone who likes old LEGO games but not new ones? Definitely not. It doesn't do much different from previous games. There are some differences, but they aren't big enough to be a huge deal.

I didn't time myself, but I suspect I've spent at least 14 hours on it and I'm at about 80% complete. I do have to destroy everything on the map before leaving, so that took some of the time, but it's not an extremely short game.

The worlds being entirely made of LEGO bricks is probably the best part of this game.