Lego Marvel's Avengers
This review of the ps4 version of the game is 100% story-wise and gameplay-wise spoiler-free to keep your gaming goodness intact while playing this game or maybe not for this game. Read more to find out !
How do you voice something uncomfortable? How do you describe something bad without sounding negative, without spitting it out-right? I feel divided reviewing this game, because I love games but here is one that can make even a blinded-to-reason lover spurn away and writhe in pain!
I mean, I am shaken ! In fact, when I first started playing this game the very first thought that sprung up in my mind was:
"Is this the final retail version of the game???"
I even called up the distributors and asked them if I had, maybe by some mistake or goof up, received an unfinished preview build of the game and was perplexing over a problem that maybe didn't exist! I sure wished it was so !
.......but alas it wasn't .....It was the final version of the game that was spinning in my ps4 :O ! and that constant feeling of disbelief continued as I squirmed through the game.......
When is it "Done! "?:
This review may feel weird but I have to confront this and come out with it.When I say it feels unfinished, its not the technical polish or the amount of content that I am talking about, though. Where it feels totally unfinished or meandering without direction is the way it conveys its experience.
For one, the game's systems, though very simple, are presented to be extremely un-intuitive. You are always left wondering as to what it is that the game expects you to do ! I attribute a lot of it to the abrupt and seemingly unplanned opening area of the game and lack of a co-ordinated or pre-meditated visual design.
Gameplay:
The game totally falters in presenting what it is as a game and what is its definition of gameplay. It feels as if the game expects you to already know what a "Lego" game plays like and foregoes any effort to educate you on that part. It completely lacks that gentle easing in to the game's world and systems that quite a lot of studios have mastered now. It starts with a throwaway cutscene with such jarring sound design that you feel disoriented from the get go and then the experience continues to be so.
Puzzle based adventure games have always asked us to click around everywhere on the screen till we find the solution but here the visual design doesn't help much at all in hinting towards a logic we are supposed to learn to follow. The environments are full of shapes and colours and the game throws in all of its colour coded clues at you right from the start, even where those have no relevance at all and the game doesn't match this up with a colour-palette or art-style to support the colour based gameplay.
So, the result of it all is that within the myriad colours of blocky legos all over the level lies that ONE lego block that your character can interact with and it looks the same as everything else and you are supposed to find it and press buttons around it !
So, what do you do? ..............Well, go and bash every piece of lego in the level till you find that particular piece which lets you progress to the next level. And its not as if you can somehow deduce the solution either. The game has its own solution for each level and you have no idea what it is till you have found it by chance.Now repeat that aimless button bashing for every level and you have a full game !
Sound Design:
This warrants a very special mention in this game because:
It is terrible !
Yes, I never go so negative on games usually, since I love the medium and would rather not talk about something if its bad but this one is so bad I cannot oversee it. It is just plain bad as if the producer decided that it is not worth it to spend time and money on the sound of this game.
The Voiceovers cut in and out abrubtly as if they just don't belong and the voices sound jaded, bored and disconnected, with no processing to make them sound even cool. The sound effects are simply cringe- worthy. You have to hear this game to believe it------or rather don't hear it, its not worth it.
You know what, I cannot carry on the negativity anymore, its time to be succinct and short. So here goes:
Graphics:
Do not serve the purpose and readability of the game.
UI:
Childish and cluttered.
Story:
Its the film, no more, no less. Its funny, though, you will smirk or giggle, here and there.
Conclusion:
Pros:
*Will make you appreciate other games and the mundane of life more than before.
Cons:
*Lets just drop it now, shall we and stop beating this dead horse.
Verdict: The game is a by the numbers run through of the film with un-intuitive puzzles and little else. Frankly, if you or your family likes the Avengers then you are better off watching the movie again. Just skip on this one, it is not worth the time or the money.
Sorry if I have hurt anyone's feelings here. I do not like to do this, but all I can say is that I have been honest. Also, I have NOT finished the whole game, because after a while I just could not continue anymore.
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