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The Lego Games - Analysis

11/2/2021

I’ve been a big fan of the Lego games for as long as I can remember. Some of my first gaming memories were of playing Lego Star Wars on my gamecube. Since then, I’ve kept up with the new releases, even attending the 2018 NYCC panel on Lego Marvel Superheros 2. I 100%ed multiple entries in the franchise, spending hours unlocking every last character. But what makes these games compelling to gamers of all ages?

I suppose the easiest answer to jump to would be that these games are filled with tons of characters from series that many already have a connection to. Seeing characters like the Fantastic Four fighting Loki in a mainstream video game fills my nerdy heart with joy. Thanks to the consistent design of the minifigures, it’s easy to create a large cast of characters that draw from a wide pool of sources, including some very deep cuts. (I was the president of the comic book club in high school and I found myself being surprised by many of the characters present in the DC and Marvel games.) This means that if you’ve got a favorite character, the odds of them being present is pretty high. However, Watchdogs: Legion shows us that having a large quantity of characters feels unimpactful unless each character offers a meaningful reason to choose them. 

So then how do the Lego games make each character feel meaningful? Each character usually has a few unique aspects, like a gun, laser vision, or the ability to turn into a toilet. These abilities can then be used throughout the levels to solve puzzles, fight enemies, and find secrets. There are tons of opportunities for using abilities, and you’re constantly finding new puzzles and challenges in the world. A big part of the game is going back through previous levels with new characters to find secrets you’ve missed using new abilities you’ve unlocked. Characters often have multiple powers, meaning that with a little planning, you can solve multiple problems with the same character. This also helps differentiate characters that may share an ability; Superman might have heat vision and strength, but cyborg has heat vision and hacking, meaning a team with the two characters will still be widely effective. What this does is encourage you to think about characters through the lens of gameplay, allowing you to make interesting choices about what characters to play as, while also giving everyone’s favorite character value. 

This style of design, oddly enough, reminds me of Dishonored in a way. In both games, you are often given an obstacle with multiple methods of overcoming it. The player is able to make a choice that reflects their preferred style of gameplay, and the game accepts it as an answer. Of course, there’s much more complexity to Dishonored’s level and encounter design than the Lego games, but I found the openness of choice an interesting parallel, and I’ll take any opportunity I can to mention Dishonored.

Of course, these games aren’t perfect, and if you aren’t a fan of the series the game is representing, you may find the childish difficulty a little hard to overlook. I personally found the characters in Lego The Incredibles uninteresting and I found myself taking notice of and being bothered by the simplistic puzzle design in that game significantly more than the other games I spent my time with. Even in my favorite entry, Lego Marvel Superheros 2, I did struggle with boredom in some of the earlier sections, having to replay functionally the same tutorial between games. The puzzles often never become too challenging, and the combat is about as simple as it gets. They are intended for kids, after all, and the skill ceiling is very low. That being said, they do offer great couch co-op, awesome stories, and tons of laughs.

So what is it that makes these games so appealing? I’ve found myself consistently entertained by the Lego series over the years, and despite their initially simple design, the games manage to provide meaning through a wide selection of unique and interesting characters that feel like they’re pulled straight from the pages of your favorite comic, movie, or show. 

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Guardians of the Galaxy - Review

10/27/2021

I was pleasantly surprised at the experience I found in Eidos Montreal’s The Guardians of the Galaxy. After seeing the live-service model drive the Avengers game to a grind, my hopes were not high. Fortunately enough, after around eight hours of playtime, I’m finding myself engaged by the mechanics, loving the story, and being thrilled by the clever bits of game design that connect you with the characters.

This review will contain spoilers, and I highly recommend experiencing it for yourself before reading.

Guardians of the Galaxy sets itself up with a very difficult task right from the start. Out of all the interesting characters in the guardians, the game lets you play as only one of them. And it’s not even the tree. While controlling Star-Lord may seem off-putting, the game does a fantastic job of both putting you in the character’s shoes and centering the story through a single viewpoint. 

The game starts with you as young Peter Quill, sitting on your bed as you pop a brand new tape into your walkman. A roaring guitar solo starts up and you unfold the album liner right as the lyrics kick in, singing of glorious interstellar battle in the name of a righteous cause. The setup is fantastic. It sets up tone, theme, character, and makes you yearn for an epic battle filled with lasers, explosions, and rocking guitar solos. Everything this game then proceeds to deliver. It’s a wonderful piece of writing that was overall, a fantastic introduction to the character of Star-Lord… a name he stole from the band that plays throughout the scene.

So how does the game allow you to interact with the other guardians? I’ve found there’s three main forms of interaction: in conversations, interacting with the environment, and combat. Interacting with the environment mostly focuses on using the guardians unique talents to solve environmental puzzles, and while they’re fine, I haven’t found them much more challenging than pointing and clicking, but the other two forms are quite interesting.

The guardians are a talkative group, and they always have something to say about everything, cutting each other off and yelling over each other so often at first that I thought the game was skipping dialogue. Throughout the chaos, prompts will appear, allowing you to chime in to steer the course of the conversation in one direction or another, with characters remembering your answers and bringing them back to affect the game in the future. It reminds me of the Guardians game made by Telltale, but in that game the conversations felt stiff and scripted, whereas here, they feel improvised and more organic. All of this is going on while you platform, puzzle, and fight your way through the gorgeous levels, giving you an immersive sense of being in constant conversation with the members of your crew. 

In combat, the game employs clever HUD design to make you feel like a part of a greater team while making your teammates feel unique. During combat, you can select any enemy by pressing the left bumper, and a diagonal menu similar to a baseball diamond will appear, with your four teammate’s faces in the four corners. Upon selecting one, the faces change to an array of four attacks for each character, which are not only vital to combat, but naturally synergize into crazy combos. It seems like a no-brainer to have one guardian for each button on the controller, and it helps personify the choices you make during gameplay. In addition to all of this, Peter has his own set of abilities that he can use during battle, and just like any other guardian, he has four abilities that let him show his stuff. This creates an interesting dynamic that makes the player both in charge of the other’s actions while also having to pull their own weight. It allows you to feel what it’s like to lead a team in combat, calling the shots while flying around the battlefield slinging lasers. Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t make you feel like Star-Lord. It gives you all the tools you need, but leaves it up to you to call the shots that lead your team to victory. 

There’s many more mechanics I’d love to delve into, and  but I still have yet to see everything the game offers. There’s still many more places for these mechanics to grow, but I don’t want to spoil everything the game has to offer. If you were worried about it being another Avengers, don’t be. Guardians of the Galaxy offers a fantastic single-player adventure with an awesome story, well-written characters, and satisfying gameplay. It should also be noted that the game features in-depth difficulty and accessibility options, with the difficulty allowing you to adjust many minute aspects of controls that most wouldn’t even consider, but are game-changing for those they do impact. Overall, Guardians does a lot of things right, and gives me a lot of hope for the future of superhero-based video games. 

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Halo - Level Design

10/21/2021

In anticipation of halo infinite’s release this december, I started replaying the entire Halo series with a friend, doing the campaigns of every game included in The Master Chief Collection. While playing, I noticed some things about the level design and I wanted to share some interesting notes.

In the first level, The Pillar of Autumn, the player finds themselves on board a spaceship orbiting the titular Halo. This ship looks and feels very cramped, with a few locations having the character navigate small tunnels. Throughout the whole experience, the ship feels quite confined, with your head almost hitting the ceiling in some areas, and the level finishing with the Master Chief piling into a small escape pod. So far this game has felt cramped, and it could be argued, a little claustrophobic.

But then you get to the second level.

Immediately you step out of the tiny pod (and over your teammates bodies) and find yourself in a massive open valley. The way forward is not immediately clear, but you’re able to see the Halo again, this time stretching up and around you, meeting itself seamlessly behind you. No longer are you trapped, and with a world around you to explore, the rest of the level reinforces the feeling of being on a planet… that is somehow shaped like a ring. 

I thought it was interesting how they were able to use level design to give the player the sense of going from a cramped spaceship to a massive open planet. I’ve noticed more things as I continue to play, and will hopefully write more! Have a great day, and I encourage you to take the time to think about the levels you’ve played in games!