Visual Concepts, best known for its work on the publisher’s WWE and NBA games, was at the helm of 2K’s latest licensed experiment. Lego 2K Drive is a fast-paced, competitive racing game filled with destructible, rocky environments to smash through and a fun, kid-friendly fourth-wall-breaking narrative.
The game’s best feature is Bricklandia, the playful Lego landscape where 2K Drive takes place. It’s a world that just cries out to be destroyed by the impact of your screeching tires and custom boat pylons. Speeding across the open playmat (which a human would never want to set foot on) is an exhilarating experience, enhanced by the carefully animated auto-morphing ability. As you traverse varied terrain, from road to terrain to water, players will automatically switch between vehicles to suit the context.
Tires and water noodles frame the world view and act as adorable obstacles, and it’s this mix of real objects and Lego constructs that enhances the delightful toy box atmosphere. As a budding racer, you embark on this awe-inspiring open world and face off on an onslaught of revheads claiming their flags to claim the honor of Sky Cup Champion. The egomaniacal mohican Shadow Z acts as your rival in this endeavor, popping up from time to time to remind you how mean he is.
To even come close to matching him, you’ll need to explore Bricklandia in search of rival speedsters, each with their own unique driving skills that they’ll put to the test in Mario Kart-style instanced races. From real horses to aliens in suits, they make a charming ensemble, offering new cars and perks to play with, as well as Brickbux, which lets you buy new machines and parts. You can also build your own vehicles piece by piece in the garage, which gives me the opportunity to create some really cursed rides. While the building system isn’t the most intuitive, it still feels like a fitting nod to Lego’s humble origins in brick construction.
Throughout Bricklandia’s diverse biomes, you’ll also find On-The-Go Events, environmental missions that you can hop in and out of for all sorts of absurd fun, like jumping over houses or drifting through a minefield. Fulfilling the criteria for earning XP and resources feels like earning your Gran Turismo license on a schoolyard sugar rush.
The constant barrage of dialogue in Lego 2K Drive made me laugh the whole time, although the intensity of some missions, like the less interesting wave defense or NPC rescue expeditions, made it impossible for me to focus on the jokes. That was always disappointing considering the evident talent of the writers and voice actors, who deliver an effective satire on conventional racing games.
Carving your way through the map is plain junk food fun, but the must-win races can be a punishment due to some devastating pickups and brutal slowdowns when you go off track. Some open-world missions require you to drive skillfully and attempt nimble moves while herding missiles or smashing tiny robotic invaders, which can lead to frustration that often makes me feel like I’m going too fast for my own good . While I enjoyed how it got my heart pumping, I longed for a more low-key approach to exploration.
While it’s a little buggy, another delightful surprise was Lego 2K Drive’s couch co-op feature, which allows you and a partner to roam the open world together and rack up XP along the way. I found myself getting in the way of bombs or smashing targets of my partner to make sure one of us took first place. In particular, this feature made the dreary defense and rescue missions much more enjoyable thanks to the collaborative nature of the gameplay.
Unfortunately, the elephant in the room, or in this case a monkey, is the game’s showcase, Unkie’s Emporium, featured in the tutorial by the primate mechanic of the same name. Here you can buy premium currency with real money, which can be exchanged for access to cars and characters previously locked behind an expensive Brickbux wall. Of course, you could earn all of these items through grinding, but the temptation lingers, which is disconcerting for a game so clearly aimed at a younger audience.
Lego 2K Drive builds an incredibly inviting world where speed and silliness reign supreme as you speed and morph through the delightfully destructible environment. Despite the frustrating mission design and a few bugs, Lego 2K Drive quickly won me over with its absurd narrative full of irreverent dialogue and grueling open-world challenges. If only the specter of microtransactions in this kid-friendly game weren’t so great, the ride would be even smoother.
