LEGO DC Super Villains Game Review (OUT NOW)

“It’s good to be bad… Embark on an all new DC/LEGO adventure by becoming the best villain the universe has seen in LEGO DC Super-Villains” – TT Games

I was very fortunate for my pre order to arrive slightly early so I had a head start on running around smashing up Lego and rebuilding it as some of my favourite DC characters. Included with my pre ordered copy was a very cool exclusive Lex Luthor Superman Mini Figure.

Upon loading up the game for the first time you are given the opportunity to do something that hasn’t been explored in previous Lego games, you get to create and play as your own bespoke character. You get to chose the appearance and the abilities your character has, the only disappointing thing about this is that even though you chose your name, throughout the game you are only referred to as Rookie and you don’t have a lot of Dialogue. It would have been a nice touch to be able to decide on your characters persona like having the rough voice of Bane or the evil sinister laugh of the Joker.

As the game progresses you are taken through a story where the Justice League have disappeared leaving earth unprotected until a new team arrives called the Justice Syndicate. However Harley Quinn (voiced wonderfully by Tara Strong) and The Joker (Mark Hamill returns) discovered the Justice Syndicate are actually a team of villains wanting to take over the earth for themselves. Not wanting to be out done they assemble their own crime syndicate to defeat the imposters. This is where you join the story as you are recruited and play through the story as a team of villains who have to save the day. Although the game is called Villains and has been promoted as though for the first time you are playing as the bad guy, you cant help but feel the whole time you are actually the good guys. Not to say this is a bad thing as we have seen how popular Anti-Heros can be with the likes of The Suicide Squad, but it’s worth noting if you thought during this game you would be playing as Lex Luthor and finally defeating Superman or putting Batman on ice as Mr Freeze then you would be wrong, that is not what this game is. I can’t help but think Lego really missed an opportunity here to create a genuinely new arc for the hugely successful Lego game franchise, instead it feels very much the same as all previous Lego games, just with a different skin.

In terms of the game play DC Super Villains does not disappoint, once again Travellers Tales are at the helm with this offshoot from the hugely successful Lego Batman series and you feel very much at home if you played any of the previous Lego games. Your character will develop and learn new skills and abilities as you progress through the story from Reverse Flash type speed to Solomon Grundy strength. What TT games did so well with previous Batman instalments was the amazing voice cast they built around the game and once again they do not disappoint. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return as Batman and the Joker respectively along with some familiar voices across the DC family. John Barrowman reprises his role as Malcom Merlyn from the Arrowverse TV show and Odette Annable portraying her on-screen character Reign from Supergirl. For some reason not all the Arrowverse actors return but we are treated to the voice of some DC Animation stars such as Michael Rosenbaunm as the Flash, Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor and Gilbert Gottfried as Mister Mxyzptlk.

There are close to 200 playable characters in this game and a really nice feature that has been added is they all have their own crime file. What this does is gives you details on the character such as what abilities they have and some interesting trivia like their first comic book appearance and known associates giving even the most casual comic book fans that little bit of knowledge about lesser know characters.

Like previous Lego games you have a Hub world that you are free to run around and explore, but the full potential isn’t unlocked until you progress through the story mode. Gotham is your base city and it certainly feels bigger than any of the other other Lego Batman games but you are able to travel to Metropolis and Smallville the further into the game you get. Something that has been improved on is that the hub feels a lot more interactive and the addition of a wide variety of vehicles you can use certainly gives the game a different dimension to previous. Levels follow the standard Lego formula, collect minikits, unlock characters and collect studs with Red Bricks to unlock to make things easier.

I played this game with my daughter who being a huge Harley Quinn fan from Super Hero Girls cartoon she found this game to be fantastic. Overall I found this to be another enjoyable entry to the Lego game franchise that will keep you occupied for many, many hours of fun. This game doesn’t offer you anything new, and part of me feels its too soon for another Warner Bro’s based Lego game having just finished the Lego Dimensions Lego Batman movie expansion pack. However, if you enjoy the Lego games and are a fan of DC comics then you will find plenty of enjoyment from this, even if it’s just playing the story and getting more exposure to Mark Hamill as the Joker.

For those of you (like me) who are interested in Trophies (PlayStation) and Achievements (XBOX) then once again you will not be disappointed. 100% completion of the in game challenges and a few miscellaneous character selections will get you all the Xbox achievements or the PlayStation Platinum Trophy.

It has already been announced that there will be 6 additional level packs released for this game, the first 4 in conjunction with the Aquaman and Shazam movie releases, followed by a Batman Animated series level and a Young Justice level. Also there will be 4 additional character packs including Justice League Dark and DC Films.

In summary this is a whole lot of fun, giving you the opportunity to play with characters never seen before in games. There is nothing substantially different about this compared to previous Lego games but when you have a proven successful formula that this franchise has, does it need to change?

Lego DC Supervillains is available now on Games consoles.

Watch the Game Trailer here….