This is the best lego game I've ever played, though I don't believe I've played any that have come out after this one.
It's easy to call this LEGO Grand Theft Auto, but because of the more zany aspects, it's closer to Saints Row. And truthfully, I like it more than most of the GTA and SR games.
There's a ton of stuff to collect that will keep you busy for dozens of hours, and most of it it pretty fun to do while exploring LEGO city.
The game is really funny. I audibly laughed at least 3 times, which is extremely rare for me to do while playing video games. (There were tons of other funny parts that didn't make me laugh though.)
Instead of having 2 characters that you switch between, you play as one and get a bunch of disguises that allow you to interact with different things. For an original story, this makes sense, and works really well.
Despite being an original story it spoofs a lot of movies like Shawshank Redemption and the Matrix. Again, it's funny.
They try to add more depth to the combat, which just makes it even more tedious, mainly because it really wants you to finish off the last guy in a group with a special attack instead of just quickly pounding guys into bricks. I don't like it. It boils down mostly to grabbing a guy with a little button mashing QTE, then throwing him at another guy. It's slow and dull and tedious.
I don't know why Tt can't figure out aiming water or whatever. If you're familiar with the aquamenti spell in LEGO Harry Potter years 5-7, you know what I'm talking about. Except it's worse in this game. You get a fire extinguisher, but good luck putting out fires. There's an aiming reticule, but it lies to you. Like...an ex-wife turning your kids against you kind of lies. It simply doesn't work. You just have to wiggle the joystick around and hope it hits the fires.
Saving...it took them 15 years and 10 games, but saving isn't a joke for the first time in a LEGO game. You save in a level, when you load up, bam! your right where the checkpoint was. No more starting at a hub and then making your way back to the level to hope it actually kept your progress.
Like all LEGO games, every time you do something, say, pull a lever that opens a door directly next to you, it will lock the camera on it for a solid 5 seconds, completing interrupting the gameplay. Yet if something you actually need to see where and how to get to, it won't bother to show you. It's annoying.
Overall, it's a solid, really fun and massive game that is a huge improvement over all the LEGO games before it, but still has some of those trademark annoyances.
My playtime at the time of this review reflects how long it took me to beat the story with a little exploring on the side.
