LEGO Marvel Avengers gamescom Preview

The undeniable thing about LEGO games is that, like a toddler-friendly Call of Duty, if you’ve played one you’ve basically played them all. While not exactly slightly-more-HD reskins of previous installments, there is a definite sense of déjà vu in most LEGO series, and LEGO Marvel's Avengers is no different.

The quasi-sequel to LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (which dealt with a mishmash of the comic book Marvel universe and some of the cinematic one) Marvel Avengers as the name suggests instead draws predominantly from The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and some other unspecified Marvel movies. Players can relive some of the films’ most iconic moments, and battles--this time in brick form. But beyond working with Marvel Studios to use dialogue clips lifted directly from the films, most players would be forgiven for confusing it with the very similar looking LEGO Marvel Super Heroes.

In my hands-on demo of the Battle of New York from the first film, I found myself briefly wondering if I hadn’t already played this in the previous game; it certainly felt like it at times. Level and puzzle design, down to the red white and blue sparkles indicating a switch for Captain America, felt nearly identical to its predecessor. So did the slightly-clunky character swapping system, and the geared-for-kids aiming feature for ranged attacks.

But that isn’t to say TT Games, the title’s developer, has been sitting on their hands as they casually reskin LEGO Marvel and copy in clips of Robert Downey Jr. spouting sarcastic one-liners. There are definite new features, although in my own short experience with the game they felt a little few and far between. Some characters have gotten new special abilities, like Black Widow’s scanner that lets her find hand and footholds to climb between levels.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is the introduction of special moves and combo attacks, which become possible after filling a ring around the character’s portrait. In the developer demonstration, the mutant speedster Quicksilver performed a slow-motion takedown of about half a dozen goons and Black Widow somersaulted through the air firing at enemies. Characters can also perform these attacks as combos with each other for unique moves which change depending on which Avenger the player is controlling at the time.

Along with this were lots of smaller, less noticeable tweaks to combat, which TT Games told us came at the request of players who wanted more combat options. But the team had to balance it with the needs of their younger audience, they explained, who might not be interested in or able to grasp a complicated combat system. So things like the new combo attacks have been designed to work both ways: they can be purposefully triggered by more savvy fans, but younger (or more casual) players will simply stumble across them as a nice surprise.

LEGO Marvel Avengers is also unsurprisingly seeing a host of new characters from both the cinematic universe and the comic book one. Devs are promising fan favorites like Ms. Marvel, Scarlet Witch and Vision amongst the 100+ newbies. Stan Lee is also joining the ranks, this time as the Iron Stan, a Stan Lee-shaped Iron Man suit which turns into the Stanbuster.

In keeping with the game’s heavy cinematic universe ties, the new free roam area for Marvel Avengers is the Barton Farm, which made its appearance in Age of Ultron as (spoiler alert) the home of Hawkeye’s secret family that he keeps hidden from S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. After flying around as Iron Man, during the developers’ presentation we got the lay of the land at Barton Farm, which looks like a surprisingly large map with more than a few things to fiddle around with between fighting the forces of evil.

Overall, LEGO Marvel Avengers came across as a fun new installment in LEGO’s ever growing ranks of video games, even if it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. But as someone who’s enjoyed all the LEGO games I’ve played as a bit of relaxed fun, Marvel Avengers is something I’m looking forward to and can easily see myself getting into.

And for the LEGO fanatics, Warner Bros. also revealed that certain pre-orders of LEGO Marvel Avengers would come with a real minifigure of the Mark 33 Iron Man suit.

LEGO Marvel Avengers is due out on 29 January 2016 for the EU, and 26 January in the US for PC and current gen consoles.