What if you take Forza Horizon and Mario Kart, and put them together in a Legofied version? That’s essentially the question that Visual Concepts and 2K have attempted to answer with LEGO 2K Drive. On paper, you’d think a game like that would be nothing short of excellent- and sure enough, several aspects of LEGO 2K Drive are legitimately enjoyable, from its freeform driving to its colourful and vibrant world to its customization mechanics. At the same time, it also suffers from some significant issues that work against the experience in ways that are hard to ignore.

LEGO 2K Drive features four unique biomes, each of them a decently sized open world map, with one being a smaller tutorial location, and in terms of environmental variety and pure visual design, there’s a lot to like about each biome, with locations ranging from sandy desert plains to lush green valleys and more. The moment-to-moment experience of driving around each area is also inherently fun, thanks to the game’s combination of simple and straightforward inputs and deceptive depth. With the ability to jump, drift, and quick turn all on the table, it feels like you always have a great degree of control over how you want to maneuver your vehicle, in spite of how snappy and simple each action feels.

"The game doesn’t put as much of an emphasis on skill as something like Crash Team Racing or even Mario Kart would, but the driving mechanics in and of themselves are undeniably enjoyable."

The driving experience as a whole actually feels refreshingly seamless, in that there’s very little that the game does to interrupt your general flow or momentum. In true Lego fashion, the vast majority of things you can see in the environments are completely smashable, while your vehicle also automatically transforms into either a street racing car, an off-roading vehicle, or a boat depending on what sort of terrain (or water) you’re driving on. As such, there’s very little to break your momentum, since things such as crashing and going off-track are taken out of the equation by a great degree.

Add to that a boost mechanic that’s fairly generous with how quickly your meter refills, and where core components such as sense of speed and momentum are concerned, LEGO 2K Drive successfully nails the fundamentals. Similar to a multitude of kart racers, the game also scatters a variety of item pickups throughout its courses that let you equip a different weapons against your opponents, and though the implementation of that mechanic is fairly shallow here, it is, at least, a fun little layer on top of the core gameplay loop. Of course, how uninterrupted the driving is almost constantly does mean that the game doesn’t put as much of an emphasis on skill as something like Crash Team Racing or even Mario Kart would, but the driving mechanics in and of themselves are undeniably enjoyable.

It’s a shame, however, that the things that LEGO 2K Drive puts around that core end up disappointing. Take the races, for instance, where the AI so often go out of its way to fiercely compete against you for the vast majority of the race, only to fumble and lost out close to the end. If your rivals are ahead of you, they’ll often become surprisingly easy to catch up with and overtake in the latter stages of a race, and conversely, if you’re too far ahead of them, they’ll rubberband right up on your rear as you’re approaching the finish line. I get that this is a game made first and foremost for kids, as pretty much all Lego games are, but it goes almost a little too far with that. With no real sense of challenge throughout the experience, ancillary mechanics, such as the stats of your vehicles or the perks that you equip them with, end up feeling undervalued. That, in turn, means there’s also often very little reason to change the vehicles you’re using. Since you’ll be picking them largely based on what they look like, the whole vehicle collection aspect loses some of its luster as well.

"With no real sense of challenge throughout the experience, ancillary mechanics, such as the stats of your vehicles or the perks that you equip them with, end up feeling undervalued."

That overemphasis on attracting a younger audience affects the game’s story and writing as well, even if those are obviously not even close to the first things you’re going to be playing this game for. Besides a few chuckle-inducing gags and puns, jokes in LEGO 2K Drive tend to fall flat, and the vast majority of the characters you meet make next to no impression. That’s a real shame, because if there’s one thing you’ve come to expect from a LEGO game, it’s childlike but effective humour in its writing. Obviously, there’s only so much you can do with the writing when you know you’re also catering to a younger audience- but LEGO 2K Drive seems to only cater to a younger audience.

How LEGO 2K Drive implements its open world design is also not without its issues. On one hand, there’s no denying that the visual design of each area is incredible, not only in terms of how much variety the game exhibits from biome to biome, but also thanks to how colourful and full of charm and personality each area is. That, combined with the fun fundamentals of the driving, makes simply driving around quite an enjoyable experience- though the maps aren’t too big, so there isn’t an endless amount of things to see.

What the game fills that map up with, however, is far less engaging. There are plenty of racing related side activities, of course, like bite-sized challenges that take you through drifting courses or task you with setting air time records, while in addition, the game also throws several side quests your way, which are more prescribed set-piece missions with unique goals and setups, like defending three towers against waves of invading aliens by driving through them and smashing them into tiny Lego pieces. Sadly, I didn’t have much fun with most of these side activities. The bite-sized racing ones scattered throughout the open world are inoffensive at best and bland at worst, while the side quests just don’t feel fun to control, seeing as they take the focus away from the actual racing aspect, which is one of the best parts of the game.

In the end, the quality of the content across the entire package ends up feeling quite diluted, and repetition begins creeping in. In fact, that feeling of repetition becomes even harder to stave off because LEGO 2K Drive’s story mode adopts a bit of a grindy structure. Critical path races and story progressing are level gated, which means the game often breaks the momentum and forces you to engage in its side activities- which, as I mentioned, are quite hit and miss. The story mode isn’t particularly long at 8-9 hours, and you’ll likely be spending the majority of your time in online races or optional and/or post-game content, but for those who’re looking to complete the story, its structure might leave you a little frustrated from time to time.

"Where LEGO 2K Drive stumbles with its racing events and its open world maps, one area where it’s an unequivocal success is its creation and customization toolset."

But where LEGO 2K Drive stumbles with its racing events and its open world maps, one area where it’s an unequivocal success is its creation and customization toolset. In a nutshell, the game allows you to build entire vehicles from scratch, letting you pick each Lego piece you want to use for the entire build, and offering a vast selection of pieces on offer, with other cosmetic options like stickers, paints, and more thrown on top. More pieces are unlocked as you progress further in the game, further expanding your toolset with even more fun new options. In terms of its actual mechanics, building cars and putting Lego blocks together is undeniably fun, and combined with the vast array of options it presents, it’s something that you can easily spend hours playing around with.

Clearly, LEGO 2K Drive is an uneven experience. There’s a lot to like about it, and there’s no denying that at it’s core, it can be legitimately fun. All of that comes with caveats though. While the driving is fun, the races are held back by inconsistent AI. While the open world maps are great to look at and drive around in, the content they’re packed with is not the most compelling. While I like how approachable and charming the game is, it caters to younger audiences so much that it ends up feeling a little shallow. At least there’s the whole creation and customization aspect, which is one area where LEGO 2K Drive is a triumph without any reservations. Ultimately, if you’re looking for an arcade-style racer that can lay legitimate claim to the Mario Kart throne, this will probably leave you disappointed, but if all you want is a fun and laid-back (if unremarkable) racing game, then you’re in luck, because that’s precisely what LEGO 2K Drive is.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.