At Lego DC Super-Villains’ E3 Demo, I spent a little too much time in the character select screen. The game is all about you creating a ne’er-do-well of your own and I thought... do they have a purple hat and black overalls in this thing? Could I really be any bad guy I could dream of?
Alas, Lego DC Super-Villains’ character creation options were mostly locked off. I could only choose to play as a preset original villain or as a randomized one.
I play a lot of Lego games and usually ignore the option to create custom characters.. This time, you can’t, and I’m intrigued. While you can still swap among multiple characters when running through Lego DC Super-Villains’ levels, the game’s story involves the rise of a rookie villain created the player. As you’ll see in the clip we captured of my time with the demo, you acquire powers for the villain as you plan. You can customize, say, what kind of heat beam they’ll shoot in terms of color, pattern and even whether it comes out of their hands, chest or gun.
There are piles of official Lego DC villains in the game, of course. In the level I played, I swapped between Lex Luthor, Solomon Grundy and Cheetah. A character select screen showed options for many more.
Lego games have lost some luster for me in recent years, as incremental design changes haven’t been enough to keep the overall formula from feeling stale. Last year’s Lego Ninjago Movie game surprisingly breathed fresh life into the franchise by offering a deeper combat system. I didn’t see that combat system here, but I did see some promise in how it lets players build up a character. I hope the new game dives deeply enough into that potential.
If nothing else, though, the game should provide some comic relief thanks to its good cast of characters. Here’s Cheetah, for example, using her claws on a guard:
This new Lego game will be out on October 16 on all the major platforms. If you’re fiending for a new Lego game, though, guess what? There’s also a new one about The Incredibles out today. So many Lego games. They need to keep experimenting with new ideas to keep them fresh.