I will not lie, I am a grown man and even at my grown-up age, I love LEGO. I am also an avid gamer, so when I tell you that I have 100% completed every LEGO game available on PC (those that are not solely based around building) it should probably be no surprise.

These games never lack for style or humor. Some of them are a bit buggy, but over all, playing each of the games that LEGO puts out is a joy for me. My top five LEGO games are, in order:

LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes

LEGO Batman 2

LEGO Batman

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

LEGO Jurassic World.

So what is the point of this article? Well it all revolves around the choice LEGO game developer Traveller’s Tales (also known as TT Games) has decided to take with the game’s content. The reason I listed my top 5 LEGO games, is to underline that my top 4 games all have one thing in common; original storylines. Yes, I am aware that Beyond Gotham had DLC Content based on Dark Knight, Man of Steel, and Arrow, but I’ll get to the DLC later.

LEGO MARVEL’s Avengers releases on January 26th, 2016 and instead of building an awesome new story like all of the MARVEL/DC games (which I will refer to from here on as the Superhero games) have done, LEGO falls back on it’s crutch of just recreating movies and using the voice track from them.  It has become their go-to style with so many of the franchises. Avengers will be built around the following movies from the MCU:

Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger

The Avengers,  

Marvel’s Iron Man 3

Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World

Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron

I’m so fantastically disappointed by this. Even though I am sure that the game will be excellent; even though I am sure that it will be amazing fun to play, I’m disappointed. I love the original stories spun by TT’s writers in the Superhero  games. It’s what sets those games apart from all the others. This feels like a massive step backwards for the games.

There is this concept when writing a story or crafting a narrative of “setting expectations.” When a writer sets these expectations for you and does not deliver, it feels disappointing. When we see Frodo given the ring, we expect that he will put it on at some point. When we see Luke handed a lightsaber, we expect he will wield it in battle, and so on. TT Games have set an expectation. Every Superhero game they have released under the LEGO banner has had an original story; therefore, the expectation is that now all of them will. but then, Avengers. Which is really sad.

The original LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes weaved in non-Avenger characters to the plot line really well. Spider Man was a huge part of the original game. There were whole sections featuring X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy showed up at one point, and there were levels based in the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building. Freaking Galactus even showed up.

So when I said that this was a step back, I really was not joking. The scope of the game gets really narrow when you cut out everything else. Which leads me back to the question stated in the title of this article: Why?

Is it so you don’t have to pay writers and voice actors? Is it because you are lazy and don’t want to come up with new content? Are there some sales figures that suggest the titles that just ape movies sell better than the ones that have original stories? Why?

In addition to the blow that is the loss of an original story, Avengers will also see the return of DLC packs and a season pass. The last time we saw a season pass was with Beyond Gotham. We also saw THREE sets of day one, non-cosmetic DLC (The Dark Knight, Man of Steel, and Batman 75th aniversary levels). From what I can tell, there is no day one DLC with Avengers, and the pass promises 40 new characters, 5 new levels (bear in mind those 40 characters are probably from the 5 levels), and access to the “Avengers Explorer Character Pack,” whatever that means, but I would assume it just means more characters.

I’m not a fan of DLC to begin with, even less so in LEGO games, which seem to be targeted primarily at children. And yes, I realize the irony of a grown man who plays these games typing that, but it still doesn’t sit right with me.

I am positive I am still going to enjoy the game. I am positive that I will still enjoy the 100% grind. But I am also positive that this could have been so much more than just a recreation of six movies. So here I sit, waiting patiently until midnight so I can finally download the game and play it. I will also be streaming my gameplay at twitch.tv/bobtheninjagoldfish, so if you want to join me and find out if I am indeed disappointed with the outcome, or if the charm, polish, and style that is familiar in so many LEGO games, wins out. Please do so.

What are your thoughts on LEGO’s change of direction for their Superhero games?

What about LEGO games in general?

Leave your comments below and let us know!