LEGO The Hobbit

pro

With The Hobbit, Travellers Tale is back with another full blown Lego adventure that eclipses the movie tie-in Lego Movie and most of the previous games they've put out in terms of size and content. People who played Lego LOTR will not only recognize the world they have previously ventured through, but also marvel at how good it looks in this iteration. There are of course additional locations that coincide with The Hobbit, so don't think for a minute that TT simply rehashed LOTR and smacked on some new characters. As is their standard now, you get a fully voiced adventure, a huge character roster and more bricks than you can shake your fist at. It follows the story of the first two movies pretty faithfully with the occasional small detour. There's also a devious amount of side-stuff to do.

pro

The Hobbit incorporates most of what's been done in previous Lego games, and included some new features as well. The Lego building mini-game that showed up in Lego Movie gives you ample opportunity to brick together catapults, bridges and various other contraptions, while the brand new co-op mechanic requires two or more compatible characters to latch on to each other to either break walls or create make-shift ladders. Additionally the crafting system from LOTR is back, so if you're in this for the collectibles you have your work cut out for you.

pro

TT can't be credited for the music or voice acting, but they way it's put to use is spotless. If you're a fan of the movie score you'll feel right at home from the second you step into the hairy feet of a hobbit.

pro

While not extremely exciting, the character roster is back to normal, which means you have close to a 100 you can unlock. They all have some kind of special ability including the aforementioned co-op mechanic. You will usually find a favorite or two, but certain characters are required to progress through various puzzles.

con

It's almost becoming a joke, but for such a co-op focused game it is intriguing that there's still no online mode to be found.

con

As you unlock characters, finding the right one with the ability you're after can be quite the hassle until you inevitably learn their location in the roster. Small and similar icons make certain characters hard to distinguish from each other. There is a description for every character, but this only shows up while you're on that particular icon. I am sure there are better ways to do this as the amount of abilities and characters increase.

con

Lego The Hobbit does incorporate new things as well as older improved mechanics, but overall the game doesn't feel in any way very new or refreshing. It's well done, there are less bugs and the ever increasing production values are impressive, but ultimately this next entry in the never-ending stream of Lego games fail to make any sort of impact or stand out in a meaningful way.