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Keep going, this is fantastic.

Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed - an NZ Review - Text Heavy The game is through and through a mobile game. Stamina, microtransactions, looting, lootboxes, and a very definite feeling of "why am I playing this?" - yup, all there. One could argue that fundamentally all gaming is pointless, and perhaps by extension, all life is pointless ? Although that is something I disagree with. Nevertheless, Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed really brings out the worst in that feeling, which is why I've stopped playing it and don't think I'll pick it up again. The game is very fun and charming for about the first five hours. There are characters to explore, a barebones plot to pursue, environments to enter, and fun things to see. However you reach a point (about lvl 20) where there aren't new things to explore. This happens in every game, of course: the feeling of novelty wears off: and with other games, skill, variation, or simply fun fills that hole. And Lego Legacy could fill that box with insane strategizing. This has much more than the +atk, +def, +speed, that one might see in Pokemon: there's Grit to resist debuffs and Skill to apply debuffs, Assists where other characters assist for medium-ish damage, Taunt, Stealth, Heal Over Time, and all sorts of really interesting things that could really make a really interesting game. However being a mobile game with microtransactions.... .... it's just not there. I remember the last level of the first mini-campaign. I simply couldn't beat it. Despite my best efforts to work out what was important, focus fire them down, make the maximum usage of the multi-hit moves I had, I just couldn't win. Solution? Grind some other levels and come back. This, by itself, isn't bad: most RPGs have a levelling feature and it can allow the player to get a sense of progression. However, two things in Lego Legacy make it very terrible: - Once you've levelled and powered up you don't even need strategy. You can just smash through - The levelling is simply a matter of menuing and waiting for energy to recharge. You don't even have to play the levels to get XP - you can click the "Loot" button. I remember another level. It was quite cool, a 'boss fight' of sorts - you just fought one minifigure who was way stronger than your team. This was really interesting, but again, I couldn't beat it. I grinded a bit, leveled up, leveled up my characters, and went back, and then was able to beat it. It was fun, interesting, and tough. However then I came back five levels later. But now my team was too powerful, and the boss, while still a little challenginge, was just a matter of clicking attack and clicking heal, with no strategy involved. This is why I hate a levelling system. It prevents you from winning by clever moves, as any level can just be beaten by overlevelling. Furthermore, it also means past levels and experiences just can't be re-experienced, as you'll absolutely steamroll and it's just not even fun. Furthermore, in Lego Legacy needing to power up just becomes the norm. It is a grindy type of game. This isn't actually bad as per se, but it means that my daily playing of Lego Legacy goes something like this: 1) Start game 2) Go to missions I'm trying to get character tiles for. Grind those by clicking the Loot button until out of energy type A. 3) Go to another batch of missions. Grind those, again with the Loot button/ 4) Use a Brick Separator, open a Bag, probably just auto an Arena Battle, for the daily quests 5) Shut game Notice something? No actual gameplay was had. Just menuing. This really feels pointless and I wonder "Why am I playing this?" Furthermore, occasionally events pop up. At the moment I think The Cook is one or something. What happens in these is the following: 1) You roflstomp and one-shot all mobs on the first level. Congrats, you get some character cards. 2) You roflstomp and two-shot all mobs on the next level. Congrats, you get some more character cards. 3) You get roflstomped and one-shotted on the third level. There's absolutely no way for you to beat this without just grinding. This makes the events extremely unfulfilling to play, as either you're overleveled or you're not. There have been very few levels which have been at my power level and I've felt adaquately challenged: possible, yet I have to be careful and strategic. This is good: there's just not nearly enough of it, and these levels are BY FAR the exception. Occasionally I'll be able to Star Up a character, which is a massive power boost (much more than levelling up or Gearing up), and can probably complete one level. But in this new level it is the same background, the same enemies (they reuse thiungs to the point where it is very boring), and the same strategy. Granted, I'm playing this free as it were, as I have no intention of spending on this game. That's the game's other issue - paying doesn't actually do anything. It just grants you Gems. But I get Gems anyway from daily quests & my Arena position, so paying doesn't do anything interesting beyond 'speed up the grind.' And the only thing I'm grinding for is to be able to power up so I can grind more faster? Yeah, that seems pointless. The game is pleasingly playable free, but I suspect that'll change at launch. There is one thing that a levelling system does that Lego Legacy does well: it unlocks later abilities. Take a look at this: The 'shield' icon around the middle top of the screen is an ability I haven't unlocked. If I click on this, I can see its effects (quite cool: it's a Passive. At the start of Hiker's turn, he has a 25% chance to grant the hero with the lowest health Defense Up for 2 turns. The game has ton of neat effects like this). However I also can't use it, as it's locked behind Gear 2. This is actually fine, and I like this system. Getting Gear is more tedious than anything else (like the rest of this game >.> ), and if you don't have a piece of gear, you can use the Brick Finder to find in what levels it might drop, and hit the Loot button until you get it. Collect all bits of gear for that character and you can Gear Up, which unlocks new abilities..... ... well, only sometimes. In this case Hiker gets a cool Passive when he gets to Gear 2, but Gears 3 4 and 5 (current max) don't grant anything interesting beyond a stat buff. This also plagues the level up (you can see he's level 11) and the star (he's at 1 star, and I have 0/20 cards to star him up). Increasing these doesn't unlock any new abilities, any new moves, anything at all. It just increases his stats. This makes starring up a character, even after I've grinding the 20 cards (which is very slow), EXTREMELY unrewarding as all you get is a +stat increase that allows you to move to the next stage. At which point you will beat it, come to the next stage, and find you can't and need to grind another 20 cards - no, wait, it's now 30 because of course everything increases with level. But wait, there's one more form of buffing your characters! See those 1 in square boxes next to the abilities? Yep, those can be upgraded using Ability Elixirs! Except by and large a) Ability Elixirs are very easy to get and b) the results aren't very spectacular. About half the time they're a boring "+5% damage" and the other half are more interesting, eg: "-1 cooldown time" , "20% chance to inflict Dodge Down" , "Additional +20% damage against CITY heroes." But they don't really change much and just grant you a little bit more power. However, the game is not terrible. I'll list some good things it does... and then some bad things that counteract that as the argument isn't complete without them. - The animations are very well done and each character is charming. --- It's then a shame that you get so used to the team (did I mention getting new characters is impossible early game (no, not "very difficult," impossible - no early nodes drop character tiles) and you have absolutely no choice about your team till about lvl 20?), that you've seen them all and put the game on 3x speed --- It's also a shame that the enemies are reused and reused and reused and reused and reused and reused and you've seen everything before 90% of the time. - The game has multiplayer, where you can battle the teams of other players! --- Except it's not really "PVP" and instead the enemy team is taken over by the AI. This is really disappointing. --- Also, see the point about new characters above? Yeah, everybody's basically rocking the same team up until about lvl 30. Which makes them very uninteresting to fight. - The game also has Guilds and Shared Heroes --- Except these suck and do absolutely nothing apart from the above. There isn't even a Kick function for the Guild Owner. Granted, this will change as the game gets developed, but it still sucks. - Gearing up to unlock new abilities is very rewarding --- Sometimes the abilities are so bad, especially in the AI hands, that I'd rather not want them --- Not all gearing up grants a new ability (very few do! see Hiker above) --- Leveling up doesn't do anything beyond stat changes - Set build animations are very pretty and nice to watch --- But you see them super rarely (I've only ever built 4 sets and I'm at lvl 29ish) --- And they don't matter much in the game anyway This is why I wish the game was a paid PC game. This would kick it into the 'strategy gaming' market and off the 'mobile grind P2W game' market. The game has a ton of interesting synergistic potential especially with its debuffs. Like: - There's an ability that if it crits inflicts Stunned, which makes the minifigure skip its turn (very powerful). There's also a hero who has an ability that ensures the next hit will be a crit. Hmmm! --- except you can't get that second hero for waaaaaay later in the game - You can upgrade an ability to have a chance to inflict Dodge Down. That same character can be upgraded deals bonus damage to heroes with Dodge Down. - Inflicting Discouraged, which clears pep (the turn meter) on next hit, and then somebody assisting for exactly that hit, is glorious. Good thing the Pirate Set enables Redbeard to do exactly that. - Certain characters have a chance to Counter for some damage when hit. This means you want to hit them with as few, high-power, attacks as possible. - Taunt and Stealth are very interesting and prevent the game from becoming "focus fire down one unit, then go onto the next one" --- Shame the AI can't use them for peanuts (seriously) Also, given the... uh... controversy... around Pokemon Sword and Shield, a game like this is in a prime position to strike at that turn-based-battling strategic niche with a franchise aimed at small children yet allows older, more strategic and competent players, to also have a blast putting things together. Add in proper multiplayer and you're golden! I could also then see DLC expansions. Instead of the current idea, where the next plot is to go bash person X, it could be a branching series of adventures that, if you wanted the characters for, you'd get that DLC. So off you go to Planet U to fight a whole bunch of Rock Raiders and get Chief. Currently, the method of getting characters is by very tedious grinding character cards. I could see a system where, when you beat the boss and his entourage, you get that character. Bam, done. I would also abolish the level and star system, but keep the gear and ability up system. This is because if you were to go into a next adventure with your high-leveled characters, you'd totally stomp them: and that's what happens in events now. Preventing absurd powering up like that allows those early missions to still be interesting. But Gear and Abilities ensure that your developed characters do actually have an edge over ones new to your team. This would keep a sense of character power growing without it ever being enough. I could also see a system where you choose 10 heroes but only 5 can be on the field at any given time but you can swap them out, as 5 feels very restrictive quite often, but that's a more radical idea. ... But it's currently none of that. It's just an uninteresting Lego grindfest, where the point of grinding isn't even to see new stuff, it's just to be able to grind faster. The game has one saving grace: the grind doesn't really start setting in till lvl 15. So if you have a phone that can run it - or just run it on Bluestacks - it's worth picking up and playing it until you start to get bored with it: don't try and think "oh, if I get through this boring bit there'll be more interesting stuff ahead!" because there really isn't at the moment, and due to the nature of the game, I doubt there will ever be. One final thing: it's likely that more, cool, characters will be added. Possibly even Chief. I don't care. If it's going to be grindy and unrewarding to unlock them I don't care. Appendix: