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Everyday deeds of ordinary folk: LEGO The Hobbit reviewed

The best way to describe LEGO The Hobbit is that it’s a LEGO-themed re-enactment of key scenes from both The Hobbit movies (An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug), so if you enjoyed those specifically and you like LEGO games in general, you’re in for a treat.

You’ll see Smaug’s defeat of the dwarves, Bilbo’s unwitting inclusion in Thorin’s Company via Gandalf’s dwarf ambush, the encounter with the three trolls Tom, Bert and William and many other famous scenes from a whole new perspective. You’ll even get to see Bilbo go from a tentative adventurer to a full-on orc-slayer.

LEGO The Hobbit (3)

What you won’t see, however, are insights into the storyline you don’t already know since the game ends on the same cliffhanger as the second Hobbit movie.

Still, as far as movie tie-ins go, it’s a pretty good one. Did I enjoy playing? Read on to find out.

LEGO staples

In the course of moving the story through its paces, players will bash things, collect LEGO studs (the game’s currency), fight orcs and bosses, jump on platforms, build things to solve puzzles and go looking for secret areas and special LEGO blocks – you know, LEGO game staples.

Unfortunately the player still has no say in what gets built, as their involvement in building certain things in this game is limited to pointing out missing bits for points/studs, a mechanic introduced in the LEGO: The Movie game.

Levels are highly re-playable as you’ll need specific characters, many of whom only unlock as the story progresses, to reach all areas as doing so often needs someone with a particular ability to unblock the way. Characters that don’t unlock as you move through the story need to be “bought” using all of the LEGO studs you’ll collect.

LEGO The Hobbit (7)

That means in order to unlock everything the game has to offer you’ll need to play through the game at least once, which should take you around six hours or so if you don’t stop to explore and far longer if you put effort into collecting stuff. Just know that not exploring means you’ll miss out on much of the game’s charm, as the levels are lovingly detailed and chock-full of secrets, caves, and items to discover.

LEGO The Hobbit (5)

 Something new

New to the LEGO series is a building/puzzle mechanic that requires you to collect various components needed to finish special objects that solve puzzles. To progress to the troll lands, for example, I needed to rebuild a bridge which required components I didn’t have, prompting more exploration in the hope that the next object I smashed to smithereens would contain the needed items.

That annoyed me a bit, as I found that unless I ignored some of the side-quests to keep my component stash full, I was occasionally stuck in places for longer than I felt was strictly necessary.

Completionists beware

Also, finding all secrets, collecting all special LEGO blocks and getting the game to a 100% state of completion will take a decent effort purely because there’s a lot to collect in addition to finishing the main story.

There are 32 blacksmith designs hidden throughout the game, similar to the Instructions needed by Emett in the LEGO Movie game. Once you find them, the items they allude to can be crafted by a friendly blacksmith who, you guessed it, needs to be rescued before he can do anything for you.

Once you’ve rescued him and found a design, you’ll need Mithril blocks to forge the item. There are 32 designs to find and craft, plus you’ll need around 150 Mithril blocks that are obtained by finding designs, completing levels in story mode and finding things like the Minikits and treasure items hidden in the game’s levels.

To give you an idea of how big a part of the game collecting stuff is, even after finishing the game and several side-quests, my completion status barely hit 31% because I didn’t specifically go after the collectibles. Doing everything the game has to offer should take around 30 hours by my reckoning.

Multiplayer

LEGO: The Hobbit can be played cooperatively with another real-life player, but only locally and not via the internet. Fortunately it works just fine as a single-player game as you can swap between characters at will, allowing you to do whatever needs to be done in order to proceed. It’s just more fun with a friend along for the ride.

Is it fun?

Despite a few flaws, I must say I really enjoyed my time with LEGO The Hobbit. I liked the setting, the puzzles, the humour of seeing LEGO pieces depicting somewhat serious characters and the nifty new features the developers threw in to make it not just another LEGO game.

And since I reviewed it on the PS4, the graphics and sound were superb, and being able to share screenshots and videos of funny moments with my friends added an extra layer of charm on an already-charming package.

Even if you you’re not a fan of the movies, I think LEGO The Hobbit has enough charm of its own to make the game worth your while, regardless of the platform you play it on.

Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Wii, Wii U
Platform reviewed on: PlayStation 4

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