Couch Soup logo

Brick by Brick: 2K Drive Review

by: 
hello world!
Rohan Elliott
| May 30, 2023
hello world!

Building on previous LEGO racing games that have come before it, 2K Drive developers Visual Concepts have crafted a competent racing game with a surprisingly immersive building suite that makes it worth the price of admission alone. However, the game is kneecapped by insidious microtransactions that I had hoped we had left behind in the last generation.

Back in my days of only gaming with an ancient Dell laptop, circa 2005, the 1999 classic LEGO Racers was one of my favorite games. I loved that I could build my own car and race it against the greatest racers in the world, and its introduction is up there with the original PlayStation theme for me.

When I found out that there was a new LEGO driving game coming out onto the market, I was a little excited. I ended up preordering the game during my lunch break at work, and this is where the first slimy tentacle of 2K slithered across my leg. At the time of writing, these are the options available to purchase on the PlayStation store:

  • Standard Edition (PS4): $89.95 AUD
  • Cross-Gen Standard Edition: Only the faintly extortionate $99.95 AUD
  • “Awesome” Edition: $145.95 AUD for the privilege of playing the game three days early along with the mandatory “Battle Pass-esque” that’s an include it or be shot at dawn requirement from Triple A developers.
  • The flagrantly extortionate “Awesome Rival” Edition: $179.99 AUD for everything in the “Awesome” edition with an “Awesome Rivals” Bonus Pack.

As Joan of Arc famously uttered before she was burned at the stake, the fuck?

Firstly, 2K can fuck right off with all these “special” editions. If you do buy this game and gazing into my crystal ball here, I can safely say a lot of you will, then do not shell out anything more than you have to for it. Secondly, 2K can doubly fuck off with making me create a 2K account before I could play online. The second lecherous tentacle of 2K ran itself through my hair as I realized that this game is marketed towards kids with the tactics of a sleazy loan shark’s den.

The jokes on them, however, as I am not a child (last I checked) and decided I would embrace my inner hermit and play by myself… then I remembered my brother enjoys video games as well, so I roped him into playing with me for the purposes of this review.

On the story side of things, you are LEGO Adultman, a famed racing no-name who is gunning for the ultimate racing achievement, the Sky Cup. However, to get there, you first have to beat a multitude of colorful characters with appropriately humorous names. The characterization and motivations of yourself and the other racers are paper thin, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s enough of an excuse to get us racing and how fun the racing is.

I was immediately transported back to my LEGO Racers days, drifting, using powerups, and smashing into the other racers. While LEGO Racers had handling that could charitably be described as languid and with environments that felt like a child playing with their toys in various non-LEGO locations, 2K Drive improves on both of these points from its predecessor. The handling takes influence from the Forza Horizon series in its arcade-style handling, and the environments feel a lot more like a LEGO world, albeit miniature in the same vein as the Hot Wheels racing games.

One of the innovative gameplay ideas Visual Concepts has leaned into is the inherent fun of smashing LEGO together. Besides being visually stunning, the sheer number of destructible LEGO objects you can smash into without the frame rate chugging. It’s also a smart way your vehicle regains health with each piece clicking back into place. It’s something I’ve never seen in a LEGO game before, and I’m hoping we’ll see it more often going forward.

All of this is backed up with the game running at a solid 60 frames per second, meaning that races are responsive, fast, and down to the final corner time and time again. This last point is somewhat artificially contrived through the use of rubber banding, although I have heard that this tails away towards the later races, but I cannot confirm at this time.

Along with the races, there are various challenges, side quests, and collectibles to keep you busy while you’re working your way toward the Sky Cup. They’re spread pretty conservatively around the three-and-half-ish maps. Not the Ubisoft method of loading them into a blunderbuss and firing them at the map; more like someone wiping their hands on the map after a particularly messy sundae.

These challenges are fun the first few times, with enough challenge so that you’ll be suitably frustrated when an errant jump or collision ruins your gold medal run. The collectibles are your standard open-world affair, mostly busy work that doesn’t add anything to the overall experience. The side quests are a mixed bag in terms of quality. Some are fun distractions, while others are just fetch quests repeated ad nauseam.

Also, while the writing is fun, and the fourth wall is much like the equator in that, it’s something everyone is aware of, but people plow past it with little resistance; it’s not as funny as it thinks it is. Sure, there are some lines that made me smile, but nothing laugh out loud, and it feels like there are more misses than hits which is always a problem.

It can be argued that all of this is just set dressing for the true star of this game, the building mode. This mode, entitled appropriately enough “Garage”, allows you to build a street, off-road, or aquatic car (also known as a boat) from the wheels up brick by brick or use an existing vehicle and modify it if you want a ready-made canvas to work with. The sheer scope of the bricks and tools provided to you is astounding. It lets you create replicas of your favourite real-life supercars or something a little more… out there.

Any name suggestions? I’m thinking “The Glow”

Another point to mention is that if you can, play this game in the local couch co-op mode. There have been multiple times when my brother and I have pissed ourselves laughing after one of us punted the other off a cliff or appeared over the hill out of nowhere to wreak subsequent havoc.

Overall, 2K Drive is a great LEGO game and a great racing game with a cancerous microtransaction infestation that nothing short of the blinding light from a tactical carpet bombing can solve. If you are getting this for your kids, make sure they can’t get to your credit cards; otherwise, make sure you’ve got someone to play with. A must-buy for any LEGO fan.  

Couch Soup Score: 8/10  

Hey fellow nerds! Before you dive back into that gaming session or start your next binge-watch, here’s the deal with Couch Soup: we’re a completely independent pop culture site run by genuine fans who get just as hyped as you do about the latest games, comics, movies, and TV shows. No corporate overlords, no AI-generated content, just real people who know their Metroid from their Mass Effect.

Unlike the big corporate sites, we don’t chase clicks or stir up drama. Sure, we might have some hot takes (looking at you, controversial season finale), but they come from a place of genuine passion and respect for the creators and fandoms we cover.

Want to support what we do and join what we think is the coolest community of pop culture enthusiasts on the internet? Check out our supporter tiers – each packed with perks that’ll level up your fandom experience. Every contribution helps keep us independent and lets us keep nerding out with you!

Thanks for being part of our quest – now, back to our regularly scheduled geekery!
Drew Lewis,
Editor-in-chief
Membership
Monthly
Yearly
Members Only Newsletter
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Ability to Comment on Articles
Unlocked
Access to Couchsoup Community
Circle Forum
SIGN UP
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Annual Membership
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Annual Membership
Annual Membership
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Annual Membership
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN
Annual Membership
Everything in free +
No Ads on the Site! Woohoo!
5% Couch Soup Store Discount
Monthly AMA chat with CouchSoup team members
Early access (up to 72hrs) to new
episodes
Access to exclusive members only
content (video & articles)
JOIN

About the Author

  • Rohan Elliott

    An indie author from Western Australia, Rohan loves writing stories that hook readers from the start and keep them turning right to the very last page. When he’s not writing stories, contributing to Couch Soup or recharging with a good book, you can catch him on his blog chatting about the latest games he’s played, movies he’s watched or weirder topics like which car in movie history has the worst criminal record… yeah, we don’t know what he was thinking with that one either.

Share This

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Comments are for members only. Sign up here to become a member for free.

False

Get our Newsletter!

Featured

Why Godzilla is a Sexy Mother Trucker

Godzilla is a babe and it’s about time he’s recognised for that. Yeah, he’s a destructive force and a powerful monster, but can we just objectify him for a little bit? Let us tell you some of the reasons we think Godzilla is a sexy mother trucker.
by Iain McParlandNovember 5, 2024
1 2 3 850

Read more

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Spoiler Free Review

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is out, and it is amazing. Here is our review on the latest Spidey spectacle.
by Nick McKayJune 6, 2023 

Andor, Episode 4: Aftermath of an Eventful Day

Andor Episode 4 is here and Thomas Richards gives first impressions and a hint of what to expect in this week's slower-yet-intriguing episode.
1 2 3 264
© 2024 CouchSoup, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Terms of Service | Privacy
© 2024 CouchSoup, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Manage Cookie Settings chevron-down