The next arcade-style racer is out now in LEGO 2K Drive. Featuring a series of open-world tracks, a story mode, and an impressive creation mechanic, LEGO 2K Drive will have plenty of reasons for players to play out what the title has to offer brick by brick.

LEGO 2K Drive is a 2023 racing game. It was developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Games. It is available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

Editor’s Note: Some slight mentions of the LEGO 2K Drive story mode may be present. 2K Games provided a Playstation review copy for LEGO 2K Drive to support this review.

2K Games’ surprise racer is one to look out for.

Arcade-style racing games have come back in the last couple of years. 2K Games is looking to get in on the market with the release of LEGO 2K Drive. While the name admittedly needs an inspired sense of confidence, 2K Drive is most certainly a more than competent and confidently made product than one would have come to expect.

Robust vehicle customization sets 2K Drive apart from most of its competitors.

THE GOOD: LEGO 2K Drive is another entry into an ongoing trend of arcade-style racers, many of which have been pretty good. With 2K Drive being a LEGO-themed property, it has much more wiggle room than most racers regarding creativity due to how LEGO works as a brand and as a toy. LEGO 2K Drive can add content based on Rick and Morty, Spongebob Squarepants, etc. if they successfully acquire the respective licenses. They’re reportedly gearing up Star Wars as early as DLC. It’s similar to what Hotwheels Unleashed did, but I imagine LEGO may have more freedom as to what exactly they can do with the licenses again, given the nature of the product. I also want to create IP-themed vehicles instead of being limited to just packed-in skins.

The gameplay for LEGO 2K Drive, at its core, is much of what you’d probably come to expect from any of the recent arcade racers, including nitro boosts, weaponry, and drifting. Something 2K Drive does that’s different, while also being quite familiar, is the terrain-based vehicle switching. If you’re on the road, much harsher ground, the air, or water, your vehicle automatically switches between 2WD, 4WD, boats, etc. Also, a fun little fact I played a very early build of the game with other people just before its official announcement. One of the main complaints was that drifting felt stiff. They’ve since worked on and changed the drift mechanic to be easier to play around with. It feels good knowing that they took the feedback, even as minuscule as it was, to heart and bothered to see how to fix it. With so many games being released with both minor and significant gameplay and technical issues, this shouldn’t feel as much of a rarity as it currently does. The core gameplay and overall presentation of that build which was still reasonably close to the final product was enjoyable to play even in its infancy.

Challenge your friends and others online with split-screen multiplayer.

As previously mentioned, LEGO 2K Drive has a story mode to companion its fairly sizeable open world. There’s not much to spoil for this one, so I didn’t discuss it in the opening paragraphs like usual. It’s about ten hours long and can be played within half a day. I was surprised to find out how well the presentation of the story mode comes off, even if we don’t have long with it. The animation for the cutscenes is exceptionally high quality. Some people have even compared it to the higher-budgeted LEGO films from the Warner Bros. Animation era, which is quite the compliment, and I agree. The script was well-written, with some fun laughs sprinkled in. If you appreciate kid stories with super cartoony villains, that’s another plus. I’m still determining who the voice cast is for the story mode, but the voice of the lead antagonist nailed all his lines and comedic timing.

The Garage is where players go to create nearly any type of vehicle, with a significant brunt of limitation being your imagination. I mentioned how vehicle customization is similar to Hotwheels Unleashed, giving you much wiggle room with creativity. Still, LEGO 2K Drive goes even beyond that by letting you customize the terrain-based vehicles. This means not only can you customize cars, but you can also customize boats and planes. It’s a neat additional touch that adds depth to get your creative juices flowing if this is something you expect to play yourself or with your family for quite some time.

LEGO 2K Drive features a story mode with surprisingly high-quality cutscenes and animations.

THE BAD: LEGO 2K Drive features a live service element, which sucks, especially for a game that will probably have a ton of downloadable content. They’ve tried to limit this, but it feels hollow when the limitations are new vehicles and some customization items that you may otherwise have to spend hours grinding to earn enough for the things you want. You can acquire the currency in-game, but as is often the case with these situations, the payout won’t always be the greatest. This is even more damning, considering this title is heavily aimed at kids and families who game. There’s a slight lack of content regarding game modes. You have the open-world story, online modes, the garage, cup games, etc. More things to do are probably planned for both free and premium DLC.

Though initially lacking in content, LEGO 2K Drive it’s a worthy eventual pick-up for fans of LEGOs and racing games.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: LEGO 2K Drive will surprise many people who didn’t expect much upon its announcement. With plans to keep the game alive through the licensing powers that the LEGO branding allows, it could be relatively successful as an ongoing title. Though there are some questionable microtransactions, especially for a game aimed towards a younger family-themed audience, the game itself is an insanely competently made product and, at the very least, is worth its opening price of admission.