It’s been a few years since the critically-acclaimed LEGO Marvel Super Heroes came out. And while the Marvel movies continue to make bank at the box office, the hype train’s been off the rails for more of the comedic cuteness that typifies the LEGO universe. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is the product of that hype.
I know of no other game series in the universe (except perhaps Minecraft) where breaking absolutely everything has been such a fundamental and ridiculously satisfying part of playing properly. LMSH2 carries on this legacy right from the get-go and never really stops to take a breath.
A few tips before you get started in LMSH2:
Break Everything
Literally. Shoot everything, and then shoot it some more because pretty much everything can break, and pretty much anything that breaks has some studs or (even better) a secret in it.
Remember That Everything Can’t Be Completed Right Away
Particularly if you’ve never played a LEGO game before, this can be pretty frustrating as each and every area is littered with stuff you’re just not allowed to access with the current characters you have control of. It’s okay. Walk on by. (No matter what Stan Lee has to say.)
Explore Everywhere the Camera Does Not
While your camera does give you a bit of wiggle room while exploring small maps and tight corners, the lack of a first-person camera means that there will always be objects that block your view. Poke around in those places anyway, because there’s almost always something worthwhile hiding behind corners of buildings.
Turn Your Subtitles On
A lot of ongoing dialogue happens while you’re busy smashing up the joint, and when a game boasts over 200 characters, the name drops happen one right after the other. LMSH2 may star a number of super-popular and familiar LEGO faces, but it doesn’t look like many of their movie-verse voice actors made the roster so it’s harder to tell who’s talking just from their voices alone.
The story zips from place to place but it starts off deep in outer space. As a giant floating sword threatens the skies, the Guardians of the Galaxy are the only ones left to help with the final evacuations on Xandar …
But First, You’re Going to Need to Get Off Your Ship
And due to a number of reasons (up to and including the fact that baby Groot really likes to press buttons), it’ll take a few steps.
- There’s a ton of things to blow up (and build) in the first room when Star Lord, Drax, and Gamora drop down from the cockpit so take a good minute (or six) to run out the entire room and destroy everything.
Smack this generator just to the right of where you enter and you’ll loosen enough pieces to build it back together and open up a crate full of studs
- When you’re ready to move on… you’ll realize that you can’t. Or at least not just through the hatch like a normal band of superheroes. A system malfunction forces you to use the emergency manual override which, funnily enough, involves blowing up more stuff.
(namely this thing here)
- When you clear out the pesky block console covering up the security panel, follow the on-screen prompts to activate it. This is not the manual override – it in fact anticlimactically dumps a bunch of stuff out of a storage compartment all over the floor.
- Just the stuff you need to build a turn switch! Press the button as prompted nearly the gold glow around them which unlocks the grate covering the elevator platform. Have your characters stand on the platform to descend further into the belly of the ship.
- While you could have done any of the above with any of your characters, you’re going to very specifically need Star Lord for this part. Switch over to him because he’s the only one who can toss a gravity mine.
- Keep in mind that the same button serves to do a number of different functions – a long press will just make Star Lord jam out to his funky beats when what you want is a short tap to throw your mine.
- This will suck all the trash (and what is probably incredibly useful equipment) out of the way, clearing enough space for you to access the hatch panel.
- Press it and you are on your way to the cityscapes of Xandar!
Save the city!
There are a number of civilians running around willy-nilly throughout the city streets but you can only save some of them.
- Nova Prime doesn’t appear to like you very much, but that doesn’t stop your intrepid adventurers from doing the right thing and saving civilians. Blow up everything around you and get your stud collector on, but head towards the multi-story building at the end of the path where a number of civvies are trapped inside from fire.
- Using Star Lord, fly up to the upper level and step on the switch to activate a ladder, allowing your friends to join you.
- You’re going to need Drax up here to take on a moderately-damaged door in the back of the room. Follow the prompts to break through the door, and then activate the switch behind it to unleash your own fire extinguishing drone (one time use only, alas).
- When the fires go out, the civilians run off to the rescue boat – and jjjust in time too because the Guardians end up crashing down through the roof into the room where they were just cowering.
- There’s a turn switch in the back of this room. Activating it will build a giant hamster ball designed for the further protection of civilians (and further destruction of their public property).
Be careful if you swap around your characters to pick up studs around the ball — if you get too close, your character may explode and you’ll have to rush around to pick up the studs you dropped all over again.
- Rolling the ball out onto the ramp will send you crashing into the public fountain, exposing a gravity mine booster.
- Switch to Star Lord to toss a gravity mine on it to drag all the debris away from the giant double doors to the back.
- Poor Gamora feels a little like she’s here just to be here in this level, because you’re going to switch off directly back to Drax who’s the only one who can open those doors and let those trapped civilians out.
- After a short cutscene, Rocket and Baby Groot make it in in time to help with the evacuation effort!
- Between the area just right of the double doors and the clearing where Rocket lands the Milano, you’ll find Stan Lee in a crashed ship. You can’t do much to help him (this may or may not become a recurring theme).
- With the help of Rocket and Groot however, you can save the civilians trapped in the giant metal cage just south of Stan Lee. Using the prompted button (square on PS4), you can aim a bomb onto the metal lattice structure caging the civvies and blow it to smithereens.
- Now you just need to get them to the rescue ship. Thank goodness some plot devicey gadgetry is here to save the day, allowing Baby Groot to fast-forward himself into Adult Groot.
- Just to the right of the cage is a patch of glittering plants. Switch over to Groot and activate these plants, so that his tree-limb growing powers can bridge the last batch of civilians to safety.
Save your ship!
- The ship attacking yours is way too big to beat up with just the stuff you’ve got on hand, but the parts of crashed ship hanging around will certainly help you out.
- Run over to it as Star Lord and activate it when prompted to pick up the pieces and build yourself a brand new radio tower to access the shield defense systems.
- Once built, switch over to Rocket to get it working. That takes care of the shields, but that ship is still attacking you and needs to be put down.
Aim a little ahead of the direction the other ship is moving
in to give your shots enough time to travel.
- As Star Lord, fly up onto the Milano where you’ll be able to hop in and activate the ship’s guns. Time to blast ’em out of the sky!
- A few direct hits and it’ll go down for the count.
You did it!
But it looks like Kang still has a little surprise in store for the Guardians before he’s really quite ready to vacate the premises…
For tips on taking on Chapter 1’s big boss, check out LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2: Eson the Searcher Boss Guide
(Note: For transparency, this early preview game key was provided by WB.)
