Lego The Hobbit

Game Info

The sometimes frustrating instruction building sequences of the game

Bilbo Baggins has just been signed up for a death defying journey!  He’s teamed with Gandolf as a group of dwarves named Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur who are headed to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim the dwarf kingdom from a fire-breathing dragon named Smaug!  Bilbo has never been one for adventure, but he’s going to be on the greatest adventure of his life…he’ll need to build, breakdown, and collect as many studs as possible if he hopes to ever return to the Shire.

Developted by Traveller’s Tales, Lego The Hobbit (also sometimes called Lego The Hobbit:  The Video Game) is a family friendly action adventure video game.  The game serves as a prequel to Lego The Lord of the Rings released in 2012 and is based on The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug (2013).  The game followed The Lego Movie Game (also released in 2014).

The Hobbit films are painful.  They are long, bloated, and loaded with a lot of unfunny “funny” moments that just make the nice pleasant story drag.  Lego The Hobbit adopts this story, but actually makes the story go a bit smoother…to a point.

Wow, things are getting tense….I can’t wait for the battle of Laketown…wait…what?

The problem with Lego The Hobbit is that it doesn’t really end.  You get to Smaug (a really, really easy fight) and Smaug flies off to destroy Laketown…the end.  Lego The Hobbit was released before the end of The Hobbit series and plans for a downloadable The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies was scrapped…leaving the game in limbo.  It is a big letdown storywise and leaves you wandering around collecting the multitude of collectibles.

The game feels a bit bigger than some of the Lego games because things like Red Bricks take so many more steps.  First you need to meet a person who needs the object, then you got to find the plans for the object, then you have to build the object with the supplies you’ve collected, then you take the object back to the person, then you get the Red Brick (if you can afford it)…it is a lot more steps…add to that night and day assignments and you’ll be playing Lego The Hobbit for days.

As always, an expansive cast that does virtually all of the same things

The controls and graphics are similar to all of the other Lego games.  The characters frequently slide into pits, holes, and water which is frustrating, and sometimes characters can get stuck (luckily having two characters switching usually fixes that).  I think some of the fast build scenarios are tricky with the controller since sometimes you “miss” when the marker slides in the build screen.  The landscape from The Hobbit movies is lush so it does help for the game design…in addition, you have some of the voice talent from the movie providing game voices.

The Lego games are fun but a bit maddening.  As someone who likes to collect things, there is so much to do in each game, but each thing you are collecting gets pretty repetitive at points.  Lego The Hobbit is no different in that sense.  The game doesn’t really do much new other than allow you to follow the path of The Hobbit…until it runs out of story.  In that sense, Lego The Hobbit is frustrating and feels incomplete, but you are generally done with the game by the time you get there.  Lego followed Lego The Hobbit with Lego Batman 3:  Beyond Gotham (also in 2014).

Related Links:

The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Lego The Lord of the Rings