We got the chance to speak to Arthur Parsons, Head of Design at TT Games about their upcoming title, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 at New York Comic Con earlier this month.
If you've played the first game, there'll be a lot of pleasant surprises for you in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. It's accessible to anyone but built with hardcore Marvel fans in mind. In the first title, you were only able to explore an open New York City, but now the team has included a slew of different worlds from a multitude of Marvel franchises, with one of the LEGO series' largest cast to date.
Arthur Parsons: It's the same development team that worked on the first game. When we started development for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 with our blank bit of paper the first thing that was on there was that the game had to be better... Everything had to be better.
Jordan: What additions are you guys making to the open world? In the first game, you were only able to explore New York City...
AP: That's the biggest change I think, we wanted to make the most ambitious open world we could. The first game was obviously on PS4 but also the older platforms like PS3 and Xbox 360.We don't have that this time so we have no limits on where we can go. The open world, if you're not familiar with it is Chronolpolis, it is a city created by Kang the Conqueror. Which brings together 18 Marvel locations.
[pullquote]"That's the biggest change I think, we wanted to make the most ambitious open world we could."[/pullquote]
According to Parsons, the development team's goal was to ultimately make the world feel like a living, breathing entity. In the first title, a lot of the game was locked off to players. For example, you'd have to put in hours of game time to get to the Deadpool missions. Parsons said that this was the biggest lesson learned from the first title.
In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 this will not be the case. Their goal is to give you as much freedom as possible, so there'll be a slew of cool things to do in Chronolpolis, and you won't have to worry about any of it being locked off to you.
J: Is everything going to transition over to the Switch version as well?
AP: Yes. I got a Switch the day it came out. I love the Switch, I think it's amazing. I also have a work Switch. I can now review stuff on the go. It's cool, but the Switch is actually far more powerful than anyone realizes. The game on Switch is absolutely no different than on the PS4. You've got it handheld which is great, you plug it into your TV and you can have it running on a 60-inch television.
We've made it so you can play two-player with one joy-con each, believe it or not, there are enough buttons to allow you to play LEGO Marvel Super Heroes in two-player mode on your television with just one little tiny Joy-Con, but it's the same game, no limitations, same characters, story, and missions.
J: What resolution do you have the game running on the Switch version?
AP: That is a bizarrely odd question, I'm just trying to remember because with Pro and Xbox One X we're messing with resolutions all the time. Sitting side by side with PS4 it looks pretty good, maybe it's upscaled... I'd have to get back to you on that, sorry.
[pullquote]"The game on Switch is absolutely no different than on the PS4. You've got it handheld which is great, you plug it into your TV and you can have it running on a 60-inch television."[/pullquote]
Traveller's Tales also has a ton of cool DLC planned for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. Some of it will be completely original and some will be pulled straight from the Marvel cinematic universe.
AP: There are 10 packs, there are four character packs and six level packs. We've talked about an "Out of Time" pack that'll allow us to put some more weird and wacky character variants, like Iron Man 2020 for example. We've got a "Champions" pack, and a "Retro Guardians" pack. We've also got level packs which are super-cool... We've got packs inspired by the Black Panther movie, a level pack inspired by Ant-Man and The Wasp, one that's inspired by Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and then there are two level packs that are kind of out there, one of them is "Cloak and Dagger" the other is "Runaways." There's like 200 plus characters in the main game. If you buy the season pass... There are like another 60 characters... Marvel's [universe] is just endless. There are over 8,000 characters... We can keep going forever.
The amount of thought the team at TT Games and Marvel Games are putting into this game is admirable. They're very excited to have the opportunity to bring a slew of characters from all walks of Marvel comics into the game, and in many cases to introduce these characters to younger players for the first time.
Each character in the game will have a card that explains exactly which comic said character appeared in first. Considering this game will have one of the biggest rosters in any LEGO title, that attention given to each character should really get Marvel fans excited.
You can check out LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 when it launches on November 14 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch.