I honestly didn't know how badly I wanted to see one of Jack Kirby's Celestials in Lego form until I played Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. It was amazing to see such an iconic design rendered in the block form Lego is known for without losing any of that Kirby aesthetic. Just the opening moments of the demo at E3 left me in awe, and for that reason alone I'm excited to play more Lego Super Heroes 2. Good for this game, there are plenty more reasons to be excited too.

The demo we got to play at E3 featured the newest characters to join the Lego Marvel video game family, the Guardians of the Galaxy. All five of the core members of the team were playable, including Baby Groot complete with growing powers. For the most part though, the demo focused on Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax, each of which had key abilities needed to unlock certain areas to proceed. All three also happened to have some great attack abilities, including Gamora's whirling dervish sword attack and Star-Lord's blaster-filled Walkman jam session.

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Things first unfold aboard the Milano, where the Guardians must put some of the ship back together before it crashes to the ground of Chronopolis. At least I think that's what was happening. It was very loud at the convention, and dialogue wasn't exactly perceivable without headphones. Regardless, the context clues gave enough of a hint as to what was transpiring. Once we landed "safely," Kang's interdimensional forces laid siege while Eson the Searcher lumbered through the nearby body of water to further our beat down.

While the overall story elements tying everything together weren't very clear from the brief demo, we do know Kang is up to his old troubles once more. The time-traveling villain has sacked all of the multiversal timelines to bring heroes from all over the Marvel Universe together to bring him down. We only got to play as the Guardians of the Galaxy, but Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man 2009, Planet Hulk, Cowboy Captain America, and a whole lot more will also be joining the fray at some point. Chronopolis will also act as a hub world of sorts where we'll need to depart to the likes of K'un L'un, Attilan, New York City, Wakanda, and a number of other undisclosed Marvel locales.

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Taking down the Celestial was no easy task, especially with Kang manipulating time to help the eternal being stay one step ahead of us during the fight. Eventually, after dodging massive blasts of energy and beating up dozens of displaced henchmen, we weakened Eson enough to hit him where it hurt. Using Drax to pop open his energy source, we opened the forcefield protecting Eson's heart. From there, it was as simple as having Star-Lord use his archaeology tool to give him a clear shot at Eson's prime power. Blasting it to shreds, the Celestial disappeared, and it looked like we had won the day. For now.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 will follow its own story, much like its predecessor, and that bodes well for fans of this franchise. The last few Lego tie-in games were merely okay, but it looks like Marvel Super Heroes 2 will bring plenty of new abilities, action and jokes to get the brand back on track. If the rest of the game includes boss battles and deep character cuts like this stage did, it'll certainly be one of the deepest Marvel games ever released. That can only lead to good things.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 will be out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on November 14.

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