Lego Rock Raiders

"Welcome to the Lego universe!"

Introduction
When I first bought this game I was pretty sure that I wouldn't like it but once I played I found out just how good it was! I would think that Lego fans will like it this game a lot because of how everything looks like Lego! This game does have it's fair share of flaws and they may change you're mind about buying the game but if you want to know more about it then read on:

Story: 7
This is the story: You are a crew of Lego men called 'rock raiders' who travel around the galaxy onboard your huge mining ship called the 'LMS explorer'. While returning home from an expedition in space your ship gets hit by a giant asteroid which knocks you into a wormhole. The ship emerges from the wormhole badly damaged and the crew of rock raiders finds them self in a distant alien galaxy! The only way to get home is to collect these little green things called ''energy crystals'' from the alien planets. The energy crystals will repair your ship so you can go home.

It's a pretty good story except for one thing: There aren't many surprises during the game, you'll see a short cinema scene at the start of every mission but there are no major surprises involving the story during the game. Without spoiling anything, even the end of the game doesn't have any surprises in it! And that's a little disappointing. Apart from that one thing, the story is great!

Gameplay: 9
It's kind of hard to learn how to play Rock Raiders at first but there are training missions that are like tutorials so if you don't know how to play then they can teach you. Once you get to know how everything works it's easy. Through out the 25 missions in the game you have to command you're rock raiders to do things and it's simple to do, you just have to click on a few buttons. The annoying part is that sometimes your rock raiders don't respond to your command and the game gets a glitch where the rock raider will not move no matter what you do. But apart from that nothing is really annoying. During missions you must build a HQ, protect it from monsters, collect some things or rescue other rock raiders. It doesn't hard until near the end of the game when everything gets harder.

You can use items such as laser guns things called ''sonic blasters'' which are like mines. You can also upgrade your rock raiders to carry more items and train them to be drivers, pilots, sailors, engineers, geologists, and explosives experts. These are all nice little features which make the game play better! Overall game play is simple.


Sound/Music: 6
There not really much to say about the sounds since there aren't many but oh well: The sound effects: Like I just said there aren't many sound FX in this game. At the start of a mission you hear the chief rock raider speak to you about the mission and during missions you hear a few clicks, beeps and only a few other sounds but that's all. Now about the music: I never paid too much attention to the music in Rock Raiders because it's pretty boring but when I did listen to it I found out that I didn't like the music in this game much due to the fact that the tunes aren't very catchy and they are just go on and on and on etc. I was disappointed with the sound and music in this game, there obviously wasn't much effort put in to it.

Graphics: 6
The graphics in this game are absolutely shocking. All of them are slow moving and when you compare them to other PC games you can notice that they aren't as good. You will probably notice that everything looks really blocky but what can you expect? It's a Lego game, everything should look blocky! There is a good side to the graphics though: They are a good simulator of what it looks like in the Lego universe, especially if you go into first person view. In FPV (First Person View) you can see through the eyes of the rock raider when he's walking, drilling etc. You can also view just behind the rock raiders shoulders. That is probably why Lego fans would like this game. But if you don't like a game with bad graphics then you should probably stay away from this game.

Replayability: 1
Once you have beaten this game there is probably no way that you would want to play it again. It has lots of challenge in it and is also a long game so you will be glad to get this game over and done with once you've played through it. But not only that, the missions are extremely repetitive, they're all about the same thing. Collect this and collect that while trying to avoid monsters and lava. If you truly like this game after buying it then you may want to play a mission or two again for fun but that's all. Otherwise, trust me when I say you won't be playing it again because I never did.

Overall: 7
After reading this review you can probably tell that this game has a few good points and a few bad points. Well if you're a fan of Lego or play all of the Lego PC games then you'll definitely want to get this. It's not really for younger gamers since some of the puzzles may confuse them. It's a frustrating game at times and a good game at times but I recommend that you buy it and if you don't like it at first then take it straight back.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/03, Updated 05/03/03