I'm going on two-thirds of an adventure!

Let's pull this band-aid off quickly: LEGO The Hobbit doesn't tell the entire The Hobbit story. After the dwarves re-invade Erebor, and Smaug prepares to attack Lake-town, the game just sort of... ends.

This mark against the game is tempered by the fact that, like LEGO The Lord of the Rings, LEGO The Hobbit is practically a parody of the story anyway -- injecting pratfalls and cartoon humor (like Bombur spontaneously pulling out a turkey leg) into LEGO-styled cutscenes, backed by the movies' recorded dialog.

The story's truncation is also tempered by the fact that - let's be real - the Hobbit movie trilogy was hardly compelling on its own. None of the events of this story measure up to the gravitas of The Lord of the Rings.

What makes LEGO The Hobbit compelling, then, is - again, like LEGO LotR - an open-world Middle-earth to play around in. Granted Bilbo's map doesn't cover as much as Frodo's, but even without Mordor, the scale of this game is impressive; as is its amount of optional side-quest and platform-puzzle activities.

Its gameplay mechanics and core loops are familiar if you've played a LEGO game before: collect studs to unlock items to collect more studs to unlock characters to ... collect everything. And aside from character-specific abilities, these mechanics don't have a hell of a lot to do with Tolkien's world -- the dwarves have axes, Legolas has a bow, and Gandalf can fire magic missiles, so you'll need to switch to the proper character to take out particular obstacles. It's not exactly rocket science.

But like I wrote not long ago about another LEGO title, my enjoyment of these games has a lot to do with my attachment to the source material. And even if this game doesn't add much to what worked about LEGO LotR, ... well, as with The Hobbit movies, I'll take any excuse to get lost in Middle-earth again.

Better than: The LEGO Movie Videogame
Not as good as: LEGO The Lord of the Rings (Android, iOS, Mac, PC, PS3, Wii, X360), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Unusually, includes original voice acting: by the late Christopher Lee, who narrates the introduction of each story mission. RIP, white wizard.

Progress: 100%