I love this game. The dialogue is really good at times, especially with some of the characters/quest givers in the open world. Very liberal use of puns but Professor X and more recently Punisher had me smiling.
Just a note, you might have to do a few vehicle/? missions before a character becomes available for an unlock. For those holding out for their favourite character to appear, you might have to do say 2-3 missions for Ghost Rider, Heimdall, Punisher, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, etc. before you get a mission to unlock them.
Still having lots of fun grinding out these good bricks and characters. Just so much charm in this game.
When doing freeroam are there random enemies you can fight?
Pedestrians mostly, who won't fight back. Some side missions involve clearing goons out of alleys, there are escort missions where you have to defend the person you're escorting, Sentinel fighting missions, defend this area missions, etc. There are a LOT of missions, but they aren't just everywhere continually wrecking havoc.
I've been attacked once randomly going into an alley, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing a mission, but I'm probably wrong since its only happened once.
This looks kinda cool but I haven't bought a Lego game since Lego Star Wars III. How have the games improved since?
A lot. Full voice acting, generally more activities and interaction types, more detailed, bigger, prettier, more lively worlds (and recently, open worlds). The biggest contribution Lego Marvel makes is that characters are more unique. The Star Wars series had been particularly guilty of cloning with little effort. It's still a LEGO game, so like every other LEGO game you should get it based on how much you enjoy those recurring mechanics (build + use appropriate character to use) and how much you like Marvel as a property.
It's hard to describe until you play the game but there are so many tiny details. For instance, characters with ranged attacks usually all just hold their palms out for when you are ranged targeting, but Sandman transforms into a cannon ball on wheels. Iceman skates for his running animation and when he glides he freezes the path infront of him. Dr. Doom doesn't have to charge his electricity. Wolverine doesn't die, just ends up as an adamantium skeleton that regenerates. Even lesser known characters like Ronan The Accuser have some unique animations too. It's very impressive IMO. You can even attribute powers to custom characters (though its a bit limited, I tried making Rogue and couldn't assign telekinetic powers to her).