Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: game review, lego: worlds, tt games, WB Games

'Lego Worlds' Is Filled With Imagination & Pieces That Hurt When You Step On Them

Published Sat, 11 Mar 2017 14:45:41 -0600

I'm a sucker for the Lego games. TT Games has done a wonderful job over the years of making a title that adults and kids can both get into. I am the master of all things Batman, but I'm still annoyed at Lego Marvel Super Heroes for making what is by far some of the hardest flying time challenges ever. (Even with Silver Surfer, what the hell, man!?) While not every one of them is a winner, there are elements to all of them that make them cool. So now that Lego and TT have firmly established how cool they are with other properties, they've started getting back to releasing more Lego-centric games that don't rely on another brand helping them. Which is where we get Lego Worlds, first as an early access game on Steam back in 2015, now a full console game.

The game starts off with you as an astronaut in space who is suddenly hit by some meteors that send you flying down to a Lego planet below. All of the planets are flat-surfaced with different characteristics and color schemes that define what they are. You start on a pirate world learning the basics of what your tools can do. You'll help some folks out, build some stuff, gather gold bricks and leave for another place in the universe. The goal of the game is to become a Master Builder, which you can only do by collecting gold bricks and building up your personal status in the game.

You're given a set of seven different tools that have unique properties that aid you in the game. You can discover objects to build, copy designs, give them a new coat of paint, build brick-by-brick, and a couple other fun options that unlock as you discover new things to do. As you travel around you'll quickly discover that not every challenge can be dealt with immediately. A good example of this would be coming up on a world with cowboys that include livestock who need to be fed. The horse is craving a carrot, but wouldn't you know, there are none in sight. So you'll need to travel to another world to discover carrots and bring one back to him. You'll also see challenges situated in the water, which you can't swim to, so you'll need to find aquatic gear and make your way down later.

The biggest enemy you'll encounter in the game is the camera. It takes a lot of work to get used to as it will seemingly do its own thing during large building phases like raising the land or copying homes. What's more, your character will move around as you move your view, but you'll never see where they end up until you finish. The angles are tricky to master and there's definitely a learning curve as you move along in the game, but if you can master it then you'll have little issue maneuvering around during bigger projects. Another enemy, this time real, are the little green goblin creatures who carry around special pieces. You need to catch these guys to have access to special blocks later for the creative side, but they're a pain to find and even harder to catch. When you finally snag one, he drops a piece that becomes unlocked for builder mode.

The builder mode that a lot of people have been comparing to Minecraft is impressive, but it isn't Minecraft. As cool as it is to play with Legos, the simple fact is that there's a limit to Legos based on what's around you. In Minecraft, after enough searching, you can build anything. In Lego Worlds, you can still build anything with your imagination, but what your character has is limited to what the Lego brand has created. A good example would be that in the Lego Worlds, I will eventually come across an archer and copy myself a bow and arrow. In Minecraft, I build the bow and arrow from scratch and can make improvements on it. While the two are similar, there's a great differential canyon between them. Neither in my mind is superior to the other, there's a lot of flaws in Minecraft that make it not as fun as it could be, and Lego Worlds has those elements, but the game is also restricting in its own right.

Lego Worlds is an awesome sandbox game that allows you to have some free spirit with the Lego universe, minus any of the famous properties that are now attached to it. It's the kind of game adults might actually have more fun with because a lot of the game is the kind of building and characters we used to grow up with. Back when that little space logo meant a lot more to the imagination than it does now. Kids will definitely get a kick out of because it's a Lego game. But this isn't a Minecraft clone, for better and worse. I lean more toward the idea that it's better it isn't, but I can see people knocking it for not being what they hoped for.

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