LEGO Worlds

LEGO Worlds Review

By Sean Sullivan

What kid didn't play with LEGOs growing up? Or feel inspired to dig through their closet for buried LEGOS by Minecraft, because they remembered slapping three pieces together and calling it a plane? It’s taken long enough for a sandbox game featuring LEGOs to release. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner with the hype-train that still follows The LEGO Movie. Finally, the wait is over. Now everyone can build without worrying about torturing their feet with a minefield of scattered LEGOs—unless you’re into that kind of thing. Even more, the wait has been worth it. LEGO Worlds offers highly polished environments with just the right amount of humor and player control to “make your world possible.”

Interface

From the menu you’re shown a procedurally generated island. Each world looks like it belongs on the back of a LEGO World Turtle—half a snow globe with some pockmarked islands. You can reset the world by pressing the Earth with a “?” until you’ve found a chain of islands you’re satisfied with. One point to note is that even if the world you’re viewing only shows a volcano, it does not mean that its only environment is a magmatic death trap. Each procedurally generated island I played featured various environments. What you see in the menu is your spawn point.

Quick complaint. Upon launching, I wanted to adjust my resolution—1280 x 768 proves the game is intoxicated—but changing the resolution is a one-way slider. Click, Click, Click, to scroll through. Pass the resolution you want? Oh well, you better start again. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to right click to scroll backwards or use a drop down menu to let me select the desired resolution. It’s a minor fix that I hope to see implemented. Now that the whining is out of the way, let’s jump in, literally.

Exploring

Entering my LEGO World, I skydived (just to style) into the frigid waters of an Arctic LEGO climate. Splashing around, single pieces of water LEGOs scattered in every direction. Making my way to shore, I spotted a ferocious Polar Bear. Luckily, my character had been training under Mike Tyson. Pressing left-click three times I delivered the old one, two, three and right-hooked ursus into four pieces. Then I discovered that the Polar Bears are more docile than they appear. Pressing “E,” I jumped onto the bear’s back and galloped from one region to the next.

The worlds are divided into various climates, from tropical to desert to tundra—even including a spooky zone complete with wandering vampires and zombies. As you explore you’ll bump into other LEGO character models and fauna unique to each region. First-time introductions store that particular piece in the LEGO shop, accessible from the menu in the top-left hand corner of the screen, and available for purchase with LEGO zeny. Most of these objects are destructible, easily noticed by being coruscant with a white sheen, allotting LEGO zeny once they explode into their LEGO bits. Furthermore, you want to trample everything because LEGO coins translate into new character models (some with special abilities), vehicles, LEGO pieces, and special items. The fastest way to make cash is to hop on a transport (preferably a zany ostrich), wave your hands in the air, and smash some LEGOs like you didn’t get the gift you wanted on your tenth birthday.

Living In A LEGO World

It shouldn't be hard to make a game based on LEGOs look good right? After all, it is just a series of blocks locked in place. Nevertheless, LEGO Worlds surpasses expectation, rendering a finely polished environment where even the tiniest LEGO pieces differentiate themselves with sharp contrast. It looks like a giant playset built by a twelve-year old. Rich colors and environments are eye candy. The world’s floor shines with unreal polish, and shadows glide across the ground as day succumbs to night. Distance blur makes far-away objects appear like they're hiding details, obscured by my poor LEGO eyesight. Additionally, the game’s animations are both fluid and kooky. It’s an impressive presentation that caught my eye anew each time I launched the game.

However, the world can get a bit repetitive. No matter how many times you generate a new map it's going to have at least some of the same environmental features found in every other world. You’ll explore, maybe meet a new NPC or two, find a vehicle, and blow up some skeletons. You don't need to keep making new worlds after you've explored a couple. Fun, then, is solely up to your creative genius and imagination to create worlds using the available blocks—with seemingly endless possibilities. This infinite space is why I believe this game will find longevity with kids, not adults. Imagination weens when there's bills to pay. Plus, the controls can feel are like walking on ice for the first time.

Controls

The PC controls are a bit odd, at first. You move with either WASD or by holding left-click to direct your character, while right-click rotates the camera. Both movement systems are active at the same time, making for an awkward battle between control schemas as you acclimate—even more so because left-click is bound to your active action, whether it be punch, fireball, or whatever else. I wanted to attack another wizard with fireball, but because left click is bound to movement my character kept walking instead of fighting. I don’t need a march for peace; I need a wizard that can fight. I did adjust eventually but it was initially frustrating.

The Building System

Building LEGOs in a LEGO-themed game ought to be the central focus, right? Well, the building system can be both rewarding and exasperating. To start, there are environmental manipulation tools. You can add terrain, smooth terrain, lower and raise terrain, or flatten it out. Since you’re not necessarily building a specific shape with terrain tools they don’t pose any issue. It’s satisfying to watch chunks of LEGOs ripped apart at the click of a button. You can completely alter the landscape with the terrain tools or create your own island in the middle of the ocean. As you create terrain, your character holds a vacuum cleaner’s antithesis, spewing out chunks of LEGO’s for an entertainingly animated creation sequence.

Then you go to build yourself a nice house, maybe that farm you always talked about. You start with one brick, gently locking it into place—a token of life’s next adventure. Then you place the next brick, but the camera angle distorts your view and now the brick’s out of line. You go to delete it but you’ve pressed the wrong button and now you’re locked in the selection tool. You end up with a house that looks like a four-year old’s representation of genre art. The funny part is adults are the ones who will struggle with LEGO World’s mechanics—I grew increasingly flustered just trying to spell “MMOs.” However, kids will likely pick it up without a problem. Patience wanes with age as well.

The issue comes from the awkward, sometimes clunky, camera controls as you negotiate WASD and the mouse buttons. Until you’ve become comfortable balancing the two schemas, building can be a chore. And for those of us who can’t handle the building utilities—due to impatience, time, or senility—the game provides plenty of pre-built structures in the menu that can be instantly placed. I built a 20-story tall LEGO man, an impressive replica of myself.

Build With Friends

Multiplayer will be released at some point in the near future. For the time being, LEGO Worlds remains strictly single-player. I can see why the developers have held off. Ensuring that players don’t run around breaking other player’s structures requires the implementation of an ownership system, where buildings and creations are protected. In its current state, the game is ripe for trolling. I am pretty excited to see how it turns out and I won’t be waiting too long. The game is scheduled for full release sometime in 2016.

Final Verdict - Great

LEGO Worlds is a great game so far. It looks fantastic, runs smooth, and offers enough variety to make you keep coming back. The environments beg you to explore, teeming with hidden LEGO items and undiscovered minifigures. Building can be a chore due to some clunky controls and camerawork but given enough time they become manageable. Personally, my favorite part about LEGOs is throwing them against the wall to watch them shatter—that’s why I played as the Wizard in the game. If you’re a fan of Minecraft, or any other sandbox builder, then you’ll have a blast playing LEGO Worlds.

LEGO Worlds Screenshots

◄ 1 ... 3 4

LEGO Worlds Links

LEGO Worlds Steam Page
LEGO Worlds Wikipedia
LEGO Worlds Developer Site
LEGO Worlds Reddit

LEGO Worlds System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP 32
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz or Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+
Video Card: GeForce GT 240 or Radeon HD 5570 512MB
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 64
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz or Phenom II X4 40
Video Card: GeForce GTX 480 or Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
RAM: 4 GB or more
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB

LEGO Worlds Music & Soundtrack

LEGO Worlds Additional Information

Developer: Traveller’s Tales, TT Games
Game Engine: LEGO Worlds Engine

Managing Director: Tom Stone

Distributor(s): Steam

Release Date (Early Access): June 01, 2015

Development History / Background:

LEGO Worlds is developed by British video game developer and publisher TT Games. WB Interactive and TT Worlds teased LEGO worlds on the back of an instruction manual in May, 2015 with no prior announcement of the game’s development. It wasn’t formally announced until June 01, 2015, and was simultaneously added to Steam as an Early Access title. Additional features are planned for the game, to be added before the official release sometime in 2016—including world sharing and multiplayer.