When I first saw LEGO Worlds at PlayStation Experience in 2016, I was astounded. This was the LEGO game I (and many other fans of TT Games and LEGOs in general) had been waiting for. Between having the ability to pick and choose specific bricks to build your own world, to exploring new LEGO Worlds (see what I did there) that are not burdened by specific franchises, I found my time with the game to be entirely joyful. Unfortunately, many other issues plague the game in very minute ways that affect the overall experience. But without further ado, let’s explore LEGO Worlds!
Players explore various worlds in their own LEGO spaceship
Gameplay
LEGO Worlds has a simple premise: explore, discover, create, together. So, it’s only appropriate that we judge the game based on these four separate themes. First up, exploration. Players take the role of their own custom LEGO minifig as they explore a vast universe of LEGO worlds. In those worlds, they can explore around and find various quests that will reward gold bricks (a staple in TT Games LEGO games) so that players can repair their spaceship to fly to other worlds. The more gold bricks a player unlocks, the bigger the worlds players can explore. Luckily, LEGO World’s uses this method of slowly introducing players to larger and larger worlds as a means to introduce them to the game’s various mechanics and tools. Players will mostly use the Discovery Tool, but the various other world-building tools are used where appropriate to complete quests. We’ll talk more about these tools later on. In this exploratory aspect of LEGO Worlds is where the game really gets interesting. I found myself exploring these various island worlds, only to find that there are fully built cities and towns built on them, hidden away behind some LEGO mountains. I found cave systems, and pirate ships.
Bears, dragons, dinosaurs, oh my! What I didn’t find, unfortunately, was any compelling reason to keep exploring past a few hours. Eventually, after around 15 or 20 worlds, all of the worlds started to feel “samey”. There was never any real good reason to return and explore previous worlds as well, which is understandable as there are infinite worlds to explore and discover. But that brings me to my favorite part of LEGO Worlds: the discovery tool. Man, oh man, do I love this tool. Using the discovery tool, players are able to scan LEGO sets, minifigs, and pieces of the environment to then use later in the Create mode. In every world I visited, I was able to find, scan and then use a brand new LEGO piece that was exciting. Do I want to dress up as Dracula? Absolutely. So when I found the first minifig set to scan that allowed me to look like a vampire, I did it. And for the long-time LEGO fan in me (since I was a child, like most of us), it felt great to see some of the LEGO sets and pieces that were prevalent in my childhood.
Notice the LEGO Castle logo, one of my favorite sets of LEGOs when I was a kid.
But that then brings us to LEGO World’s biggest and most robust feature: the create mode. Players have the ability to build whatever they want, wherever they want, right down to the smallest stud. Detail-oriented LEGO enthusiasts rejoice, as I could see the possibility being there to create any sort of home-made LEGO creation. From one studs, to bigger bricks, to intricate curved LEGOS, the game has them all. I’m not quite the most creative guy out there, but I had a ton of fun building various monstrosities with the crazy amount of bricks the game gave me. There’s only one thing that really hindered the whole experience: the controls. Too often, I found that the aiming and placing of bricks (or even using the various building tools) was too floaty and inaccurate. I would accidentally place bricks where they weren’t meant to be, or miss scanning a new minfig because they moved too fast for my aiming to catch up. I found it odd the game never introduced a lock-on aiming feature that has been in LEGO games since the very first LEGO Star Wars game, and LEGO Worlds desperately needs it.
Unfortunately, long complicated codes are used to share worlds with your friends. See Galactic Coordinate above
And that brings me to the last feature of LEGO Worlds: Together. While I was unable to review how online multiplayer would function in the game, it does offer local couch co-op play. Sharing discovered worlds with your friends is a crazy hassle, as I would imagine. Many of the worlds feature a long-string of coded numbers that must be used to share with a friend so that they are able to find that world. Instead, I had hoped LEGO Worlds would have used a No Man’s Sky naming system, so that player’s could name a world that is more easily sharable with friends. But other than that, couch co-op multiplayer is as fun as past LEGO games, and the introduction of the create tools makes for a great time with another friend.
