For over 25 years LEGO® Games have used the LEGO brand to create varied and interesting video games. For much of that time, TT Games’ have shepherded the LEGO Games franchise but in the last few years other developers have taken a whack at creating LEGO titles and it has seen digital LEGO bricks to create all manner of games. The latest is from another new developer to the LEGO Games stable. LEGO Bricktales is billed as a physics-based adventure game and is set to offer something different from the usual smashing and collecting of other games. I’ve been playing the game ahead of its release this week, so here are my thoughts on LEGO Bricktales.
Product Description
In LEGO® Bricktales, discover an innovative brick-by-brick building mechanic to design puzzle solutions from your own imagination. See your creations brought to life in a beautiful LEGO world where every problem has a constructive resolution.
Embark on an epic adventure across a world of beautiful LEGO diorama biomes crafted brick by brick as you search for inspiration to help your grandfather reinvigorate his rundown amusement park with your little robot buddy in tow. Your journey will take you to the deepest jungle, sun-drenched deserts, a bustling city corner, a towering medieval castle, and tropical Caribbean islands. Help the minifigures of these worlds by solving puzzles and unlock new skills throughout the story to further explore these worlds and uncover the many secrets and mysteries they contain.
- Game Title: LEGO Bricktales
- Publisher: Thunderful Games
- Developer: ClockStone
- RRP: £24.99/$29.99/29.99€
- Availability: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & PC
LEGO Bricktales is the latest brick-based adventure and is developed by ClockStone. They are best known for the game, Bridge Constructor. LEGO Bricktales expands upon this idea to create a physics-based puzzle adventure. The premise of the game is that an eccentric Grandpa needs help to repair his rundown theme park. Of course, the only way to do this is by travelling through portals to one of five different worlds. These worlds are based on the usual video game tropes such as a jungle, a desert, a medieval village, a city and a tropical beach. These worlds aren’t tied to any previous or current LEGO themes but do have little nods to them through elements and minifigures. Each of these biomes is filled with things to do, more of which become apparent as you progress in the game. But the key aim of the game is to build.
The LEGO Group has tried to transfer the essence of physical LEGO play into the digital realm for many years. Within the world of LEGO Games, there’s been mixed success with achieving digital building. It’s either been super simple or overly complex. LEGO Bricktales is the first time I’ve felt like I was building with LEGO bricks in a digital space. It manages to capture the experience of building with great effect. Controls are fairly simple, allowing you to pick up and place bricks, rotate them and in sandbox mode, change their colouring.
As you explore the world there will be obstacles to overcome and people to help, with the solution mostly being to build. You are given basic direction during the opening moments of the game. Then as you play, the way you build is largely up to you. There are a few rules to building, there’s a dedicated zone to build in, you may be required to include certain things and most importantly, your build must stay together and solve the solution it was created for. Plus it must comply with the real-world rules of LEGO building. Because this is a physics-based game, the LEGO elements act as they would if they were real. For example, you could be asked to build a bridge to cross a gap. You are given a set number of elements and will use them to get across the gap. You can then test it with a robot or other items and if it stays together your creation will then appear in the level. You really have to think about your build, especially with the area you have to build in and the pieces you can use. But at the same time, there is no set way to build, as long as it achieves what is required, the solution can be crafted in many different ways.
However, this freedom also brings some frustration. Although most build solutions are fairly straightforward some require a little more finesse. I struggled on a couple including building a bird perch, which needed to be balanced and building a fire escape on the side of a building. I spent hours on the fire escape and nothing was working, I somehow managed to mangle something to do the job but almost gave up. I can see younger gamers getting frustrated by this and it would help if there was a hint system, which either suggests a build or implements one should it be requested. As many of the builds are required to move on in the game, they can’t be skipped and act as an obstacle to continuing further. It’s not a perfect digital building experience but it’s by far the best attempt at it and it’s a system I would like to see expanded with future titles or DLC.
It’s not all about the building, you are assisted by a robot companion called Rusty. This can gain new power-up functions which in turn give you different powers. These can be used to interact with the environment around you such as a ground pound to break things, a scanner to uncover hidden secrets and a water cannon to remove dirt or fill containers. Each world unlocks new powers and the powers can be switched by hitting rods dotted about the levels. This was also a source of frustration as it appeared you would have to trek about to find the switch rods. But I stumbled upon the ability to switch at will using the shoulder button.
You can also collect animals such as birds, rabbits and ladybirds for various characters. These are merely dotted about in each of the worlds but you’ll need all the powers to access some of them. You can also collect chests of food, which act as currency. These can be used to purchase outfits and bricks from the Boo the Ghost’s shop. You can then don these new clothes by changing your minifigure character’s appearance in the wardrobe and using the bricks in the sandbox to create more elaborate builds.
It will obviously be compared to the many other LEGO Games, mostly those from TT Games. But LEGO Bricktales is doing something different. The levels are entirely brick-built, meaning they could be recreated with real bricks if you had enough. Minifigures also move as they would in real life in a similar fashion to how The LEGO Movie did.
Above all LEGO Bricktales is an interesting LEGO adventure, its focus on getting the building right has paid off. It can be frustrating at times, especially when your carefully crafted digital build collapses during the test phase. But this is also part of the fun, it may not seem so having spent hours failing to build the solution, but when you nail it the sense of achievement is immense.
LEGO Bricktales is available digitally on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch from October 12th
Thanks to Thunderful Games for providing access to the game for the purposes of review. Version reviewed PlayStation 5 (Digital). The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or Thunderful Games. Providing a product for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the product.
