Jun 24, 2023, 12:26

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 12:26:19 +0000
legobuildersjourney, cozygaming, puzzle, lego, mastodongaming, gaming, project365ong, project365, newplay

June 24, 2023 - Day 175 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 193

Game: Lego Builder's Journey

Platform: Epic Games Store
Release Date: Jun 23, 2021
Library Date: Dec 22, 2022
Unplayed: 184d (6m2d)
Playtime: 35m

Lego Builder's Journey is a cozy 3D isometric puzzle game, featuring (almost) everyone's favourite plastic bricks. It answers the question "What if Monument Valley, but Lego?"

The game opens to a Lego beach diorama, suspended in tilt-shifted space. You're prompted to pick up a block, placing it on the handful of visible studs to build a sandcastle.

Once completed, a wave of translucent bricks sweeps in, washing the sandcastle away.

An atmospheric dreamlike soundtrack accompanies the most gorgeous game I've played this year.

This (Lego!) game is visually stunning. The raytracing and lighting makes it feel like I'm interacting with real Lego; some bricks have scratches and fingerprints. One early level, set at night with a fire, had me sitting and staring at the screen in wonder (you will, however, need a raytracing capable card for the full experience).

The most obvious point of comparison is the TT series of Lego games and they could not be more different.

In Lego Builder's Journey, there's not a minifig in sight. The two main characters, a parent and child, are each represented by a stack of 1-stud bricks.

Without a single line of dialogue the game still communicates emotions, without the beloved mugging and goofiness of the TT games.

The diorama can be rotated with a right-click and hold, as you find the best place to place blocks; the blocks are picked up, & rotated with a left-click, or a left-click & hold to place or drop, which leads to my main criticism.

Unfortunately, the controls do not reflect the same care and attention to detail as the rest of the game; if you've ever played any other game that uses right-click to rotate, left-click to place (& there are a lot of them), the UX design choices here present an exercise in frustration.

At some points in the game, I was frantically trying to drop a block to pick up another one about to disappear off the edge of the diorama, only to repeatedly rotate or place the block I'm holding, instead of dropping it. Having to stop and think about what I'm trying to do with a piece rather than being able to click instinctively (without even providing the possibility of reconfiguring the controls) adds an ongoing subtle level of frustration to what is almost a perfect puzzle experience.

However: I got this free on EGS, but it was 66% off on Steam, so I bought it. When I loaded it up to check something, I found my EGS save file was just... there.

Having experienced the frustration of migrating save games previously, I've never seen this before, and it was delightful & unexpected.

Lego Builder's Journey is a wonderful way to while away an afternoon, and is:

5: Excellent