As fun as they are, I’ve always had a beef with Lego games. They never really let you play with Lego, giving you the freedom to make your own plastic brick masterpieces. I’m on the record as doubting that even Lego Dimensions will actually include free building as a feature.
That beef is officially over, however, as TT Games just stealthily released Lego Worlds as an Early Access title on Steam. Finally all of us wanna-be Master Builders have the free-construction Lego game we’ve always dreamed of. For just $15 you can hop on in and make a huge procedurally-generated Lego world waiting to be shaped and molded at your command. It starts with a number of bricky biomes and various minifigs, props, animals, and vehicles to discover and unlock. You’ll find everything from a surfer girl to a fire-breathing dragon mount peppered through the world, with much more planned during the months of Early Access ahead.
Although it’s obviously positioned to get some of that sweet, sweet Minecraft cash, Lego Worlds doesn’t actually play much like Minecraft . You can reshape the terrain any way you want with your terrain tools. There’s no need to collect ingredients or craft anything to add a structure into the world. All the basic Lego you need are right there in your building toolbox, and you can paint them any color you want. Unlocks are merely for the purpose of letting you add prefab Lego structures into the world. There’s also no survival or danger element. Sure, the occasional “bad guy” minifig will make fisticuffs at you, but they’re pushovers. No, this game is purely about the joy of building whatever you want and sharing it with others once multiplayer is implemented.
The building system in Lego Worlds works pretty well. It’s done from an overhead rather than first-person perspective, and it’s easy to drag a single brick out into a whole row, making large structures simple to create. I was able to build a simple yurt and faux campfire in just a few minutes. Of course, real Lego masters have already been using the Lego Digital Designer to make far more impressive builds, and Lego Worlds is compatible with those creations as well.
Of course, this is an Early Access title, so expect some hiccups. It’s very unoptimized at the moment, with frequent lag spikes that can mess up your brick placement or make the game unplayable if you try to import your 1500-brick monstrosity from Lego Digital Designer . The UI could use a few improvements that allow you to complete frequent actions with fewer clicks. The build mode is still somewhat connected to the minifig you’re controlling, who can get in the way of things sometimes. There’s no multiplayer implemented yet, and many features still need to be added. Here’s a peek at the game’s future, from the mouths of the developers:
“We plan to add the following features through a series of regular updates:
- Like/Dislike system for tailoring World Generation
- Procedurally Generated Underground Cave Networks
- LEGO ID integration to allow for sharing and uploading of in-game builds
- Additional Biomes
- Painting Themes
- Pre-Generated Towns/Villages/Settlements relevant to the Biome
- Updated AI Behaviors to provide organic feeling to free-roaming creatures and characters
- Red Brick Extras
- Full liquid behaviors
- Additional Minifigure Characters and Creatures
- Additional Vehicles and Pre-Built Models
- Additional Weapons
- Cut/Copy/Paste chunks of landscape
- Underwater Gameplay (including Vehicles, Creatures and additional sea life)
- Character Customizer
- Online Multiplayer ”
Still, the base game is looking pretty solid and is worth noodling around with as-is. I’m personally delighted to finally have the chance to actually play with Lego in a Lego game.