LEGO Builder's Journey
| Genre: | Puzzle |
| Classification: | G |
| Release Date: | June 2022 |
LEGO Builder’s Journey Review
Review By KostaAndreadis @ 01:00am 23/06/21
The quiet contemplative puzzle game often taps into the creative subconscious in ways we barely notice. Drawing on imagination, experimentation, and the simplicity of putting two pieces together - there’s a calm that borders on the relaxing. That’s not to say that stumbling blocks in the form of challenges, obstacles, and uncertainty won’t crop up from time to time. The allure is as much about a certain state of mind as it is pure entertainment.
Challenge is of course a key part of the package, and in the case of Light Brick Studio’s LEGO Builder’s Journey, these stumbling blocks take on literal form. A wonderful experience from start to finish, and one that is given an extra layer of beauty thanks to its use of GeForce RTX-powered real-time ray-tracing and cutting-edge DLSS rendering.
Covering the range of light-sourced effects, from reflections to shadows to global illumination and more, the results are simply gorgeous. These Lego bricks not only look real, but surreal. And that’s because the animation layer that sits on top of the rendering has the air of a high quality stop-motion animated feature.
Naturally, many of us have a connection to Lego and the creativity it fosters. Specifically, as that imaginative gateway that led to the creation of many a makeshift spaceship, weird looking abode, or multi-colour robot. When Builder’s Journey taps into that creative spirit it borders on brilliant.
It’s not only the visuals that form the aesthetic and feel, the sound is also on-point. The moment you click that first brick into place, it sells the Lego-as-a-puzzle-game concept and setting in an instant. As does the sound of falling bricks and the slight tonal shifts that come from a larger four-piece block clicking into place. Coupled with the ambient score, one that manages to hit the emotional notes of the story without overpowering any other element, LEGO Builder’s Journey is top to bottom joy.
Presentation-wise it feels like a movie-length stage-play, where there’s a story to be found, charming characters, and various locations that come alive through, well, play. Each level or stage arrives in the form of a Lego diorama, where progression is as simple as creating a bridge, fixing a strange machine, or slowly putting together a flying home.
Often the solutions are linear, to the point where you’re looking to connect two places together - brick by brick. Within the boundaries set there is room for experimentation and even creativity, but it’s a far cry from being able to simply sit there and create. The latter half of the experience is when the world presented truly comes alive, to the point where it’s hard not to feel a real connection to the world. This is where it all, to borrow a phrase already used in this review, clicks into place.
Compared to the early moments, it feels like coming home and opening up a Lego box with a much higher recommended age-rating. If LEGO Builder’s Journey has any frustrating or disappointing elements, well, then pretty much all of those are related to the controls. Which on occasion feel unresponsive or a little too finicky when you’re trying to line-up a piece just so.
It’s here where the game’s original form, that is a touch-based deal as a part of Apple Arcade, comes to the fore. It’s not bad, or frustrating in the sense that it affects the overall experience, but it does crop up from time to time.
Expanded and refined, the addition of real-time ray-tracing adds a warmth and life to the experience in ways that only light can. And sure it’s making the little bits of plastic in the little plastic world look real, but it’s doing so much more. Like sunlight pouring through a window onto countless pieces of Lego on a floor, it gives vision to a world of endless creativity. At its best LEGO Builder’s Journey is very much that, all wrapped up in a short, sweet, and charming tale befitting of the source material.
Challenge is of course a key part of the package, and in the case of Light Brick Studio’s LEGO Builder’s Journey, these stumbling blocks take on literal form. A wonderful experience from start to finish, and one that is given an extra layer of beauty thanks to its use of GeForce RTX-powered real-time ray-tracing and cutting-edge DLSS rendering.
Covering the range of light-sourced effects, from reflections to shadows to global illumination and more, the results are simply gorgeous. These Lego bricks not only look real, but surreal. And that’s because the animation layer that sits on top of the rendering has the air of a high quality stop-motion animated feature.
A wonderful experience from start to finish, and one that is given an extra layer of beauty thanks to its use of GeForce RTX-powered real-time ray-tracing and cutting-edge DLSS rendering.
Naturally, many of us have a connection to Lego and the creativity it fosters. Specifically, as that imaginative gateway that led to the creation of many a makeshift spaceship, weird looking abode, or multi-colour robot. When Builder’s Journey taps into that creative spirit it borders on brilliant.
It’s not only the visuals that form the aesthetic and feel, the sound is also on-point. The moment you click that first brick into place, it sells the Lego-as-a-puzzle-game concept and setting in an instant. As does the sound of falling bricks and the slight tonal shifts that come from a larger four-piece block clicking into place. Coupled with the ambient score, one that manages to hit the emotional notes of the story without overpowering any other element, LEGO Builder’s Journey is top to bottom joy.
Presentation-wise it feels like a movie-length stage-play, where there’s a story to be found, charming characters, and various locations that come alive through, well, play. Each level or stage arrives in the form of a Lego diorama, where progression is as simple as creating a bridge, fixing a strange machine, or slowly putting together a flying home.
Often the solutions are linear, to the point where you’re looking to connect two places together - brick by brick. Within the boundaries set there is room for experimentation and even creativity, but it’s a far cry from being able to simply sit there and create. The latter half of the experience is when the world presented truly comes alive, to the point where it’s hard not to feel a real connection to the world. This is where it all, to borrow a phrase already used in this review, clicks into place.
Many of us have a connection to Lego and the creativity it fosters... When Builder’s Journey taps into that creative spirit it borders on brilliant.
Compared to the early moments, it feels like coming home and opening up a Lego box with a much higher recommended age-rating. If LEGO Builder’s Journey has any frustrating or disappointing elements, well, then pretty much all of those are related to the controls. Which on occasion feel unresponsive or a little too finicky when you’re trying to line-up a piece just so.
It’s here where the game’s original form, that is a touch-based deal as a part of Apple Arcade, comes to the fore. It’s not bad, or frustrating in the sense that it affects the overall experience, but it does crop up from time to time.
Expanded and refined, the addition of real-time ray-tracing adds a warmth and life to the experience in ways that only light can. And sure it’s making the little bits of plastic in the little plastic world look real, but it’s doing so much more. Like sunlight pouring through a window onto countless pieces of Lego on a floor, it gives vision to a world of endless creativity. At its best LEGO Builder’s Journey is very much that, all wrapped up in a short, sweet, and charming tale befitting of the source material.
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What we liked
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We gave it:
8.0
OUT OF 10
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Posted 08:23am 23/6/21
Posted 11:01am 23/6/21
AFAIK that's literally why LEGO don't permit free building in online games and abandoned their early attempts.