There have been countless LEGO games over the years, they’ve almost sort of become their own genre in the gaming sphere. So, to my delight, when I heard they opted to make something a bit different for a change, I couldn’t help but be very intrigued. LEGO Builder’s Journey originally released on the Apple Arcade all the way back in December of 2019, then on Switch and PC this last November, then finally now on PlayStation – it’s easy to say it’s been a long journey of its own traveling to different platforms. While playing or even looking at any screenshots online, it seems pretty clear that the overall simplistic concept and lots of dead space on the screen that this was meant to be a mobile game. Although, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work just as well on console, if not better!
Narratively speaking, it’s all told through visuals with basic geometric Lego shapes. There’s no dialogue, or text of any kind (excluding the menus of course), but the game succeeds right away in telling a beautiful little story about a father and son going on miscellaneous dream-like adventures. It felt like I was experiencing a glimpse of a memory of these adventures that are isolated to the small space of the map. Perhaps it’s the father reminiscing about his time when his son was younger, or maybe memories from the son looking back at the good times he spent with his dad. That’s the beauty in visual stories, the rest is left to your own imagination.
As far as the gameplay goes, it’s a pretty straight forward puzzle game. You’re basically trying to get from one point on the map to the other. To do so you will need to get creative with a handful of Lego pieces at your disposal to move around. What makes things a bit more interesting is the characters won’t walk on just any Legos, but only on these specific jumper bricks. So just building a path isn’t enough, you must build a path where you can place these two jumper bricks as well. Further along the game will get a bit trickier adding elements like weighted scales, large gaps in the map, and sinking mud.
There are about 35 levels in total, depending on your skills with puzzles the entire game can be beaten fairly quickly. For me it took under two hours to complete the entire experience. While I very much enjoyed my time with this experience, there was a feeling of an overall barebones presentation, as there weren’t really other modes to play, the replay value is fairly low here. I must say I did appreciate how calming the game is and was the perfect thing to put on after a long day of work and helped me just chill and relax with it’s peaceful vibe and music. The graphics also look phenomenal, I know it’s just Legos, but these are hyper realistic looking Legos, similar to the Lego theatrical films. The lighting and raytracing really add an inspiring element to the entire thing. Which is a feature I don’t think you could get on a mobile device. I think it’s really up to the consumer on if such a short experience is worth the twenty-dollar price tag. I loved my time with it, I hope they do more of these, but I feel like for a two-hour game, many players will wait until this is on sale before purchasing and I wouldn’t necessarily argue against that. Just do yourself a solid and check out LEGO Builder’s Journey whenever or wherever you can!
8/10
For more information, visit: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10003909
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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