Lego Builder’s Journey appeals to the creator in us all

Lego Builder’s Journey starts with a Lego beach where you get the hang of the controls by building sandcastles.

Lego Builder's Journey

Lego bricks are one of the most popular construction toys in the world for good reason – they’re a lot of fun, and something about the endless possibilities they represent appeals to the creator in all of us.

The same is true of the many Lego video games, which are hugely popular not just because of the toy connection but also for being fun in their own right – the Lego open-world adventure games in particular being popular for this.

While a lot of the Lego open-world games take a humorous approach to their source material, this game has a more serious – but still play-focused – approach to things.

Developed by Light Brick Studio, Lego Builder’s Journey has been out on Apple Arcade for a while, but the PC version (reviewed) has been enhanced with features such as ray-tracing and additional lighting effects for those with a Nvidia RTX graphics card.

Lego Builder's Journey

Essentially a puzzle adventure, the game starts with a Lego beach where you get the hang of the controls by building sandcastles, and then a parent and child appear – not as the iconic Lego mini figuress, but as abstract examples made from basic Lego blocks – and you learn more advanced elements under the guise of helping the child navigate across the beach to their parent.

The intro alone simultaneously captures the joy and innocent adventure of a trip to the beach, while the rest of the adventure – which manages to include skateboarding, robots and malfunctioning machinery, among other things – is similarly atmospheric and well done.

In each level, you move Lego bricks around to create bridges and pathways for the character to navigate across – everything from crossing rivers to making skateramps to navigating broken machinery.

The RTX visual effects result in graphics which appear magical, with photorealistic-looking bricks and atmospheric lighting. It’s simply gorgeous to look at.

Lego Builder's Journey. Picture: Supplied

It helps to think of Lego Builder’s Journey as less of a “game” in the traditional sense and more of an interactive play experience – much like the construction toys themselves, but with less of a sandbox element and more of a “solve uncomplicated puzzles” style.

There were only two issues I had with the game – firstly, you can’t really rotate the screen all that far to get a better perspective on the scene, and secondly, at about an hour and a half to two hours long or, it’s an incredibly short game with almost no replay value and therefore in my view isn’t worth the $29.99 it costs to buy.

This is a real shame, because in all other respects the game is an absolute delight; a joyous, peaceful experience which expertly brings the magic of Lego blocks to life on your screen.

With the addition of a sandbox mode or something similar, the price would be more palatable, but right now Lego Builder’s Journey is a journey best undertaken when or if the title goes on sale or a significant amount of additional content is added to the experience.