REVIEW : LEGO® Bricktales (PC)
A new game that deviates from the norm in the franchise’s most digital aspect is released for the popular brand of yellow-faced dolls and blocks. To provide an experience that is more in line with puzzles and architecture without losing any of the humour of the well-known LEGO figures, ClockStone Studio makes use of the lessons learnt through the Bridge Constructor tale.
In a LEGO world
Nearly all of the characters who have appeared in Traveller’s Tales’ several releases, most recently Tt Fusion, and the aesthetic of the Lego movie come to mind when discussing video games that were influenced by the well-known brick-and-building series. From Indiana Jones to the Powerpuff Girls to Indiana Jones to the Avengers, the transfer from LEGO to video games has been accompanied by a lot of damage, collectables, and figurines with movie licences. A nearly static catalogue with the occasional LEGO Worlds exception or LEGO Dimensions variation that encouraged us to combine toys and games in the most authentic Hidden Side fashion.
It is for this reason that LEGO Bricktales’ plan, which departs from the official LEGO catalogue and the mobile territory, seems destined for Jack, Knight, and King has taken me by surprise. Without taking away from the Tt Fusion games, ClockStone’s approach is a welcome surprise that appears committed to providing the most authentic experience to the brand. On the one hand, it provides a 100% LEGO brick-by-brick construction experience that is similar to creating LEGOs in real life. On the other hand, with a style of narrating tales that always seek levity, absurdity, and pleasure through some people that look too impossibly expressive to be so.
The new LEGO game suggests that we put ourselves in the position of the insane scientist’s crazy grandchild, who lives alone in an abandoned amusement park. We will have to travel through many teleportation portals to visit other planets and times to obtain the best fuel of all time: the force of smiles, after a succession of ridiculous scenarios and situations. We will have to complete various tasks and campaigns through these worlds using this justification, which is just as legitimate as any other one, to make people happy, get smiles, use them to rebuild the amusement park and make sure that Grandpa does not see people living on the streets because of the council.
Although the plot may not seem complex, LEGO Bricktales departs from the company’s established pattern by offering a small number of extremely realistic little sets that can be combined to create other worlds. Moving away from the combination of brick and rendering that we had already been accustomed to seeing related to the series, everything is authentically constructed and depicted with LEGO bricks, from light to fire smoke and clouds.
There is a limited extension to the design choice of these worlds divided into small sets, which is unlike that of the increasingly enormous open worlds typical in the saga and makes it impossible not to remember the classics of the 1980s with an isometric perspective, creating the ideal playground for the gaming experience that LEGO Bricktales wants to provide the player.
An encounter that starts as just another adventure set in a different landscape format but quickly reveals its true self by structuring its universe like the playing field of a board game. This prevents us from jumping or striking unless we locate special items and power-ups that enable these actions.
While we watch our character and his robot ally develop with equipment and talents as various as Indiana Jones’ whip, Excalibur, the potential to see hidden objects, or a portable water cannon, the mobility restriction pushes us to follow the story and solve all kinds of challenges. Each discovery introduces a fresh element for the game’s exploration component while also raising the level of difficulty of the challenges we’ll encounter in its compact but incredibly well-designed dungeons and temples.
A multi-faceted game
A game experience that divides into various facets is provided by LEGO Bricktales. Exploration and construction are the game’s two primary phases, each with its mechanics, strategies, and laws. However, the game is further divided into several smaller offerings within each major event, which makes every minor accomplishment in LEGO Bricktales highly fulfilling.
This will allow us to move more or less freely around its sets as we complete jobs, assist characters, or construct various items as we explore the various realms of LEGO Bricktales.
The route includes hints for riddles, objects we can interact with once we find the correct tool or ability, and a variety of collectables in the shape of animals and insects that we may give to specific people. Some of these collectables will be harder to attain than they will be to find since we will need to use strategies outside the information provided to us as goals to go to inhospitable locations or scramble our brains to figure out how to get there.
The main areas of each world allow us to interact with the locals, make friends, and shop in stores using items like bananas, popsicles, chicken legs, or the that is currency of the legal course that is used in the world in which you are. Some areas are actual labyrinths, while others have traditional lever puzzles. The many outfits we can use to create our characters as well as the bricks and themes of each world we can use to build our creations will be sold by an amiable ghost.
construction above all
As I indicated in the introduction, ClockStone Studio, a small firm you may be aware of from its Bridge Constructor series, is in charge of this new LEGO adventure. Bridge Constructor is a bold construction idea that is built on the principles of real physics to present its players with genuine architectural problems. It has six games with various themes, including some as iconic as The Walking Dead and Portals. This is a principle that appears again in LEGO Bricktales and that, above the jokes and giggles that we will have with its characters, hides some challenging “brick by brick construction problems.
Puzzles that require us to consider the available materials, the project’s requirements, and additional factors like resistance, balance, and durability to make sure that the bridge can support the weight of our vehicle, the giant owl can be supported on the seesaw, or the steps can carry people to the upper platform without causing them to trip or fall.
The screen switches to the company’s standard blueprint mode when in construction mode, but this time ClockStone advises that we be master builders with a lot of problems where, without directions, we will have to come up with the best way to achieve the goals.
Building bridges, stairs, a gorgeous Egyptian mosaic, a coal cart, or even altering a monkey statue to uncover a jungle temple’s hidden door are all possible. To explain our character’s puzzles naturally and enjoyably, LEGO Bricktales plays with his past and his requirements. This results in a whole made out of parts that, in the end, are the best homage to LEGO that can be made.
A hard offer to refuse
The version tested on Xbox Series X performs admirably, but I do not doubt that it will perform equally well on other platforms, including Nintendo Switch, given that the game requires more of the player than the gaming system. The most technical aspect of a game that puts all the eggs—or the bricks, if you prefer—in offering an honest proposal that suits what fans of the most positive aspect of the LEGO franchise expected to see in a video game is summarised by fun sounds, the complete lack of dubbing, and some very catchy melodies. Yes, the control of the construction engine can occasionally become grating, which is a significant fault in a game with these qualities.
In summary, LEGO Bricktales differs greatly from previous entries in the franchise. It is not a two-player game or a game for young children, but a challenging and ambitious work that will keep you busy for hours as you test your puzzle-solving skills before using the game’s free mode to customise all the things we want to see in their worlds and our amusement park.
