Developers ClockStone and publisher Thunderful Games have finally given players the LEGO game I have always wanted; one where you actually build stuff with LEGO’s! In LEGO Bricktales, players will venture through various fantasy and modernized worlds where they can help the people who live there by rebuilding many of the missing things they need in order to solve a problem affecting everyone. From bridges to stairwells to even bird perches, get ready to be creative when you dive into this one.

Story

Your grandpa has asked you to come to his science lab in the basement of his rundown amusement park. After you get there, a series of slightly unfortunate events leaves your grandpa trapped on a platform. In order to free him, you will need to get the power back up and running while also fixing a few broken things around the room. To do this, you will acquire the aid of a brick-by-brick building machine that your grandpa once built and lost, but has now returned.

Once this is done, your grandpa shows you what he called you over for and that is a cool portal he opened! He doesn’t know how to control it yet, but luckily your building machine does. It’s a good thing too because it isn’t long before your grandpa remembers that he is supposed to get the amusement park back up and running or the mayor is going to close it down permanently!

Once again, your building machine comes in clutch with a suggestion to use a special contraption he learned how to make and is powered by happiness crystals. The problem is, there are no happiness crystals to use! In order to gather them, we will have to travel to different lands and bring happiness to the people so that a crystal can be produced for use to gather and bring back to grandpa to fix one of the rundown rides.

Gameplay

Right from the start, you will be at the entrance of your grandpa’s rundown amusement park. From here you simply run into the basement and the game begins. This initial area acts as a tutorial area where you can go in the question mark bubble for details before going into the build bubble to make the objects to proceed through this area. By the time you finish this section, you will know all you need on the actual building mechanics themselves.

The story will then take you to the first realm which is the jungle. Here you will see how the story leads you through the level and the whole goal is to help everybody here so that their happiness combined forms a happiness crystal for you to take back with you. This means you need to talk to the different characters you find in each area.

After you get through a few builds, you will enter your first cave with a power-up in it. Once you collect it, you will be given your first power which is a stomping ability that destroys breakable objects around you. Each realm will provide you with a new ability and while in the cave where you get the ability, you will only be able to change them with a color-coded power rod. However, once you leave the cave, you can hold down a button that shows you the ability wheel and can simply change between them as you go through the rest of the level. This was a bit of a weird aspect, but it seemed that it was done this way for ease when out in the level while providing restrictions for the puzzles within the power-up caves.

As for the fun part of this game, you know - building stuff, they do take physics into account. Whether you are making a bridge, a staircase, a walkway, or whatever else, it will need to be sturdy and balanced. When it comes to things that need to be sturdy, there will be a test robot to simulate using the build. When it comes to balance, there will be a simulation for that as well but it will require the object to be used and then held up while in use for a short period of time. Once the build is complete and successful, you can close out the build and it will be plugged into the world exactly how you built it.

When you first complete a new build in the story, you will have to work within the limitations that you are given to complete the objective. However, once you have completed the build the first time, you can go back in and active Sandbox Mode to use more bricks. This will give you an unlimited number of bricks that were originally provided, as well as a number of bricks in any of the colors you have purchased so far.

You can purchase more brick colors, styles, and player customization options from the different shops. There is a different shop in each realm and each realm has its own currency that fits the theme. To gain the currency, you have to find and open chests throughout the level. Once you have enough currency, you can go in the shop and purchase whatever you can afford.

They did add a collectathon option to the game as well in the form of animals. There are a total of five different animals that you can collect up to twenty of them. Once you have all twenty of one animal, you will need to find the collector of that specific animal in the realm they are in. Typically, they keep it in accordance with the theme, whereas the jungle level’s collector wants the Chameleon’s and so on.

Audio and Visual

I love how they made the entirety of all realms you visit out of LEGO pieces. From the little effects from your powers to the way water ripples, everything is done with LEGO pieces and it all seems to fit very naturally. Plus, the fact that whatever you build is plugged into the world exactly how you build it was such a pleasing aspect of the game.

As for music, it was all pretty dull throughout the game. They definitely focused on the gameplay, graphics, and overall experience of the game because I rarely noticed when there was music playing at all. It was almost nothing but filler music so that you aren’t left in pure silence, which is fitting for a game with a lot of puzzles in it.

Replayability

Thanks to the fact that you can buy brick colors and styles from each realms shop, then take those to any build you have completed to upgrade it via sandbox mode, is definitely a benefactor to the replayability. Other than wanting to upgrade builds, you can only get all of the collectibles in the different realms once you have all five powers, so you will need to play each level at least two times in order to fully complete it.

What It Could Have Done Better

The camera control while building was such a troublesome aspect of the game. There were so many times I couldn’t really see what I was working on because it was underneath or behind something. It would have been better to have a more free-flowing camera that lets me move around for different angles as needed, especially since the angle of the camera affected how I was able to place the piece I was using.

It would have been nice to have an actual sandbox mode in the game. Sure, you can go to completed builds and upgrade them or change them using sandbox mode, but it just feels like a missed opportunity to give players an open space to just build whatever they want with the different bricks they have earned from each realms shop. Just make a big square with a flat connector base and let the players have at it!

Verdict

LEGO Bricktales is a phenomenal creativity outlet that gives reasoning and purpose behind each build! While the story was a bit too kid-friendly for my liking, I can see a wide variety of players enjoying this game for what it offers. There is so much here to build and a bunch of challenging tasks to accomplish that I felt like I was actually improving my building skill while progressing through the game. In fact, the first bridge was quite a challenge for me, but by my fourth one, I was adding creative flair to it just because I could. Definitely, a game I recommend for any puzzle-adventure fans, especially if you enjoy the building freedom of LEGOs!

LEGO Bricktales is set to release on October 12th for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.