** A Geek Daddy received the featured product for free to review **
After successfully taking on Disney Infinity and Skylanders in the toys-to-life video game category by creating the highly successful LEGO Dimensions, The LEGO Group has set their sights on tackling another gaming franchise popular with kids and young adults -- > Minecraft. LEGO Worlds developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment allows players to explore a galaxy of fantastical planets that contain inhabitants and landscapes made up entirely of LEGO's trademark toy mini-figures and building bricks. Embark on a quest to become a Master Builder within this open-world video game that provides players to power to shape both the environment around them and the scope of their adventures. In LEGO Worlds your own creativity and imagination are often times the only limitation to the extent of the adventures you can engage in and creations that can be built within the game. LEGO Worlds, like its predecessor Minecraft, is what is referred to as a sandbox game which means that players have a great deal of flexibility in shaping the virtual environment they are playing in. A sandbox game focuses on bringing people's imaginations to life through constructing and customizing a virtual world to play in. LEGO Worlds takes the fun of playing with real-life physical LEGO toys and expands upon it in an entertaining video game experience. This game has really been a hit with my kids primarily because they can have fun just being creative doing whatever suits their whims as they are playing it. Creating world layouts, constructing their own building designs from LEGO bricks, and customizing the appearance of a player's mini-figure character are really what capture my kids attention.
LEGO Worlds begins with a video sequence that shows your character flying a spaceship that is suddenly hit by a meteorite forcing it to crash land on a mysterious planet. This sets the stage for three tutorial levels players need to make their way through. In these levels new characters and vehicles can be added to your playable assets Players also obtain a variety of tools to help them create things and customize the world around them in these levels. Short instructional video segments explain how to utilize these important tools once they are obtained. Challenges within the level then let a player practice using them.
The game starts with your character crash landing on Pirate World. While exploring this first tutorial level players will learn to utilize the Discovery Tool. This device allows animals, buildings, mini-figures (both friends and foes), and vehicles to be scanned and catalogs them in a gallery which players can access to place these items within the game whenever they like.
Next players travel to a Prehistoric World where they learn to use the Landscape Tool which raises and lowers terrain. Rescue several cave men and cave women from dangerous situations to successfully complete the level and move on to Candy World.
The final tutorial level is filled with giant candy canes, lollipops and gingerbread houses and provides players with three more useful items -- the Copy, Paint and Build tools. Don't want to try and build a structure brick-by-brick? Use the Copy Tool to replicate an already completed building instead. Want to change the color of a building or the landscape around you? Go wild with the Paint Tool. If you would prefer building a structure from bottom to top instead of replicating one the Build Tool lets players construct things just as if they were building with real life LEGO bricks. Note though you start off with a very limited number of accessible bricks to utilize and earn more of a variety progressing through the game.
Once you've completed the three tutorial levels and obtained these important tool options then it is time to jump into your space ship and explore the galaxy. You'll be transported to randomly computer-generated planets each time your character launches the space ship into outer space. Planets our family have visited so far include an apocalyptic junk world filled with cowboys and bandits, a swampland filled with alligators and spooky walking skeletons, and a farming community being plagued by zombies. This game is filled with lots and lots of the quirky, whimsical elements that people associate with LEGO (ride a cow, use a fish as a sword, throw a banana like a boomerang) and love about the brand.
Unlike LEGO Dimensions this game isn't focused on licensed properties like Batman, The Simpsons, or Sonic the Hedgehog. Rather the content of the game revolves around generic themes from the LEGO toy line such as astronauts, farmers, police, and pirates. There aren't any physical toys sets that need to be purchased for activating characters in this game like you need to do with LEGO Dimensions. When it comes to LEGO Worlds as you discover different types of people, animals and vehicles in the game they can be incorporated into your gallery of digital playable items by scanning them with your Discovery Tool.
Players also can earn points as they play LEGO Worlds that can be utilized to obtain virtual reproductions of real-life LEGO classic and current toy sets that can be placed within the game and interacted with. The goal of LEGO Worlds though isn't to earn points but rather to become a Master Builder by getting your hands on 100 of the elusive gold bricks that can be found within the game. The more gold bricks players obtain the larger and more immersive worlds they can interact with ranging from small worlds that can be accessed with ten bricks to huge ones that can be visited when you've grabbed eighty. When 100 gold bricks are obtained players are no longer restricted to visiting randomly generated planets and can construct a world from scratch using their tools any item they've unlocked within the game. Gold bricks can be obtained by finding them in treasure chests, as rewards for successfully completing a quest, or by snatching one from creatures called a Troublemakers.
The game can be played by two people at once on a console or an online feature can be utilized that allows multiple players to explore each other's worlds together, collaborate on building LEGO creations, and engage in cooperative or competitive experiences. My kids have played duel player mode but haven't interacted online with anyone. They've had a lot of fun both working together and harassing each other. One minute they're getting along together racing on horses through a jungle and the next my son is throwing his sister into a lava filled volcano because her character stole a popsicle from his. That's kids for you!
The immersive environment of LEGO Worlds which entices kids to engage in imaginative play earns this video game A Geek Daddy nod of approval. I have to point out though that this game isn't just for kids. After my children have gone to bed, this 40 something year old dad has enjoyed playing LEGO Worlds to wind down after a long day. So obviously LEGO Worlds is a fun game for both kids and kids-at-heart. Based upon my family's own experience playing LEGO Worlds, I recommend adding it to your video game collection.
LEGO Worlds is now available in North America for Sony's PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, Microsoft's Xbox One, and the STEAM online PC gaming community. The game will also be available for Nintendo Switch later this year. For more information, please visit www.lego.com/en-us/worlds
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