LEGO Bricktales Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

LEGO Bricktales promises plenty of physics-based challenges. Is the game a fantastic build or are there a few pieces missing? Find out in this Rapid Review.

The Perfect Set

LEGO. Theme Parks. Video Games. All of these make up three of my favourite hobbies so when LEGO Bricktales was announced, I was thrilled. A puzzle-based LEGO game with the objective of bringing a theme park to life? Count me in! Fortunately, the game lived up to my excitement; although my enjoyment varied based on the platform I played on. 

First Instructions

After playing the vast majority of TellTale Games LEGO titles, I was intrigued to play a LEGO game with a different formula. LEGO Bricktales plays more like the sandbox modes of Planet Coaster or Bridge Constructor than the latest IP-based family platformer. The similarities here make sense as Bricktales has been developed by the same team behind Bridge Constructor. Across the ten-hour experience, I was tasked with solving plenty of physics-based puzzles in order to make fellow minigures happy, and progress through the game. As my Wheatley-style companion put it: “Step 1 – We help people to make them happy. Step 2 – Happiness Crystals appear. Step 3 – We fix the theme park”. Speaking of dialogue, Bricktales contains a good amount of humour which – on the whole – landed with me. To find true happiness,  I entered a LEGO Dimensions-style portal into unexpectedly-nostalgic LEGO environments. These environments were designed with bricks and pieces straight out of my childhood sets. When a ghost Minifigure appeared, I was instantly reminded me of the medieval-themed LEGO I used to play with. 

Perfect Build

Across my travels, I met a weird and wonderful cast of characters: dragons, construction workers, scientists and more. Conveniently, the majority of the characters I met required my construction skills; be it rebuilding an existing structure, or making something from scratch. After being provided with the brief, I entered the construction mode in which a specific number of pieces were helpfully organised and laid out in front of me; unlike real life, there’s no jumble of studs to sort through! One of the first tasks was to build a functional bridge across a jungle environment. With an impressive physics simulation mechanic, I quickly found that my original bridge design failed to uphold the weight of the test robot and the bridge quickly snapped in half. Back to the drawing board, I added rectangular pieces to support the base of the bridge and the robot moved smoothly across.

As I progressed through the game’s various environments, the physics challenges became more difficult, and the briefs became stricter. In terms of overall game difficulty, LEGO Bricktales offers a surprisingly high level of challenge – despite the family-friendly appeal of the LEGO brand, younger gamers may be more suited to TellTale’s LEGO titles due to the high difficulty barrier.

Picking Up The Pieces

I reviewed both the Switch and PC version of Bricktales and I much preferred playing the game on PC. Just like real life, LEGO construction can sometimes be a fiddly process. The game comes with a default ‘snap’ setting which instantly slots pieces together. For greater minutia in movement, the toggable ‘step’ setting means pieces can be organised in exactly the right place. With the joystick controls on the Nintendo Switch, I was unable to get the precision I required and simply completing the level became my core focus. On PC, I found myself spending time customising my builds to great detail, flourishing the builds with a few extra touches. Nevertheless, it’s still great to have an option for portable LEGO building; it’s definitely playable on the Switch but you may find more enjoyment with a keyboard and mouse setup. Indeed, my preference for PC may be due to my experience with similar construction games such as Planet Coaster.

Beyond Building

On both PC and Switch, the game looks great and runs flawlessly. There’s an expected extra level of detail on the Steam version of the game. A notable upgrade on PC is the inclusion of transparent bricks rippling up and down to create a movement of water. Beams of light shine down into a jungle; creating shadows throughout the tropical diorama. Bricktales is surprisingly beautiful, with its environments built with authentic LEGO pieces. Scattered throughout the game are a few elemental-based puzzles. Throughout the game, I unlocked new powers to use in skill temples. Abilities like stomping, and “dimensional-materialisation” must be used to solve puzzles and escape the temple.  With five abilities throughout the game, I found there to be just the right amount of puzzles which didn’t distract from the core element of construction.

Conclusion

LEGO Bricktales matched perfectly with my love for LEGO and the physics puzzle genre. With the fantastically intricate building mechanic, I hope to see this formula return to future LEGO games. This is a game that I highly recommend!

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

You can buy LEGO Bricktales from Steam for £24.99