HomeFeaturesLEGO Bricktales
Lego Bricktales recreates Lego so well that I wish it was just regular LegoBricked it
Bricked it
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Thunderful Publishing
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Thunderful Publishing
From playing a preview build of the first level - a jungle, home to some lost explorers - the thing that impresses me most about Bricktales is just how much it’s like building things with actual Lego. It sounds stupid to say, but them little bricks are really astonishingly realised. It all looks so much Lego it’s sort of surprising that you can’t reach through the screen and pick it up. It’s amazing. It’s the closest thing to Lego you can get outside of actual Lego - which is the problem. It just kind of makes you miss Lego.
LEGO Bricktales | Announcement Trailer | 2022Watch on YouTube
LEGO Bricktales | Announcement Trailer | 2022
Another problem I had with the build screen was that the void was difficult for accurate depth perception, so you have to swing the camera around a lot.
My first attempt at a bridgeMy ugly, but functional final attempt at a bridge
My first attempt at a bridge
My ugly, but functional final attempt at a bridge
There’s a whole complex system of controls (complex enough, in fact, to be more intuitive and useable with a controller) to move and snap bricks in place where you want them. For my tastes, there’s more that developers Clockstone could do to help streamline it all. For example, there’s no shortcut to re-select the same brick type you just used, so you have to scroll over and reselect it each time.
More generally, though, there’s a reason why all the footage we’ve seen of stuff being built so far is sped up. It just takes a long time to build anything, even if the tools allow you to be very creative. You could feasibly build adick-shapedhelicopter and it be functional in the cutscene. But it takes so long to undo mistakes or experiment with things that justdoesn’thappen when playing with Lego in real life, where you can use your monkey paws to pull stuff apart and rebuild it in seconds. In Bricktales it takes minutes, which is slightly at odds with the “fun for kids!” tone of the storytelling and, indeed, Lego in general.
Admittedly, I’ve only played a very small slice of Lego Bricktales so far, and it really is looking like an amazing labour of love. The only problem is that I’m not sure I could recommend it over just buying a big tub of real Lego. Maybe wait and see.
