[Review] Lego Builder's Journey

Developed By: Light Brick Studio
Published By: LEGO System
Categories: Adventure, Puzzle
Release Date: 06.22.21

Leave it to a Lego game of all things to have an emotional journey with a father and son. But here we are with Lego Builder’s Journey, which was quite the surprise for me.

Most Lego games nowadays are all of the licensed ilk. Minifigs and recognizable characters front and center. This is fine, since they all sell well and have their own audience. However, it’s a bit uncommon to see games just purely builder pieces. Lego Builders Journey is pure Lego pieces, all of the ones you’d build you would build houses with no matching colors.

Lego Builders Journey is part puzzle game, part adventure. Levels will mostly have you going from one end to the other, using Lego pieces to get there. That’s not all though, you’ll have to use these Hopper pieces, yellow toppers that have a little spot for your Lego person. It’s like making steps, just don’t make them too far away. The game starts with a father and son out and about in the wilderness together, but when they get home, the father gets dragged away to work. They soon become separated because of this, but find a way to get back together with your help of building.

Sometimes it’s as easy as just placing a bridge to make a smooth walk to the end. Sometimes you need to get crafty and make your own pathways a bit out of the box. That’s something I like about Lego Builder’s Journey, they’ll give you pieces to do something, and you can do it your way. It’s a linear game, but feels like they understand the fun of Lego.

The game can get heartwarming and emotional, but I’ll tell you what made me the most emotional. In the tutorial, you’re tasked with building a few things to get used to the controls. Once done, water immediately washes away and destroys what you built. It was crushing…

Lego Builders Journey has a hell of an atmosphere too. Great graphics for the pieces, nice music, and amazing looking water. This is a minimalist adventure game. There’s no dialog. It’s show, don’t tell. This works in the game’s favor, let the music do the work.

While Lego Builder’s Journey can be a tad short at just over an hour if you’re great at these puzzles or know what you’re doing, I don’t think it overstays it’s welcome. If this was just a puzzle game, no story attached, I’d feel different, but what’s on display here does it’s job. I didn’t expect much out of Lego Builder’s Journey, but I left with an experience.