Review: Lego Voyagers Is a Pretty and Easy Game
Lego Voyagers is a very specific sort of game for a certain type of audience. It’s gorgeous, with atmosphere that takes us through what feels like a post-apocalyptic type of experience as two little bricks. But at the same time, it’s far shorter than I expected it to be with very little challenge and few moments that felt like it took proper advantage of having two players work together. Add in some controls that occasionally feel fiddly, and it feels like lighter fare for perhaps an older player to enjoy with a much younger one.
The story in Lego Voyagers involves only context clues and no words. Two bricks, one red and one blue, live together in matching houses on a little island. After watching a rocket launch together, they notice the vessel goes off course and crashes. The pieces that wash ashore allow the two to follow it and recover the capsule. The two journey through various environments to take off after it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J4Zq-A6FAw
Lego Voyagers is a light platforming game that feels more about taking in what we see around us than dealing with major challenges. Our little bricks can hop and roll around environments. There will be some designated places at which they can build to cross gaps or make constructs that allow them access to other areas. At which point you need to press a button to lock to the grid or attach to a piece, then move the piece to a spot you need it and release it for a build. However, it isn’t like some other Lego games in which you make actual cars or major, recognizable items. Rather, it’s about getting “battery” parts to designated spots or other blocks in position to move or perhaps getting a switch flipped at the right time.
None of this is terribly challenging. Any real complication may instead come from narrowing down the timing or getting accustomed to needing to press the “lock in” B button to ensure you secure yourself when making jumps across gaps to 1x1 flowers or pieces. It feels overly complicated to control and like getting parts into place sometimes involve more steps than needed. Spoilers aside, one of the most complicated sections involved getting on a raft where each brick controlled one side of the two motors and navigating it to floating blocks with bricks we needed, then to places with three additional battery pieces for to power a later construct.
Images via Light Brick Studio
It almost made me feel that, for much of it, Lego Voyagers didn’t really need two people so much? One person holds a switch so the other can cross. The person who made it across then holds a similar switch on the other side so the first can make it. One flips a switch so the partner goes flying over a gap. The player who made it across then either drops a platform by weighing it down or, again, flips a switch so the two can reunite. Even for the raft section, it felt like someone could almost manage quite a bit of it on their own.
Another disappointing element of it is, while Lego Voyagers almost feels like it could be freeform due to the gorgeous environments and creative spaces, it’s really very structured. There’s basically one solution to each problem and no opportunity to experiment. Places look great, but there’s no reason or encouragement to explore. Since there is no structure and no words, there can also be one or two points where you need to play around to figure out “oh, okay, to advance the story I need to do this.”
Images via Light Brick Studio
Which isn’t to say this isn’t charming. It’s a short adventure that is very cute and looks great. I loved how our avatar bricks “sing” to one another if you press a button, as the action to catch your ally’s attention. It’s also very cute that doing so will cause the space shuttle capsule, if it is on-screen, to echo back your same note pattern. The sound direction is great in other ways as well, such as how the bricks make different little noises as they move across certain surfaces.
Lego Voyagers is a visually gorgeous game and generally pleasant, but I wish it controlled better and involved more challenging scenarios. There are some fun ideas here, and the design concepts are solid. It is absolutely cute. I’d even say it can be a relaxing way to spend an afternoon or evening. But the constant locking in while platforming, ease of difficulty, and few opportunities to really do more in the space can be discouraging.
Lego Voyagers is available for the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, and PC.
The post Review: Lego Voyagers Is a Pretty and Easy Game appeared first on Siliconera .
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