Lego Bricktales is possibly the most relaxing and borderline therapeutic game I’ve played in some time. Building things in your own style at your own pace is delightfully fun, though the occasional technical issue and lack of a faster movement option do weigh the experience down.
Lego Bricktales
Developer: ClockStone
Price: $30
Platform: PS4, PS5 (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC</b
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
In my 7+ years at MonsterVine, I’ve said time and time again that Lego games are the gaming equivalent of comfort food. It’s easy to take in, enjoyable enough, and very simple. Lego Bricktales takes this belief to the next level, charging you with building structures and objects out of a number of provided bricks. It’s about as chill as it gets, despite the occasional issue.
Lego Bricktales is quite simple – though you can do a great deal with the simplistic concept. You’re frequently given a set space in which you can build and a set number of bricks. From there, you’re told to just go nuts. There are certain requirements for the final build, like making sure it can handle a certain amount of weight or has room for someone to fit in somewhere, which adds the perfect amount of challenge to each build. It’s very satisfying to make these structures in your own style, to the point where I almost wish there was an in-game way to share and compare them.
Being able to revisit previous builds with no limitations is a pleasant addition, as it lets you fully craft your vision with no restrictions. It’s completely optional but serves as a nice touch – especially since your builds typically appear in some way on the overworld, which encourages you to make them look as good as possible. Or, in my case, as dumb as possible simply because that can be very funny.
“There aren’t really any stakes throughout, so you’re able to completely focus on just chilling and building goofy or brilliant things.”
You can customize your minifig to look like you or whatever you want it to look like, with new designs and helmets/hats becoming unlockable using various silly types of currency you find in chests by solving puzzles in the various areas. It gives you an additional reason to explore the world around you, beyond looking at the intricately-built Lego worlds.
The aesthetic combines the nostalgia of building Lego sets with very relaxing music and audibly satisfying sounds. There’s a story to follow, but it’s not the point of the game and is more of a vessel for the occasionally amusing piece of dialogue amidst various puns. There aren’t really any stakes throughout, so you’re able to completely focus on just chilling and building goofy or brilliant things.
Unfortunately, Lego Bricktales crashed on me a good few times. Sometimes this would reset my progress to before the most recent build, which could be anywhere from 5-30 minutes of time. Hopefully, this is easy to patch, as it puts a real damper on the whole thing. Once in a while, there’ll be a strangely stringent build that can be a bit of a roadblock, but this is a rare occurrence. I also wish you could run somehow. Perhaps I missed it, but I tried every button to move a bit faster through the overworld and was unable to.
The Final Word
Lego Bricktales is, for the most part, a brilliantly laid-back experience. It has the occasional annoying build and some technical problems, but the majority of your time with the game will be spent just putting Lego bricks together to make a bunch of things in whatever way you desire. It’s nothing like the majority of Lego games, but will hopefully serve as a springboard for a future subseries of Lego games that aim more toward creative builds and chill evenings.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
