![]() ![]() Interacting with the array of LEGO worlds isn’t as simple or intuitive as snapping blocks together, either. It’s just hard to get away from the feeling at the back of my mind that I have godlike cheat code-level powers available at a whim that can trivialize the sense of place these scenes might otherwise provide. Across the dozens of hours I’ve played so far, I’m still finding new things and feel I may only have scratched the surface of what’s out there, which is genuinely exciting. Spotting land on the far side of the strait, I found myself coming ashore in a dry, windy gulch straight out of the Old West, with cowpokes and rustlers to match. On the outskirts of that town was a spooky forest full of witches and zombies, terminating at a span of sea that held sunken temples beneath its surface. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I’d wind up on a world with several city blocks’ worth of a modern-looking town, complete with a bank, a laundromat, furnished houses, and empty lots for adding my own new homes and businesses. The variety of biomes and imaginative LEGO creations to discover is truly admirable.On the other hand, the variety of biomes and imaginative LEGO creations to discover is truly admirable. When I saw a hidden treasure chest on my minimap, it became standard procedure to simply delete the ground under me until I reached it rather than looking for a cave entrance and traversing the depths to uncover its reward. Another time, I found a giant beanstalk in a fairy tale area that could be climbed to reach a castle full of treasure in the clouds… except that I’d already unlocked a helicopter that could be spawned anywhere, so I just used that instead. It seemed like I was meant to progress through this area like a swashbuckling adventurer… but there was never anything stopping me from deleting the walls to get around any potential hazards. On a medieval-themed world I came across a handcrafted dungeon, complete with monsters, fire traps, dead ends, and a reward of a rare weapon at the end. There's nothing stopping me from deleting walls to get around hazards.Where the two halves really clash are in scripted areas where it’s apparent you’re meant to complete a task in the manner of an adventure game, but the unlimited use of the creative tools makes any challenge easy to circumvent. What’s truly impressive is that there’s no trickery going on here: everything in the world, including dirt, rocks, clouds, clock towers, and even lava, is made entirely out of LEGOs and can be built, disassembled, or copied one brick at a time. We actually find ourselves wishing there were MORE toys associated with this series, not less.The other half is respectably versatile editor that lets you build just about anything you can think of, either brick-by-brick, using a 3D copy/paste tool to grab things you see in the generated worlds (like, say, a wizard’s tower) to save them for later, or by placing prefabricated structures that can be earned by completing quests and exploring. There are lots of other good, complex issues of relationships presented here, in terms this age group can grasp and see. We have also been able to discuss social interactions and ways to think about others in ways that can be hard to broach with this middle-elementary age: that people who seem to be friends may not be, that bullies have their own issues, and ideas of including others and finding your own talents when others don't include you. The ideas about devotion, loyalty, and accepting differences have also been really useful in our household, where we have been able to have effective discussions about autism, disability, and ability based on these characters and their adventures. As adults, we actually ENJOY watching this series, and seeing what happens! Since it is geared to children (I would say about ages 8- 12), some of the plot "twists" are actually fairly obvious for an adult, but still interesting. Being a toy-selling series, we honestly were expecting the kind of shows we saw advertising toys when we were young: pointless, poorly written, and cheesy beyond belief. ![]() So far, we've been surprised by how well done this series is. ![]()
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