Lego: Worlds is great. Thanks largely to the hilarious QL of the game, I decided to pick the game up and get into my own shenanigans. The premise of the game is to acquire gold bricks, which you throw into your ship to make it better and capable of travelling further to larger, more exotic worlds. The No Man's Sky comparison made in the QL is stunningly accurate, as this game largely scratches the exploration itch I was hoping that game would. It also takes some things from other games, like a Zelda hearts system of life and Assassin's Creed-esque treasure chests. That little twinkly sound generally makes you stop what you're doing and plow through the side of a building. I'm not quite on the level of Brad and the Crystal Lizards there, but I do get fairly excited every time I hear it.

Treasure abounds in these Lego Worlds, and it gives you an arguably-too-helpful beam of light through the earth to tell you exactly where it is, meaning that you can easily just drill down with the landscape tool until you hit gold (literally). This is highly effective, but is a great disservice to the intricate cave systems that run beneath most worlds. Some of the most fun I've had was spelunking (and occasionally getting lost) in the caves. Thankfully, if you really lose your way, you can respawn and skydive in atop the world, but that should be a last resort. In the caves, I randomly encountered a cyclops, which was a neat surprise until it killed the shit out of me. There was also an Egyptian world in which I first broke into the back of a Sphinx to loot the treasure, but noticed that if you entered from the front, it had a nifty little spear trap. Stuff like that is all over the game and adds a nice touch I really appreciate.

Most NPCs have some sort of quest that rewards you with the ability to unlock them as a character and use their outfits, and occasionally objects/ game cash as thanks. For example, early on, a monkey wanted a banana, so I gave it a banana. I think it gave me some cash as thanks, and as a bonus, it followed me around like a pet. You have to use in-game cash to "unlock" these characters/items, but it's thankfully a one-time deal, and then you're free to spam the world with, say, a few dozen Troll Warriors so you can watch them unleash hell, if you're so inclined. Also, if you're wanting to get past an area full of enemies and you don't want to deal with them, you can straight-up remove them from the world if you've unlocked them. It's dark as fuck and weirdly satisfying to just erase something from existence. Also, if you end up with a trail of pets, sometimes you have to clean house just for some peace and quiet. (This might have happened with the monkeys, and is probably an accurate depiction of having a real pet monkey, which sounds great in theory until it throws poo at you.)

One of the objects I acquired later was a guitar, so I busted it out and learned that your character adopts some "rock star" animations with the guitar equipped. Think Angus Young one-legged hops, David Lee Roth knee-slides, etc. Inspired, I created Meatloaf, and Meatloaf needed to put on a show. So I faced the camera, pressed the "play guitar" button for the first time, and awaited the magic. It did not disappoint. Not only did Lego Meatloaf start jamming the fuck out, one of the monkeys from earlier came sprinting up and started dancing along. It was at this moment that I decided this game was pretty great. Later I would learn that everyone visible on your map dances along, and that bagpipes also produce hilarious results. You haven't lived until you've seen a Lego NPC breakdance to bagpipes. The animations are so, so good. They're adorable, and they successfully entertain in a "clean" way, which is no easy task. Even the little things like your character diving head-first into a treasure chest and flailing his little lego legs or hopping around on tippy-toes when stepping near hot lava just ooze with charm. There are countless "aww, look at that cute little guy" moments in Lego Worlds.

There's also an idle animation for the "serious cop" character with a smug belt-hold and hat-tip that's perfect. The one I've permanently adopted, though, is the "robber" animation. It's a shady-looking hop-around that I received it from completing the robber's quest, which also netted a sweet "Home Alone Joe Pesci" outfit. All you have to equip, outfit-wise, is the character's head, and it will inherit the animation. So I made another character with caveman beard/hair, no sleeves, tattooed arms, and a denim jacket. He looks like a biker, and it's terrific. Suddenly, the "robber" animation doubled as a Yakuza-esque beast mode, where it appears that my character is looking to fight anyone and everyone. Success. And fight he does. I've spent far too much time beating things to death with bare fists, and eventually acquired an array of weapons that has made me into basically a GTA protagonist going around terrorizing everything. Yes, my time with this children's game is rated "M" for Mature, probably because I am decidedly "I" for Immature.

The combat is decent enough. The game presents you early on with some scenarios where an NPC carrying a coveted gold brick is surrounded by skeletons, zombies, etc., and if you can successfully defend the NPC, you earn the gold brick. This is a daunting task until your character gets significantly better health/weapons. My early strategy was typically to erase a bunch of the earth under the zombies to trap them in a pit. After making a bunch of Silence of the Lambs references in my best Buffalo Bill voice (which was extremely funny to me), I'd just pull out the pistol, aim down from the edge, and shoot fish in a barrel (or literally, zombies in their newfound pit of despair). One thing I do wish the game had is some kind of Dark Souls menu listing weapon attributes. I'm not sure if my black katana is the best weapon I've got, and some weapons seem better against certain types of enemies. Trial-and-error seems to be the only way to really figure things out. The good news is, there's very little consequence for "dying", other than losing a trivial amount of cash.

Unfortunately, there are some performance issues at times where there's pop-in and/or the framerate tanks. It's kinda weird that my Xbox One runs HITMAN and all its NPC nonsense well, but Lego Worlds is apparently too much for it. It's probably more of an optimization thing, and in all fairness, I'm probably pushing the limits of the game by constantly digging giant holes in the world and dropping in a bunch of shit that shouldn't be there. That's kind of the point, though, so it's a shame that too much of that apparently causes the game to drag. It's fairly amusing that this might be the game that benefits most from me probably upgrading to the Scorpio in a little bit, but I'll begrudgingly admit that Lego Worlds is probably a lot better on PC due to these issues and the fact that it's easier/more precise to do construction/destruction with a mouse. The pop-in/framerate drops are annoying, but they aren't bad or consistent enough to offset the excellence of the rest of the game, and it is a pretty game with some quality lighting and a day/night cycle. Still, some hiccups are there, so they're worth mentioning.

Also worth mentioning is that the game (smartly) allows for gameplay that autosaves or doesn't save at all. Meaning, if you, as an adult spend a bunch of time building some badass lego world, you could load it up in the "non-save" mode and turn your kid loose in it to let them wreak all kinds of havoc on dad's finely-crafted world (without actually ruining it) for some cross-generational fun. I don't have kids, but if I did, I'd probably make them play this just because it's that fun and is quite arguably "educational" in a certain sense of stimulating imagination. It captures that silly, innocent kid world where everything was your delightful playground and nothing really had to make sense. Shout out to the music as well, which adds some nice ambience to the worlds. It varies by the type of landscape, so when you're in a hellish lava world, it gets more intense, whereas if you're in a snowy, winter wonderland, it's a peaceful, soothing melody accompanying your adventure.

I've had so many dumb, fun, "kid-in-a-sandbox" moments with this game, and that's maybe the best thing that you can say about a Lego game. I love when games reward creativity, so it's awesome that this game in particular manages to elicit a similar feeling to 8-year-old me making up little stories about the lives of plastic lego men in some fantastical plastic city I built. There's enough variety and depth to the worlds to keep me way more engrossed in the game than I expected. I'm 32, so I feared I'd not "connect" with this game, but it feels like it was made just as much for me as it was for kids, and there's enjoyment to be had here, regardless of age. This game succeeds in appealing to the kid in you. That you can rapid-fire an army of various animals out of your magic gun from the walls of your castle to guard the perimeter is the kind of thing that you never grow out of. At least, I hope I never do.

I bought this game on Steam when it was in early access and quickly became uninterested in it. It sounds like it has changed massively. I really should check it out again.

I picked this game up about a year ago in Steam Early Access, and I never imagined it would turn into something like this! After reading of your enjoyment and watching the aforementioned QL, I feel the need to jump back into the world (pun intended) and experience my own journey. Great read duder!

Glad others are enjoying it, was very pleasantly surprised by the progress made since the early days of EA for this game. They've added just enough structure to keep me hooked, between my 6 year old and myself we're 30 hours in.