I have never felt more attached to a sentient piece of plastic than I did playing Lego Voyagers. In the same way that one of the Pixar movie greats takes an inanimate object and imbues such life and character into it, so too do the team at Light Brick Studio, the team also behind 2021s Builders Journey, ensuring that every subtle eye roll or cutesy noise finds its way through your pulmonary artery and lodges itself firmly in your heart.
In the same vein as the recent Split Fiction, Lego Voyagers is a purely co-operative experience, be it online or via couch co-op. There’s no option to play this as a solo adventure and having recently completed this with my son, I wouldn’t want there to be. This is a journey to be shared that has narrative beats (that I’ll not spoil here) hitting home that much harder than if you were using an AI companion or just swapping between our two unnamed heroes. To sweeten the deal, each copy of Lego Voyagers is provided with a friend pass so, as long as one of you has a copy of the game, a friend can hop on with you without a further penny spent. A great deal at a time when paying for your breakfast coffee feels like taking out another mortgage.
It’s no spoiler to say that we join our two lovable Lego blocks waking on their island home and before you know it, are off on a building adventure. Their mission is to rescue part of a failed rocket, returning it to Mission Control. From this simple premise, you’ll find yourself facing puzzles, tests of platforming skill and a series of co-op challenges that require actual teamwork to get through as you travel through a diverse collection of biomes, each of which is a joy to behold. You’ll find tiny distractions such as a see-saw or swings to play around on or deck chairs to relax in whilst admiring the view, whilst all of the while, you’ll be slowly falling in love with the two tiny red and blue bricks, at least if you’re anything like me.
It’s genuinely impressive that such a range of emotion is so well conveyed non-verbally, with situations and teamwork conveying everything that needs to be said without a single word uttered. There’s a chilled ambient soundtrack subtly setting the tone, some quiet environmental sounds and the cutesy “ahhs” and “whees” of your single stud protagonists, with a button dedicated solely to the expression of your inner brick. Hand in hand with this, the visuals are nothing short of incredible. With a plethora of parts to coo at throughout your time with Lego Voyagers, I still can’t get over just how real the bricks and studs look.
Sunlight glints and sparkles off of the gently lapping waves, as mist swirls around tall rocky towers. Reflections of plastic on plastic are everywhere and ground you in this fantastical world in a way that’s hard to put into words. It seems silly to say but I’ve never seen Lego look quite so solid and convincing in a game ever before. For all of the Lego games we have had over the last couple of decades, this one is the real looker of them all.
Never has Lego felt quite so tactile on-screen as in Lego Voyagers. As you hop on top of piles of broken bricks, you can attach yourself, slowly building up a huge plastic appendage that affects how you move. Rather than just rolling and jumping around, you’ll follow the shape of your newly attached “limb”, moving more awkwardly for it but it’s sure to raise a smile or two. This collection and re-allocation of Lego parts forms the structure of many of the game’s puzzles but it’s not here that the game truly shines. It’s the team effort required and the spirit of co-operation as you overcome obstacles together, each player providing equal input toward the satisfaction of a job well done.
However, it’s also here that I have my biggest complaint. I would have heartily recommended that this is a perfect game to play with a younger gamer but there are one or two difficulty spikes that I think would trip up anyone who doesn’t have a semi-decent level of controller dexterity later in the journey. It’s a bit of a shame as everything else until this point is firmly “U” rated and would be ideal for children as a first platformer, especially given the universal appeal of the license. But, as these tasks require accurate cooperation, it’s destined to become a stumbling block that I could easily see tripping up a few inexperienced players.
Other than that slight criticism, Lego Voyagers is a great game that is certainly more than the sum of its parts. It’s full of joy and laughter, yet not without a few testing moments and a touch of melancholy, it’s an enjoyable way to spend a few hours with a friend on a lazy afternoon.
