LEGO Worlds has been officially released, and now we can all dive into the world building game from LEGO and Travellers Tales.

IF you haven’t heard about LEGO worlds, then where have you been? annoucned a few years ago at E3, it immediately sparked the interest of many LEGO and video game fans, with its apparent ability to build almost anything in LEGO.

There were obvious parallels and comparisons to Minecraft, and though there is a definite spiritual link, it is a similar to how Minecraft was compared to LEGO when it first came on the scene.

The environments are a little more organic, as you don’t just have access to the square lego bricks, you have what seems to be full access to all types of bricks and accessories.

The game makes good use of the small worlds to give you new abilities and then an area to learn to use them, before making you collect some gold bricks and then advance to the next world/level.

LEGO Worlds - discovery tool The Discovery Tool

The first tool you are bestowed, it the discovery tool. In Minecraft terms, this is the pickaxe, with a difference. In LEGO worlds, you can find new objects and scan them into your database. The mushrooms, the flowers, the chickens, the big plant, and everything else can be scanned into your collection. Once it is in the collection, you must spend some studs to unlock it for use. Once it is unlocked, you can place them anywhere in the world. Handy.

LEGO Worlds - landscape toolThe Landscaping Tool

The next tool in your arsenal, it also kind of like the pickaxe tool. This is the way you dig holes and build hills in LEGO worlds. But because of the complexities of the LEGO environment, compared to say, Minecraft, this tool is less exact than the one brick at a time style of Minecraft.

You can choose if you are adding or taking away, and then you have a few choice in how you will affect the environment. Hills, plateaus, or blocks, LEGO worlds gives you a paintbrush to quickly shape the landscape quickly and easily. If you need more precise controls, they have that covered too… we will get to that in a second.

LEGO Worlds - copy toolThe Copy Tool

The copy tool is a necessity again due to the more complex LEGO style. Once you’ve built that awesome house, tower, 1000ft statue of your likeness, you may not want to have to build it again and again. The Copy tool comes to your rescue in these situations, as you can simply, well, copy it. IT saves it to your inventory for use whenever and wherever you want. Noice.

The way you move the selection can be tricky, but it means you can copy whole creations or just parts to use i.e., copy a wall to save building two.

LEGO Worlds - paint toolThe Paint Tool

The paint tool works as you would expect from its name. It paints things. You have similar size controls to the landscape tool, so can paint a single brick or an entire house. Where it does differ from the basic painting that the name may imply, is with the properties it also paints. You don’t just paint colours, you can paint lava or light.

In LEGO worlds, you can have a tree that is a light source, and you can have a house with a lava wall. Why not? IT means that once you design your creations, you can paint on some unusual characteristics.

LEGO Worlds - build toolThe Build Tool

Don’t panic, it’s here! This is the detail tool as it were. This is the tool for placing one brick at a time and building LEGO as you do in real life. At this point, you have all the tools needed for making your creations, and it’s time to have some fun.

Once you complete Candy World and the tutorial, you unlock the ‘Free Build’ ability, and thus the real adventure begins.

I look forward to discovering more in the coming weeks and seeing if my 6-year-old nephew can get the hang of it too.

LEGO Worlds is available now for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Have fun!