I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a year quite like this one when it comes to new co-op experiences. From major-publisher-backed hits like Split Fiction and Grounded 2, to indie darlings like REPO and Peak, there hasn’t just been a significant quantity of games meant for co-op play, but they’ve gone in so many different, yet similarly exciting, directions.
Still, I’ve been left wanting for one specific reason, and I imagine other parents can relate: It’s hard to find games to play with my kids, so I’m glad Lego Voyagers is just around the corner.
Split Fiction, for example, may be regarded as the best co-op game of the year and, more broadly speaking, a possible Game of the Year contender, much like It Takes Two before it. But Hazelight’s co-op games aren’t meant for smaller, less-experienced hands. Their puzzles and action sequences demand a lot from players, to the extent that I can’t play it with my six-year-old, who is a lifelong gamer, but still finds such games a bit too chaotic to handle. And then there are games like REPO, a game about repossessing valuables from locales stalked by monsters, and Peak, where Boy Scouts scale mountains to reach help after a plane crash, but often plummet to their cartoonish deaths. While I’m personally okay with some of the more mature visuals and themes in these games and play them with my older child often, they can still ask too much of my youngest on the controller, and that’s if their anxiety-inducing gameplay doesn’t undo her.
Lego Voyagers thankfully avoids leaving me with these hang-ups as a gaming parent looking for the next great bonding experience. Instead, what I saw in a recent hands-on demo is a laid-back, creative play space full of platforming puzzles that felt welcoming to virtually anyone.
Filling in for my kids in my scheduled demo was my colleague, Jason Fanelli, who did a great job as my proxy child. In Lego Voyagers, we each took on the role of a small Lego brick featuring a single eye sticker. His red fella and my blue dude rolled around a world that looks very much like Light Brick Studio’s earlier award-winning game, Lego Builder’s Journey. Our path was paved with bricks constructed and colored to look like the sights you’d see on a nature walk. Quickly, we came upon a Lego playground, with various contraptions familiarizing us with the world’s physics-based systems, before a rocket launch in the distance had us on our way to explore some more.
With the world consisting of what you could call a series of interconnected micro-sets, it was up to us to complete these dioramas with our ingenuity. In each section, Lego bricks of different shapes, sizes, and colors would be freely available for us to build a solution to a problem posed by the location. One of the earliest sections tasked us with traversing a gap over water. Naturally, a bridge was in order, so Jason and I worked together to build one. There was no timer, no enemy presence. It was just us, some loose bricks, and the problem in front of us. It gave me the distinct, familiar feeling of spilling out a bunch of Lego bricks onto a table and seeing what my kids and I come up with, free of any instruction booklet.
A bridge is simple enough–though I won’t hide the fact that it took us a few minutes to master the building controls–but later sections demanded a bit more thought. Still, the level of strategy and controller inputs needed to succeed never got to the extent that I felt like any would-be players would be left behind due to a skill gap, at least not from what I’ve played so far. I got the sense this was an intentional choice, which we’ll hopefully see throughout the entire game.
As an example of the types of puzzles you’ll face, one memorable moment saw us needing to throw together a bunch of loose cylindrical pieces, creating a tall pole-like object. With each of us at an end of this pole, we could climb the terrain, wobbling up and over each natural step, moving end over end like a stiff Slinky. It was very satisfying, and though I’m sure this was the intended solution, the game’s physics meant the answer still felt imprecise and experimental in a manner that ties nicely with Lego.
Like those aforementioned Hazelight games, Lego Voyagers must be played in co-op. There’s no solo mode, and that’s for good reason. The entire game’s aesthetic creates the sense of a cozy bonding experience built specifically for two people to collaborate and enjoy each other’s company. It’s made complete with a soft soundtrack of chill, lo-fi music that I instantly adored.
As a whole, the game reminded me of the difference between a Studio Ghibli movie made for kids and something like The Minions Movie. The former balances adolescent whimsy with its mature writing so well, trusting its younger audience to get on its level, and leaving space for its world to breathe. The latter feels like a loud ad for a sugary cereal that no “balanced breakfast” actually requires. Surely there can be times for each type of experience, but I really appreciated how Light Brick Studio sought to provide an environment more conducive to restful, creative play.
Growing up with Lego, I’ve always found something so meditative about its building process; working through its numbered instructions can put a person in something like a flow state as they thoughtfully place each brick where it belongs. Playing Lego Voyagers gave me a strong sense of that familiar feeling I never outgrew, and I’m excited my kids will be able to enjoy it with me, just like when we decorate the dining room table with hundreds of colorful toy bricks.
LEGO Voyagers launches on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on September 15.
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