Let's begin with the following: I bought into the Minecraft Beta when it first hit PC, and after various attempts, could never get into it like those who do enjoy it.
Lego Worlds, while being compared to Minecraft, is different enough that it's kept my interest and keeps me looking forward to it.
While I rounded up to a 5, I may have given it a 4... Technically, it's far from perfect, but there's just too much fun to be had to really let the technical (and some blatant lack of instruction,) knock it down.
Now, one of the things I didn't know or wasn't presented in a couple pre-release stories that you SHOULD BE AWARE OF: you do NOT start with a complement of all the Lego pieces. So, if you believe you're gonna fire it up and begin building, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. In fact, it's a very big time sink to start discovering all the various individual bricks and builds before hitting up the free build section of creating your own world. Keep this in mind.
Really, this game can be broken down into several parts.
To start, there's the exploration segment: you'll fly your ship to a World and explore the area. Each "biome" is chock full of goodies. For the younger crowd, this plays like much of the other Lego games. Punch things and collect studs while searching for gold bricks- some, like various other discoveries, will be found in chests, others will be earned by running various errands.
Another aspect of the game is the collecting. Your explorer has a little collection gun that will copy various discoveries (think flora & fauna) to your inventory for use when you begin your own worlds. Copying these only adds them to your inventory, you'll still need to unlock them by purchasing it (one time pay with your collected studs,) before you can actually use them.
You'll also earn other tools- a "copy" tool that you can use to copy large builds- that giant Sphinx that isn't a pre-existing piece can't be used with the collector, but can be copied, so you won't have to try & build one from scratch.
You'll also have tools that remove terrain/ segments of the world for you to find hidden treasure chests, build tools that can reconstruct builds or individual brick by brick that you've collected.
You'll also have little chase segments; to earn many of the individual bricks, as you wander the various worlds, a cutesie green "troublemaker" will occasionally pop out of the ground, carrying either a new brick to earn or a gold brick. Chase him down and tackle him, and he'll cough up the piece.
Once you've tired of a particular biome, enter your spaceship and find a new one to explore.
There are issues. Inventory can quickly become messy, even with the divisions they have. There's just soooo much Lego here, that it quickly becomes a chore to locate particular items you may need in a timely fashion.
I play on PS4, perhaps it's something the Pro or a PC more easily handles, but there are times, especially once you start using vehicles, where you'll get to the end of the rendered biome, but need to wait while it renders the rest (this isn't a huge issue, but needs to be recognized). At one point, the game didn't create the new biomes for me to fly to after unlocking the medium sized biomes, which worked itself out after a restart. (Note that you'll have to tell the game to locate a new biome from the spaceship map, biomes won't just spontaneously show up). There been a few times that while using a tool or weapon, the game suddenly switches it to the collection tool and won't allow me to put it away or switch. (Rectified by the ultra-handy "parachute" option, which is there for if your character gets stuck in terrain- which is funny, because I've had to use it for the tool-failure more times than the one time I've gotten stuck on terrain). Also, the lantern will occasionally lose its glow, which is a huge negative if you're underground. (Rectified by zooming in, then out with the camera).
While the game has quite a list of technical issues, these will hopefully be patched out over time: still, even if they aren't, the game really is one that will have you looking at the clock and wondering where the past 4-5 hours have gone.
There is also multiplayer, both couch co-op and online, with perhaps the best feature being that you can share your created Worlds/biomes in the Lego Galaxy that others can visit (just make sure you set it that changes are NOT saved- ensuring you don't come back to multiple hours of planning and building, only to find it destroyed by visitors).
While the lack of having the full Lego sets to play with out of the box may be frustrating to some; to others, the HUGE timesink involved in hunting down all the thousands of pieces may be too much, the fact remains that they have made the hunt FUN.
The other bonus is just how different the game can be played. I've played with my 4 year old, who's just learning his "inner gamer" and has some experience with other Lego games. The basic running around and stud collecting is in his wheelhouse, and with me playing alongside him, none of the few fights were difficult. This base experience is great for the younger crowd, and one that can be expanded as the young ones get older and more comfortable with the advanced portions. (I'm currently hunting down as much as possible to let him have a large selection to build his own little world with).
And, while that hunt is fun, and can still get a bit repetitive, where else could you get every (non-licensed) Lego piece, unlimited in number, for $30? The price alone, at half the cost of a regular release, is absolutely worth it. Even with the list of current issues, I wouldn't have been disappointed had it been a full priced release. There's just so much to explore, so much to do and see, that the list of glitches is easily overlooked, as none are game-breaking.
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