Lego brick-building is about as free-form and creative as you can get with a physical object, yet Lego Voyagers is surprisingly linear and restrictive. For one, you can’t interact with every Lego piece. Okay, that’s fine. But it would be nice to know exactly which pieces are interactable and which aren’t. For one, you can’t interact with every piece—which is fine—but it would be nice to know exactly which pieces are usable and which aren’t. There are also invisible walls and out-of-bounds areas. They aren’t frequent, but they do exist. This limitation isn’t a deal-breaker, yet it’s worth noting that this isn’t a free-for-all Lego building game—not even close.

"To its credit, the autosave is frequent, updating progress almost constantly rather than by chapter."

Now on to the  game flow. You and your co-op partner progress through linear, brick-built environments filled with simple obstacles requiring teamwork: extend a bridge here, build a ladder there. The game has little in the way of side content. Like Split Fiction, there are small secrets scattered about—a stud-built swing, a couple of lounge chairs—but nothing substantial. There are no secret levels, side minigames, or quests. Choosing between the red brick or blue brick has no bearing on gameplay beyond a minor transformation for one character midway through. The lack of side content and character variety makes the game low on replayability.

Even though the structure feels seamless, opening the menu reveals a series of chapters. To its credit, the autosave is frequent, updating progress almost constantly rather than by chapter. There are no game overs or lives either: if you plummet off a platform, you respawn immediately. It’s an ideal pick-up-and-play experience that doesn’t demand much setup or preparation.

As for co-op, the game is strictly two-player with no single-player option. You can play locally or online via the handy Friend Pass, which only requires one copy of the game. Unlike Traveller’s Tales’ Lego titles, this one lacks adaptive split-screen, and there’s no compensation when a partner runs off-screen—the camera simply tries to center between players.

The absence of adaptive split-screen isn’t necessarily bad; I enjoyed the wide single-screen view because it complements the seamless adventure the developers were aiming for. However, the off-screen confusion is just part of the game’s perception issues. For a platformer, its depth perception is poor. While it’s not a precision platformer, there’s plenty of climbing and hopping across tiny platforms. The snap-on function helps—pressing Circle locks onto a nearby stud, letting you align and snap onto surfaces—but even this couldn’t save us from missing what should have been simple jumps due to inconsistent depth perception.

"There’s no adaptive split-screen option and the camera angle is static."

One particular perception issue is the inconsistent shadows rendering under your brick during jumps, making it hard to judge your trajectory. The static camera doesn’t help either. There’s no way to adjust the view, and most of the game uses a high, three-quarters perspective. While this angle captures the scale of the environment well, there are times when a side-scrolling or pure isometric view would have made navigation easier.

And I don’t want to give the impression this is a broken and messy game; it’s certainly not. But some minor glitches popped up during our playthrough. Instances of falling through platforms or getting stuck in-between bricks occurred more than we’d have liked. One time, I got softlocked due to being in some awkward out-of-bounds area with no way to respawn or checkpoint … not without exiting the game and loading it back, that is. All told, the game is largely free of glaring glitches and bugs, but the odd hitch here and there can impede progress.

The same can be said about the graphics. It mostly works, but has the occasional trip-up. The resolution and color grading on all the individual bricks is quite high and pleasant to look at. Though, there can be distracting glare in the lighting at times. Which, by the way, it is cool how there’s a soft day/night cycle in certain small moments of the game. One flaw that can be patched out is consistent screen tearing on the very top of the screen. It’s such a small line of screen tear that it’s easy to block out but worth noting nonetheless.

Speaking of blocking out, the vast majority of puzzles involve piecing together bricks to build the way forward. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that a good amount of puzzles felt repetitive and rather dull. These repetitive tasks often involved gathering the few functional Lego pieces scattered around an environment and hauling them to your partner. Which inevitably means that backtracking and fetching stuff is a core design of the game. This backtracking design wouldn’t be so laborious if the fixed camera and poor depth perception didn’t frustrate the platforming as it does. As a result, a lot of the tasks and puzzles feel like frustrating busywork instead of fun little challenges.

"Puzzles and progress often involve coordination with your partner in an organic way."

One thing I do appreciate is how emergent the teamwork is in the game. Puzzles and progress often involve coordination with your partner in an organic way. The way forward isn’t spelled out to you, which compels further discussion to progress forward. One memorable area features conveyors that crush large bricks into single studs: one player halts the crusher while the other uses a magnetic crane to save pieces for building bridges or ladders. These moments of collaboration reward creativity and make you proud of your problem-solving. Unfortunately, they’re the exception; many puzzles are simple or monotonous, with slow backtracking undermining the fun.

In the end, Lego Voyagers feels like a half-game, half-toy you play to pass the time. At best, it works as a team-building exercise; at worst, it’s a dull time sink. After finishing its six-hour campaign, I felt there were far better ways to spend an afternoon with someone. That said, I can see the appeal for younger players or first-time gamers. Still, the poor depth perception and tedious backtracking keep it from being an ideal gateway title. I don’t enjoy criticizing it—I’m both a Lego fan and someone eager for more co-op-focused experiences. Platformers are my second-favorite genre after RPGs, so this should have been a perfect fit. But if I’m itching for a brick-building experience packed with creativity and fun, there are many other games I’d recommend over Lego Voyagers.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The video, which you can check out below, features developers from Light Brick Studio discussing the process they used to design LEGO Voyagers and its navigational puzzles. Development of the title started out with players only being able to move around by holding down a direction and seeing their in-game characters – small LEGO bricks – tumbling in that direction. The studio then added things on top of this to further expand on the gameplay, like having the little bricks be able to attach to bigger bricks and move them along as well.

LEGO Voyagers is a co-op focused game that revolves around two friends – little bricks – on a quest to rescue an abandoned spaceship. In order to get to their objectives, the two bricks have to co-operate throughout the journey, and will ultimately end up becoming closer friends in the process. The studio has previously described the themes of the title as being “the value of being connected”.

The core gameplay revolves around moving around the environments and making use of the title’s physics engine to move around larger LEGO structures in order to complete environmental and navigational puzzles. Since it’s a co-op only title, LEGO Voyagers will feature online as well as offline multiplayer across all platforms. The title was announced back in August with a trailer, showcasing some of the puzzles that players will have to take on throughout their time with the game.

The studio behind LEGO Voyagers – Light Brick Studio – had previously worked on LEGO Builder’s Journey, which was released on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and iOS, with that last platform only having it through Apple Arcade. In 2022, the title eventually made its way on to PS4 and PS5 as well.

The core gameplay behind LEGO Builder’s Journey revolved around giving players the ability to build just about any LEGO structure they can imagine. The studio expressed the core design of the title as being “free-form puzzle solving”, giving players absolute freedom in how they might want to tackle the various challenges presented by the game.

As for fans of LEGO who might be looking for a more intense title, TT Games had unveiled LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight back in August. The title will act as an amalgamation of the various Batman stories we’ve seen over the last few decades, ranging from Tim Burton’s take in 1989, to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy in the 2000s and early 2010s. For more details about the title, check out how the developers want to draw on all Batman fiction. Also check out a gameplay video showcasing a full level.

LEGO Voyagers is slated for release on September 15.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Keeper, Grounded 2, and the ROG Xbox Ally (which will allegedly receive a release date) make up day one, as previously announced. However, you can also look forward to Cronos: The New Dawn, Hotel Barcelona, Invincible VS, World of Warcraft: Midnight, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Dying Light: The Beast, Starsand Island, PowerWash Simulator 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, Outbound, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants.

Day 2 is also just as packed. Previously confirmed titles include The Outer Worlds 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Overwatch 2, but Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Jurassic World Evolution 3, FragPunk, Mistfall Hunter, At Fate’s End and Age of Empires 4 are also present. Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice, Silent Hill f, LEGO Voyagers, and High on Life 2 will also appear. If that wasn’t enough, you can expect to see Silent Hill f and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater in action.

Before all this unfolds, Gamescom Opening Night Live will take place on August 19th at 11 AM PDT and promises its own stacked lineup. Then there’s Future Games Show on August 20th, featuring Phantom Blade Zero and Little Nightmares 3. Stay tuned for live coverage throughout all this.

LEGO Voyagers will revolve around two friends who are on a mission to rescue an abandoned spaceship. To achieve this, the duo must embark on a journey, and in the process, become closer friends as they learn “the value of being connected”. Both player characters will be simple LEGO bricks and will eventually be able to turn into more complicated shapes by connecting to the world around them.

The players can also connect as they figure out how puzzles are solved and how they can get across, for example, a big ditch by creating a makeshift catapult. Since it will be a co-op only title, LEGO Voyagers will feature support for online multiplayer, as well as local co-op on the same screen.

The last title by the studio, LEGO Builder’s Journey, was originally released on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and iOS through Apple Arcade, before eventually making its way to PS4 and PS5 back in 2022. The game revolves around “free-form puzzle solving”, tasking players with completing objectives with absolute freedom.

A core gameplay mechanic of LEGO Builder’s Journey is the fact that players can build essentially anything they want from a vast variety of bricks. Through updates, the title also introduced a Creative Mode that allows players to save and expand their creations without any limits.

It is worth noting that Light Brick Studio’s titles are quite different from other LEGO titles, such as November 2024’s LEGO Horizon Adventures, which acts as a whimsical reimagining of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn. It revolves around the adventures of protagonist Aloy, presenting a more cheerful and colourful take on the series. Back in February, Guerrilla Games had released a trailer for LEGO Horizon Adventures celebrating its positive critical reception.

Interestingly, back in March, LEGO executive Niels Christiansen had announced that the company would be bringing the development of LEGO-based games in-house. Previously, LEGO had worked with studios like Traveller’s Tales and Epic Games, including a long-term partnership with the latter for LEGO Fortnite, which focuses more on PvE experiences like LEGO Fortnite Odyssey and Brick Life.