First off I want to say I know this is early access, and hopefully some of these things will be addressed in time. That said, let's get the bad stuff out of the way first;
No control/camera options!
I *think* this might be because this will be ported to consoles eventually. I say that because the messages "Press any button/key" and the option of turning on or off "Vibration". Now sure some people play PC games with gamepads, and that's great, but I hope this PC version of LEGO Worlds will get some options for how we play. An irritation so far for me is that the right mouse button is for looking as well as pointing (ie movement). So if you want to go straight but swing the camera to the right to look at something, you have to correct your movement by strafing or something similar. Another annoyance is how low the camera is to the ground, so you're looking at the horizon all the time rather than your immediate surroundings.
Intricate building with individual bricks is a bit clunky!
Again this may be because of the possible console like control scheme, but trying to build something is a bit more tedious than it should be. The interface for the brick selection and color selection aren't designed very well (scroll the mouse wheel to go through them, but that also zooms in your view, grr!). I prefer the dedicated building programs that exist more than this, even the Google Chrome LEGO builder. The low framerate doesn't help matters either, and I don't have all of the bells and whistles on maximum.
No way to affect the world without going in to build mode!
I really wish a had a shovel or something that just dug where I was standing. Or maybe even dig with my hands, or *something* rather than nothing at all. To alter the landscape you have to go in to one of the build modes, and either remove bricks one at a time via clicking, or delete huge chunks at a time in a somewhat clunky interface (that interface again!).
This is *not* like Minecraft!
I mentioned MC again because, if you're like me, you might have been hoping that this was a LEGO version of Minecraft. It isn't, so get that out of your head right now. What's more like is an open world, no story mode TT game. You explore and if you run in to a NPC you haven't collected yet, you unlock them for purchase. Ditto for vehicles, little models (ie plants, various decorative objects, etc.). You get studs for destroying stuff, and use those studs to permanently buy one of the things you've unlocked. You also get studs for interacting with one of the supplied builds (a lovely little home with a pool and BBQ). These studs come pretty freely, so I never felt low on 'money', however all this paints a somewhat different picture than what Minecraft does; there's a lot more video game here than just building.
Now on to the good stuff shall we?
Genuine fun!
I actually enjoyed exploring the different landscapes, even if they were somewhat barren for now. I had a rush of glee when I found a NPC I hadn't encountered yet and quickly harvested their sweet parts for myself. I enjoyed riding the dragon and blowing up craters in the mountains. I enjoyed mowing the lawn (aforementioned pre built house object), and giggled when I saw what it did. I liked finding the big chests that yielded me a hand held item (though the gun mechanic of shooting is a little odd for now). Basically there is fun to be had here, and it should only get better.
Beautiful views!
Both the theme areas as well as the character models themselves look wonderful. Luckily we have ambient occlusion already for us (no need to fake it for nice screenshots like MC!) as well as gorgeous lighting effects. Everything looks amazing and really sucks you in to the world.
Ok now on to the stuff that isn't even in the game and my personal opinion/hopes on what happens, you can skip this bit if you want.
Multiplayer?
Unfortunately it doesn't *seem* like this will be like MC again. There won't be any 64 players joined here, I'd be very surprised. There isn't even (unless I'm blind and/or not smart enough) chatting of any kind yet, but as I said I could be wrong. The game certainly didn't prompt me to say hello or anything like that, and I couldn't check the control scheme. There was an option to 'search for worlds', though I didn't look in to it. I fear it might just be something similar to Little Big Planet, where players upload their world to the server and let other people play *in* it, rather than *with* other people. And since multiplayer was technically at the bottom of the list of 'features to add', I'm worried it'll just be basically co-op. Certainly not the social juggernaut that MC had become even in beta, LEGO Worlds multiplayer seems like a footnote rather than core feature of the game.
I guess that's actually the only bit I'm not certain about. I hope we can get some good multiplayer, but we'll see!
