Following on from the announcement of their new game Lego Dimensions to release at some time in the future, Lego have lined up to take on another aspect of gaming. They’ve not only revealed their other new game, Lego Worlds, it’s already available through Steam Early Access for about £11.

Lego Worlds takes on the sandbox builder game, spawning players in a procedurally generated play area that can be altered to your liking with in-game Lego sets and built upon to make your own worlds. Just like Minecraft.

The game will feature an array of creatures from ostriches to dragons, vehicles like a giant earth-moving drill and character customisation options. Build, dig, make big worlds, ride animals and fight skeletons. The Early Access version is currently missing some features and sets, but so far the reviews are good for this game. A little competition would be good for Minecraft and maybe this is a good thing for both games and they can co-exist…

… But the trailer for the game doesn’t wow me as a long-term Minecraft player. I’ve always found the art style of rounded entities/creatures next to blocky landscapes to be a little bit distracting and not in a good way. Unfortunately Lego Worlds has this art style and it niggles at me in some small but significant way. As well, no matter how many characters are available for the customisation options it will never equal Minecraft’s customisation of applying a player-made skin to a simple base.

I don’t know. I want to like this game, and I hope it does well enough. But from the small bit I’ve seen of it in the trailer, there seems to be something missing that made Minecraft great. Something that even the Vanilla game had.

I hope that I’m wrong and it proves to have that sparkle after all.