Lego Voyagers review – building the case for more co-op games

Lego Voyagers – you’re the tiny little single bricks with eyes (Annapurna Interactive)

The follow-up to Lego Builder’s Journey is a co-op only game in the style of Split Fiction and It Takes Two but will it prove as big a hit?

There’s a renewed boldness amongst developers for making co-op only games. However, it’s a slightly risky proposition given the innate challenge of finding another human being who wants to play the same game as you, at exactly the same time. One way of helping that along is to provide local co-op, the theory being that flatmates or family members are more likely to share both tastes and timetables.

Lego Voyagers defaults to local co-op, but to hedge its bets also offers a free Friend Pass, like Split Fiction, so you can play against any of your friends, even if they don’t own a copy of the game themselves. It’s slightly less rewarding than sitting on the same sofa but is still a pleasing way to socialise while playing a game. Not that you’ll have that much time for idle chat, given the continual need to collaborate to reach objectives.

Developer Light Brick Studio’s first game was Lego Builder’s Journey. Originally released on Apple Arcade, it was ported to PC and consoles two years later and was a lovely, meditative single-player puzzle game that felt actively designed to be relaxing – the process of merely poking about with its puzzles seeming at least as important as completing them.

You can sense the same spirit in Lego Voyagers, another playful and unhurried puzzle game, but this time for two players. Each of you controls a single Lego block, trundling it around beautifully realistic looking Lego landscapes, many of which have a faux industrial look, with water running through them, which anchors their architecture to the real world.

The game is also rooted in authentic-feeling physics. You can imagine rolling a Lego brick, its near-cubic shape making its progress wobbly and unpredictable, like trying to dribble a rugby ball with your feet. It gives your interactions with the world a wilfully knockabout feel, as you awkwardly bumble your way towards your next destination. With two of you doing it, there’s an inherent slapstick just moving about the place.

To add to the impression of nurturing fun just for the sake of it, you’ll find all sorts of things to play with that have no material impact on any puzzles. There are roundabouts to spin, tiny rockets to catapult, Lego flowers that pop into the air as you approach, and myriad other little distractions. You can also prank each other.

There are frequent moments where one player needs to trigger a switch, catapulting the other onto a distant platform or merely keeping a surface level while the other walks across is. If you’re in the right mood, or have recently been pranked yourself, there’s an often overwhelming temptation to dunk the other player into the water or flip a section of floor a split second too soon.

In keeping with its sense of generous play, nothing really sets you back. Falling off a platform or into deep water you’ll respawn instantaneously, exactly where you fell, making each mistake a trifle. When you totter along single brick wide ledges or repeatedly mess up a series of hops across a chasm, you’re only ever set back a second or two, helping avoid recriminations when it happens several times in a row.

The beautiful, ambient synth tunes that accompany your puzzling add to the atmosphere, encouraging you to mess about rather than sprinting to the next objective. Many of the puzzles are also built around the idea of trying things out to see what works, as you’ll be building a lot of wonky bridges and sets of stairs out of mismatching bricks.

Lego boats don’t usually float (Annapurna Interactive)

There’s a wonderful few minutes where you both have to pilot a boat, one of you controlling the left-hand engine, and the other the right. Steering requires communication but also spatial awareness as you try and work what are effectively tank controls, with one player manning each joystick. It’s at times like this that minor squabbles break out but given how little mistakes matter, proceedings tend to remain safely light-hearted.

Presented on a single screen, with both players visible at all times, there’s a real sense of togetherness, although that same perspective does make some of its platforming challenges more frustrating than they need to be. To help ameliorate that, you can tap a button to clip onto the nearest available Lego brick, making long series of jumps somewhat less irksome.

As you work your way through its Lego landscapes, you’ll find puzzles gradually adding complexity and requiring more tinkering before you can open a gate to the next chapter. And then the game ends, just as it was starting to demand real thought and engagement. Keeping things straightforward is clearly a deliberate design choice, but you can’t escape the feeling that it wraps up prematurely.

Whether or not you agree with Light Brick’s decision to maintain a low difficulty level, Lego Voyagers is a delightful experience. It’s far smaller and less involved than Hazelight’s Split Fiction and It Takes Two, but apart from being two player-only has little in common with those games. However, for smaller children, or anyone who enjoys a calmer and more contemplative pace, Lego Voyagers is a blissfully peaceful four hours of joint exploration.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Developer: Light Brick Studio
Release Date: 15 September 2025
Age Rating: 3

Building with friends is fun while it lasts (Annapurna Interactive)

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