Who doesn’t love Lego? Anyone? Thought not. There is just something about it, I am not even 100% sure myself what it is about all those little coloured connectable blocks, but there is definitely something about them. From being a small child to even now, building with my kids, there is something wholesome and moreish about the little pieces of coloured plastic.
There have been various Lego-based games over the years, ranging from the very poor to the recent Monkey Palace, which was actually quite good. So, where does Brick Like This fit into the Lego board game ecosystem?
Who doesn’t love Lego? Anyone? Thought not. There is just something about it, I am not even 100% sure myself what it is about all those little coloured connectable blocks, but there is definitely something about them. From being a small child to even now, building with my kids, there is something wholesome and moreish about the little pieces of coloured plastic.
There have been various Lego-based games over the years, ranging from the very poor to the recent Monkey Palace, which was actually quite good. So, where does Brick Like This fit into the Lego board game ecosystem?
Brick Like This is a team-based party game about communication and building Lego structures. How well you can describe structures and subsequently build them will decide the winner of the game. Let’s build!
The Setup
Setting up Brick Like This is a cinch. All party games should be this way; the last thing you want when playing a game with a group is faffing about with setup. Brick Like This gets on with it, pronto, shuffle a few decks, tip out some Lego and you are ready to build.
Shapes and Difficulty
The first thing you do as a team is decide what difficulty shape you want to complete together. Well, attempt to anyway. Each card you pick ranges in difficulty, with the harder shapes awarding more sweet, sweet points.
These shapes form a silhouette composed of the various Lego blocks on the table. It is up to one person in the team to describe the silhouette to the other member of the team, and it’s up to them to build it or not, depending on how good the instructions are. If you’re my lad, very bad and almost impossible to follow but entertaining nonetheless.
The lowest difficulty shows the individual shapes within the silhouette, making it a good start for new players and younger players alike. It does, however, award you with less points.
Communication is Key
The player who is describing the shape cannot point to Lego pieces, which, in my humble opinion, adds just enough difficulty to the whole shebang. You can say the colours of the pieces and where they go, but the shapes and Lego blocks are just murky enough that describing the cards can be hilarious and annoying at the same time. Especially on higher difficulties.
The silhouettes on the cards, unless you really concentrate on them, could be a few different combinations of pieces. There are large triangles, small triangles and several different sizes of the same piece. This leads to mistakes and mis-instruction, and therefore failure. Oh what a hoot!
Points, Timers and Winners
Once one team thinks they have finished, they flip the sand timer, giving everyone else thirty seconds to finish. This just makes the clue giver make more mistakes and increases the overall tension of the round. It’s always fun watching the other team or even your team scrambling to try and get their card finished.
When everyone has finished, or not as the case may be, everyone can lay their creation on the silhouette on the card to see if they were successful or not. I think the fact the silhouette is the exact same size makes both the building and even moreso, the checking an easy task. This is where you find you used the wrong combination of triangles and long bits and curse at the Lego gods.
If any team got their creation correct, they score the number of Lego studs on the card, and after six rounds, the team with the most studs wins. This is where risking a few harder cards may serve you well, to pip the other team by a few studs.
Challenge Cards
If all this describing and building was not challenging enough for you, you can chuck in the challenge cards. These cards add several ridiculous challenges to the game, such as only saying certain things, not being able to mention colours or more dexterous things like having a block at all times on the back of your hand or having the construction always touching the table.
These challenge cards are bonkers, I mean the higher difficulty silhouette cards are difficult enough, without extra challenges involved. Some of these extra challenges are devious too, like the clue giver not being able to watch the builder or not even being able to talk. I am not even sure how you would do that last one, grunting maybe?
Components
While there is not too much in the box, what is in there is of decent quality. The cards, for a party game, feel sturdy, even if they are not linen-finish. The sand timer works well and the Lego is well, Lego. Everything works and will last through a lot of plays. My only complaint here is the size of the box; there is a lot of space, and the whole thing could have been shrunk a tad.
Final Thoughts
As Lego games go, my family enjoyed this one. Especially my youngest lad. There is definitely fun to be had in trying to direct your teammate on how to arrange a set number of Lego bricks, without pointing. Also, when that sand timer starts, the brown stuff hits the whirly-thing and everything goes to pot. It’s fun, even if it’s something I would not like to play too often.
If you have a younger family or even a group that loves to build, chat and laugh, Brick Like This may be for you. As party games go, I can think of many better but on the other side of that, I can think of many, many worse. Brick Like This is fun in short bursts and is certainly enjoyable for the whole family, especially when things start to unravel.
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
72%
