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LEGO Universe Review: LEGO Universe Review - Edit
7.5
| Pros |
 Endless building possibilities Fun discoveries Plenty of achievements |
| Cons |
 Difficult camera Poor quest organization and inventory Skimpy front-loaded content |
LEGO Universe is a fully fledged 3D MMOG targeted towards “Kids of all ages” but although rated E 10+ for cartoon violence, is meant for kids aged 6 and up. Like any MMO, it comes with a back story to explain the setting, and in the case of LEGO, also incorporates the various LEGO “worlds.”
Backstory
In a parallel Universe where we exist as LEGO minifigures (or minifigs), four brave adventurers sought to discover the Nexus of Imagination. Lore had it that it could bring to life anything we could possibly imagine. Traveling from world to world, they found an old forgotten map which led them to the planet Crux where they found a temple constructed by the first builders and a tower of pure imagination. Of course they had to try it out. The gallant knight Duke Exeter closed his eyes, thought hard and created a small model of a castle. The space pirate Hael Storm poofed a model of a galleon into existence and buoyed by their successes, Doctor Overbuild a brilliant engineer brought a perky little puppy to life. The wheels in the mind of the wily tycoon Baron Typhonus were spinning at top speed and in a mad burst of imagination, created a monstrous creature that smashed the poor puppy to bits.
This use of destruction to harness creation and imagination turned into chaos and chaotic being know no masters. The creature turned on Typhonus and dragged him into the Imagination Nexus, corrupting it and creating the Maelstrom which exploded, sending bits of itself and planet Crux hurtling through space. The remaining trio fought for their lives and succeeded in saving one last sliver of pure Imagination which they brought home with them, only to find that the Maelstrom had corrupted everything it touched. Turning creatures into chaotic Stromlings bent only on destruction. The heroes formed the Nexus Force, determined to keep the Maelstrom and bay and each led a faction of minifigs to train the future to defend Imagination and wrest the land back from the Maelstrom.
The World and Factions
LEGO Universe is a fragmented world which players will travel through and discover. Each world has a launch pad or two where you climb into your rocket ship and travel to other worlds. There are not just three factions but four in this world and this is how they came about:
Doctor Overbuild formed the Assembly, a gathering of the brightest builders and critical thinkers to battle the Maelstrom using engineering science. In a Sci-Fi game, this would be your technician class. The guys that set turrets, build bridges and lay mines.
Duke Exeter gathered the finest warriors in the land, training them to in creative use of the most advanced weapons. What other class would this be but your tanks? Your warriors and paladins.
Hael Storm drew the dare devils. The adventurers and explorers who like nothing better but taking on that next quest into the unknown to root out far flung pockets of the Maelstrom. Is there an equivalent class in other MMOS? DPS perhaps? The dual-wielding Ranger?
The forth faction was created by a former protégé of the Baron Typhonus. A mysterious ninja girl by name of Vanda Darkflame. She took to the study of the Maelstrom itself, and she and her followers use the darkling forces of the Maelstrom against itself. This dark magic using class is quite clearly, a Necromancer equivalent.
Classes are not chosen right away, but only after you take on a series of quests for the faction recruiters, and the quests are representative of that faction’s play styles. Of course there’s also fashion to consider as each faction’s equipment have distinctive looks.
Gameplay & Stats
The gameplay of LEGO Universe is similar to its single-player predecessors, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Indiana Jones and the like. There’s quite a bit of platform play involved and you smash things, pick up hearts (health), shields (armor) and coins. In LEGO Universe there’s also Imagination that needs to be collected as these power Quick Builds. As befits a kids’ game, controls are simple. WASD to move, mouse clicks for combat, intuitive icons to open up interfaces and a single key, the Shift key to interact with objects. Combat is manual and is simply spam clicking thanks to the auto-target feature, just like the single-player game. Get near enough to an enemy, and click repeatedly.
There are three stat bars. Health, Armor and Imagination, all of which can be expanded by gear, which is bought from NPCs an earned as quest rewards. The character creator allows quite a bit of customization as you put parts of your minifig together, and select things such as girly eyes, lips and a pony-tail to signify that you are female, but you totally can match a boy face with a pony-tail.
In a slight departure from other MMOGs, minifigs do not gain experience and levels. Instead, you are defined by your gear which can be bought from NPCs, drop from Stromlings and are rewards for the quests you do for your faction. Your equipment determine your attack strength, attack speed, special abilities, imagination levels, health and armor. This is where that +2 sword really means something.
Chat is defined by the LEGO Universe dictionary. Like most kids games, it has a White list of words that can be used, rather than a Black list which can be circumvented by creative spelling like “Fooooook!” Kids can also be Best Friends with each other and that opens up free-text in Private Messaging, but to do that requires parents to verify that their kids know each other and they are allowing that by exchange of personal information, which is far more secure that simple token exchange like giving each other a password on the playground.
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There can’t be a LEGO game without building. There are Quick Builds which are powered by Imagination. Approach a pile of animated bricks and you know that’s a Quick Build. If you have the Imagination, pressing Shift will make your minifig go into super speed and build the model. Then there’s Modular Building where you collect parts of a model such as a car, a rocket ship or a house and put them together. Finally, there’s Brick Mode which is where you slap together bricks you collect to created a unique structure.
Your first Modular Build is in the tutorial where you build your personal rocket ship, Quick Builds are found throughout the world, and Brick Mode is accessed in your personal property. On your personal property which can be customized to your liking, you’ll also discover Behaviors – which is basic programming. Link A to B to C etc. So for example, you get near your model of a dog and it barks. When it barks, the model of your cat next to it runs away and “hits” a tree which explodes.
Bricks are used up and reclaimed by breaking a model down, but Behaviors, once acquired can be used over and over again. In Brick mode, you slap your bricks together and they fit like LEGO bricks should, but in Modular builds, getting the pieces of the castle or house you picked up can be incredibly tweaky as there isn’t a “snap to grid” function and to move your pieces, your mini-fig picks it up and you have to walk it to where you think it’s going to go and set it down. I didn’t have the patience to line up the pieces of my castle.
There are diverse interesting Quick Builds in the game, and one of the first you encounter is smashing a Stromling in the Avant Gardens and building a turret with the pieces to protect you for a short while, an amusing one is the guitar on the rock concert stage and there are minigames to be found in the most out of the way places.
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Travel is hoofing it and travel between worlds is through launch pads, in your rocket ship. At time of writing, there isn’t a teleport function for kids to travel to their Best Friends so travel can get tedious as the worlds aren’t connected directly to each other and players will also find themselves traversing back and forth across the same areas over again as they travel and go on quests.
Races are a game feature that are unlocked after you get through particularly windy, obstacle laden paths through the game. A journey where you have to smash things, Quick Build, and Double-jump to success. Then you are provided a repeatable quest to race against the clock for achievements and rewards. There are also racetracks where you can build cars with an incredible array of modular pieces and race against others.
What good is a pony-tail, if you're unable to see it.
(After the first 20 minutes of game play, cause you will wear a hat/helmet with stats for the rest of your toon-life.)
7.5 is a very nice score for a MMO, that charges 40 dollars for 20 hours of quest game play and 10 dollars monthly for building with lego bricks, ... what Lego Digital Designer can do much better by the way, for free. They're using the same file format anyway, so why mess around with the controls in the MMO version of "brick mode".
And the second page of the review doesn't work.
Can't see the second page. Was wondering why the game got a 7.5 with limited content and extremely linear gameplay. I guess that part is on page 2.
Thanks for the review!
My nephews [and I] love LEGOs, but based on the "camera makes me ill" and the lack of a hybrid payment option, I know I will pass on this one.
I like this game and I play it with my 7 year old daughter and she has alot of fun just jumping between player created areas, but getting her own models and bricks to build something just isn't for her :p.
The camera issue isn't that big of a deal for me since I am always adjusting it as I run along (I use the camera to turn) so it is usually at my preferred angle.
Good fun game but not worth the monthly fee, this game should be 30$ (with all current areas included) with the option to buy access to new areas for 5-10$ and no subscription ever.
So this is the whole lesson i remember from the test and comments:
This is a nice friendly little game, but it really doesnt deserve a p2p model.
This is crazy they chose it and not some kind of f2p ...
Well, lets wait a few months, and they'll change their mind; maybe?
Pretty much.
I did all the quests in a couple days. The racing part of the game is actually pretty fun but there is only two tracks.
I think Net Devil pulled a Cryptic... ehh a Flagship on this one.
Developed in less than 2 years. Pushed out barely finished and with hardly any content.
Hoping to tank cash on the IP alone.
Where have we seen this before? Oh yeah... Star Trek Online. (and lets not forget CO either)
The only difference here is. That with LEGO Universe they try to pull a fast one on young kids (and their parents).
And that's even more sad.
Having beta-tested LU , a 7.5 is way too generous of a score..
< a month since launch and a review...
And which other big title has yet to see a review?
BTW this doesn't sound bad. At least it has a "base" to build on.
I played the beta. My review: it sucks. You wanna make super lame grind part of your 10 dollar subscription it's ok. You want to get stuck in some retarded hanging garden area that, ... no the points should be down around 3.0 - 3.5 outa 10... There is very little real LEGO feel to it at all. They would be wise to change their model some how... A blank playing field with legos would have been better. The only game I rate worse for clunk is Entropia o waita minut Im playing LOTRO right now - now that is pretty clunky too. They have a lot to live up to, attempting a foray into this world for them is not advisable at this time, get it right by asking us or goto stay in RL.
my gf likes it, thats enough for me :)
Really good review. I played it during beta and did not have that much of an issue with the camera controls. Liek osmeone else said I used the camera for turning.
I do agree with all of your suggestions to enhance or add on to the game. For their target market of game play they have priced it a bit steep. It should go out as a F2P model with additions to purchase and espcially the idea of buying brick packages.
Hooohooooo It is funny because you build with Legos, Hooohoooooo!
Ironic that it sounds like more of a Sandbox MMO than anything else out recently. Even if it is lacking in content a bit. Hopefully we'll see some good changes in the future.
Nice little game,loved the racing,shame it has so little content.Box price was ok for the fun i got out of it but certainly wont resub.Most of these big title out now days last like 4 hours and ive had alot more than that out of this :)
It is far from a sandbox MMO. It's extemely linear and the worlds are really small. The only "sandboxish" element is the building, and that's instanced and limited.
I really enjoy Lego Universe ... I keep going back for more.
True, there are problems like not being able to see my ponytail but the expressions on the faces of the characters are funny (and cute). I don't hang out in the common areas but players do put on their "street clothes" and you can see ponytails etc. then. True, the camera is limited but this makes you have to use the binocular stands. Lots of things I questioned have become clear to me as I play. It is over 3-4 months I think since Beta and then the launch. True, the quest progress is a bit difficult but if you double-click on the quest shown at the top of your screen that will open up to a popup and give you more info on where the quest is located and more specifics.
One thing that I like more and more is that I paid for the game and I pay for a monthly membership but then there is... nothing ... else to buy. I am nickel and dimed to death on supposedly free to play games ... and I am sick of it.
Since I have played I have gotten many free items from Lego as I achieved a goal or did outstanding (I am good at racing for some reason). These items are very nice.
There are free official Lego websites with lots of free games and puzzles and lego building ideas and plans. There is a wonderful free Lego magazine that is sent to your home with ideas and info and games. Just by getting the free magazine and entering your unique code on the back of the magazine (after you receive the first one) you are a member of the Lego Club and in Nimbus Station you are able to enter a special site that takes you to areas where you can play more free games and search for flags etc. You get clothing and special items like a secret salute and tips on playing the game better.
I have played a lot of games, for a long time now, and I really like this game. I would rate this game as 9 out of 10. 7.5 is too low. As I said, the longer you play the more you understand about how the game works ... but, primarily, the game is challenging you to problem solve and be creative. Great for me with a brain injury and musut be great for kids who like to explore and figure things out.
The first time that I looked at a map and knew that somehow I had to find a way across a ravine with no obvious way ... and took a risk and jumped off the cliff and began to fly across the ravine ... well, I was so proud of myself and thought if I had a child I would definitely want him/her to play this game.
It is different and that's good enough for me. Not my style of game but good to see a company trying something new. Some of the posters here make me laugh, maybe you thought LU was going to save MMO's and the world's dolphins or something?
It looks good for kids which is what they designed it for. But we have adults coming on here and saying there is only 20 hours of gameplay, come on guys. :)
Man... whatever happened to just buying LEGO in a box taking it home and using some imagination?!
I use to have a trunk full of different LEGO sets that I got tons of use out of... passed down to my younger brother who also had loads of fun with it.
For what they are charging you could have a whole slew of LEGO to play with for years to come!
I occasionally play FreeRealms with breaks here and there since launch. I bought StationCash for more than 40 dollars ... well in one and a half years. FR is designed for kids and has _a lot_ to do for adults too. I can "hardcore" play FR a whole weekend and don't have the faintest feeling of having seen it all.
LU was just the complete opposite for me. I must admit that it's fun, really. I wanted to keep coming back. But after two weeks there was nothing left but frustration. About no meaningful content, about ridiculous quest objectives for multiplayer minigames, about missing bricks for my property.
Yes it is nice to build anything you want. BUT you can't. You have to farm bricks. Or buy them at different vendors who are scattered over the whole world. Frustrating UI, missing filter options, missing features I know from Digital Designer. I just was no fun at all.
So whats left? LU without building. So thats about 10 hours fun, 10 hours revisiting fun and 10 hours grinding. ... and a chat filter that makes every guild meeting a laughable experience.
Sounds pretty lame. No adult servers?
Why not play minecraft instead and spend a fraction of the sub money on hosting?
This game had so many stupid problems it was a joke. There's a severe shortage of content and the content there is repetetive. Chat was a horrific nightmare with their censor so that any mispelled words got your whole sentence erased and you had to start all over. No way to group, no way to meet up with players either since it was all instanced and you went to whatever instance they sent you. Theres no way to store items other than what you can carry, so all those neat rewards were a total waste since you had to vendor them. Zones were absurdly small with even smaller zones inside them so my quad core pc was lagging like mad just from the goddam loading constantly. Walk across an area and you quickly discover that in each "zone" you actually had dozens of smaller zones inside them so roughly ever 10 steps in any direction you froze up so if could load the next 10 step zone.
Customer support is the absolute worse I've ever encountered in a game. If you get stuck, you have to destroy your char to get free and that didn't even work properly. I had to log my sons char in and out 6 times in order for the self-destruct command to actually work since the first five times it wouldn't. The help request went unanswered so he sat there waiting for an hour for a gm to unstuck him before he asked me to try to get him unstuck. Any even vaguely negative post or one that points out a problem in their game gets denied for posting by the mods before anyone sees it so you can't even get help from other players on their forums.
The game is supposedly geared for children, but is so hellishly done that most children would just quit in frustration as my son and his friends did.
While you can actually build with the lego's you collect, that's the only real upside to this game but for free, you could just download the builder from lego.com and do the same thing without the need to collect individual bricks, pay for the game and a monthly fee.
The overall business model in use by this company is "Get their money upfront for the game then they can go to hell while we go to the bank." The upfront cost and the sub fee are so overpriced for what you do get.