We recently had the opportunity to spend some quality time getting to know several areas, "classes", and players in LEGO Universe.  As is obvious by the title, the game takes place in the various LEGO worlds created over the years.  From pirates, to ninjas, space marines and much more, there is wide ranve to draw on for the LEGO Universe development team and they have made good use of it.  The game's site refers to itself as a game for "kids and LEGO fans", immediately making it clear that this is intended to be a family-friendly title.  And if you read our article on LEGO Universe in "What The Kids Are Playing", you will know this is certainly the case.  But what does it hold for the adult gamer, or the more hardcore MMORPG fans?  Can this game deliver enough action to hold the interest of those groups?  That was our question as we installed and patched to prepare for this review.

Immediately entering the game you are greeted with a very friendly, happy environment between the up-beat music and smiling lego mini-figures.  And as soon as you log in you're ready to create your own LEGO avatar.  While clearly not offering the depth of many modern MMO's with their sliders, morphing, and other minute adjustments, there are still enough variations to make you feel content with your choices.  Picking out your eyebrows, eyes, mouth, hair, and some starting clothes are the only options availalbe, but each gives you about five to ten options to choose from with both male and female varieties.  Although, once in game there isn't as much discerning gender considering you're a rather planar LEGO person.  But it's all well and good because that's just the way the LEGO world is.

Before actually getting into the game world itself, you might be thinking it will look very boring, blocky, and uninteresting.  After all, these are LEGO blocks we're talking about, right?  Most of them are square and even the ones that aren't are pretty straight forward.  But you will find that impression to be quite the opposite of the truth.  In fact, much like with some of the newer LEGO console titles, the world has been brought to LIFE with a truly vibrant, animated and exciting world.  The fact that many things are block-like in nature is often forgotten as you explore the various worlds of the game.  Trees sway, pirate zombies lurch after you, and angry gun-toting monkeys fire randomly from the trees (ok, so that only happened ONCE, but it was still crazy!).  The fact here is that you can be sure that the world will not disappoint.

Even from a technical standpoint, the visuals and sounds of the game are considerably high-end in terms of quality.  The mini-figures and environment make use of advanced shaders, dynamic shadows, and other post-processing features like reflections.  If you have a capable PC that allows you to maximize your graphics settings, you will likely be very pleased with the outcome in the very colorful areas.  The sound does not disappoint either, with very fitting ambient sounds and soundtrack, as well as the typical combat, skill use, and other special sound effects.  Some of them will likely be very familiar to players of the LEGO console games, but there is certainly more beyond that as well.  We didn't experience any technical issues while playing the game at all.  No graphical tearing, the hated "rubber-banding", or any other anomalies.  The animations were smooth and fitting, and the controls were straight-forward and easy to use.

One of the initial minor issues encountered however, came with the chat system.  In most MMORPG's you will see a channel buzzing with chatter, questions, answers, and even regular mundane conversation.  Typically this is found in some sort of regional, area, or shout-type channel.  However, LEGO Universe is devoid of such an option.  The only possibilities seemed to be the local "say" channel, direct messages, and group messages.  So, when running into a confusing location or looking for something you needed, you had to hope someone right next to you knew the answer and that they were listening to your chat.  While limtations to chat are necessary in child-friendly gaming, it was very limiting and left me with an almost closed-off sort of feeling.  Without access to converse freely with other players or ask questions I felt more like playing a single-player game that I should have.

Another lacking feature that is typically key to socialization and organization in an MMORPG is the presence of some sort of "guild" system.  This option didn't seem to exist in LEGO Universe, and while there were game-created factions (we'll go over that later), those didn't have a common chat channel either.  So, you really were often left "shouting in the dark".  This is just TOO constricting, even taking into consideration the fact that children are likely to be playing.  With the fact that parental controls are included (which is certainly necessary), they should have simply included the OPTION to close off or block potentially "open" chat.  You can't even look for a group without resorting to randomly inviting nearby players to help you out.

Now we can move on to that "factions" subject I touched on.  Within the game there are currently four factions a player can (and must) choose to join to help dictate their abilities and to a certain extent their chosen equipment.  While you can choose to wear any non-faction piece of equipment in the game, you gain a bonus for wearing a full 4-piece "set" of faction gear.  Many times this bonus is very beneficial, although sometimes you may find that equipping some random pirate, ninja, and robot gear works better for you.  Getting back on topic, let me outline the four factions, each of which has two specializations (what you might refer to as "classes").

Venture League - These are the "explorers" of the LEGO Universe.  The current specializations are the dual gun-wielding "Daredevil" and the pirate-centric "Buccaneer".

Paradox - A personal favorite, they use the dark power of the Maelstrom against itself.  This faction is made up of the "Sorceror", a magic-wielding wizard sort of class and the "Space Marauder" (think a storm trooper, in black) with blasters.

Assembly - The "builders" or creation-type faction.  They have the "Engineer" that makes things to help protect their friends, and the "Summoner" who, well, summons creatures to do almost the same.  Summoners are a "white wizard" sort of specialization.

The Sentinels - As the name implies, they are the defenders of the universe.  With two melee-based specializations, they offer the medieval themed "Knight" and Asian style "Samurai".

Keep in mind that once you choose a faction for your character, you can NEVER change it.  There is no going back on your decision because you made an "oops".  However, you are not stuck to just one specialization.  You can spend earned faction tokens "gained from smashing enemies and certain objects" to buy ranks in BOTH specializations within your faction.  While the fact that you could not go back on your faction choice at all was a little frustrating when I initially chose one I was not that happy with, having access to more than one specialization was a plus.

On the negative side of the faction and specialization topic is the fact that there are VERY few actual skills and abilities for you to use or gain.  Even at the highest rank with full equipment, the most abilities or powers you will ever be able to have up is THREE.  One will typically serve as your main attack, another is often a secondary attack or a defensive ability, and the third typically a utility or defense of some sort.  The only exception I found to this was that some weapons offered an extra power accessable by holding down the attack button for a few seconds.  In the case of a katana I found, doing so would grant a temporary damage shield.  But even given that fact, there were still only a maximum of 4 powers at my disposal at any given point.

Though skill and ability selection is low, one area this game offers more than the norm is in terms of exploration and more active "adventure".  Searching for objects, jumping across obsticles, putting things together and other various forms of building take a large role in the overall gameplay and make up a large part of the "fun factor".  Again I refer to the previous LEGO console games, as if you have ever played one of those you will immediately unstand what I mean.  Most MMORPG's are not full of much adventure or action of this type.  It is rare to see much puzzle solving, meaningful exploration, or platform-style elements.  But after playing LEGO Universe, you will probably be asking why they don't do it more often.

And while I have not brought this up until midway through the review, it is a defining characteristic and key component of the game.  Of course I am talking about the BUILDING system in LEGO Universe.  In a true expression of player creativity, you can obtain various properties throughout the different regions you explore.  First you must liberate the property from the dark forces who hold captive its "imagination", but once you have done so you are free to use any of the MANY, MANY lego building pieces you can pick up throughout your adventures.  This part of the game can't even really be "reviewed" aside from saying it's a really unique and fun feature, as it is only limited by the builder's imagination.  If more of the world were open to building, or if there were actually OPEN building areas in the shared world (as they are currently an instanced location) it would enhance the experience even further.  You really must try your hand at building (even if just to make your own dream house) and have a look at some of the creations made by others.

Another category LEGO Universe does not fall short on is both variety and size of the game areas.  As I meantioned earlier, there are a number of different regions to explore in the game.  The newest major addition, Crux Prime, is in fact almost the size of an entire game in itself.  Though we did not have the opportunity to explore it fully before writing this review (as it would take MUCH longer to complete), we certainly do have plans to continue exploring the remaining worlds to see what secrets and fun they have to offer.  And it is likely you will feel the same way when playing.  There is very little "down time" to speak of, but be prepared to get yourself smashed often as it's just part of the LEGO gaming experience.  Don't worry, it won't set you back as there are no penalties to make your kids (or you) cry.

In all, LEGO Universe is not overly complex, however it is also not as "deep" of an experience you might get in some other more adult-targeted MMORPG's.  However, with some additions like expanded chat, guilds, and some more skill or ability options down the road, it would do leaps and bounds for the game.  Even without those features, however, the game has a lot of fun to offer, and a pretty good replay-ability if you choose to make additonal characters.  Since you can go in a variety of directions in terms of the places you choose to explore and the order you do so, you might not be as "burnt out" as can be typical in most games where areas are "level-based".

Ultimately I found that the game was not only VERY family friendly, but had a great "fun factor" for adults as well.  So if you ARE burnt out on the standard fantasy MMORPG's of the genre, you might want to pick up LEGO Universe and give it a try.  And if you have kids, like I always say, "The family that plays together, stays together!"

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