These virtual Legos won’t hurt if you step on ’em

Unlike most pay-per-month MMOs, Lego Universe isn’t heavy on storyline or ripe with dialogue and cut-scenes. Rather, it’s an extended experience for the Lego enthusiast -- the fan who spent his or her childhood rifling through tubs of these plastic construction toys.

Your journey in Lego Universe begins on a tutorial planet called the Venture World, where you’ll learn the basic mechanics of the game and receive your “imagination hat,” which enables you to build models, like the rocket you’ll use to travel between planets. The entire universe is populated by animated mini-figures who, many years ago, went on a great journey to find the last bit of pure imagination. A dark force, known as the Maelstrom, eventually thwarted their efforts, and these are the evildoers you’ll combat in the game. Overall, you get six main planets to explore, plus a plethora of constantly updated seasonal zones, property worlds, and areas only Lego Club membership holders can explore.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just standing around; there’s always some action surrounding you in Lego Universe.

Once you choose your character and customize them to your liking, you’ll soon discover that the storyline isn’t as epic as it seemed in the opening scenes. Each quest is a repetitive, hunt-and-gather errand that requires you to run to specific locations and smash a number of enemies -- there’s not much of a challenge or plot reasoning for each, except to gain new items. Also, the game is so forgiving that when you’re “smashed” to death, the penalty is a few dropped coins and then you’re transported back to where you left off. Usually, MMOs have a wait time before you can hop back into combat, but Lego Universe aims to be kid-friendly.

Fortunately, other elements in Lego Universe make up for its monotonous gameplay, like mini-games, races, and battle challenges. They’re scattered throughout and are easy to find, though they’ll require special gems to play. Additionally, each level has side tasks you can complete: collect secret flags, tame pets, and do quick builds with stray piles of Legos.

The way your character progresses in Lego Universe is awesome for beginners, though unconventional for an MMO. Instead of gaining levels and XP, you explore the different planets for tokens hidden within every smashable Lego creation. These tokens increase your health meter, armor limit, and imagination points, which let you perform actions like the aforementioned quick builds. You’ll join one of four factions: the Assembly (building), the Venture League (exploring), the Sentinels (fighting), or the Paradox (mystical fighting). Whatever you choose will determine your skills, and you’ll be able to collect wearable objects, weaponry, and armor that enable special fighting and defense abilities.

The most intriguing element of Lego Universe—and the redeeming factor of its monthly subscription fee—is having your own real estate in the game. That’s right: you get your very own planet where you can freely build your own virtual Lego creations with bricks and pieces you pick up by completing quests and smashing objects, or that you purchase from a vendor. Best of all, you can interact with other players’ planets, and they can come hang out on yours too. This part of Lego Universe is the most expansive and really illustrates how this MMO truly understands why people love to play with Legos in the first place: community and customization.

The bottom line. We would have liked to see a pay-as-you-go model rather than committing to a monthly subscription price to simply tinker with virtual Legos. Hopefully with future updates, Lego Universe will get a bit more depth to its gameplay.