LEGO Universe Hands-On Impressions -- This Isn't Just For Kids

16 Comments Posted January 11, 2010 - By Patrick Klepek

LEGO Universe Hands-On Impressions -- This Isn't Just For Kids

Alright. Fine. I realize I'm no longer the target demographic for LEGO, even though I consistently find myself playing every single LEGO game that comes out and the upcoming LEGO Harry Potter is one of my most anticipated games of 2010. So when I realized CES 2010 would provide the first opportunity for me to go hands-on with the upcoming LEGO MMO, LEGO Universe, I smiled wide.

At first glance, LEGO Universe doesn't actually look very different from the LEGO games that Traveller's Tales popularized before it, a move the developers told me was done on purpose. Developer NetDevil wanted consumers who have played other LEGO games to come into LEGO Universe with an immediate sense of familiarity. As such, tiny pegs spawn from built LEGOs and the characters even stack them with a strikingly similar set of animations. It's the good kind of familiar.

Most TheFeed readers are probably in my camp, interested in the possibilities of LEGO Universe but unsure whether the game's design will actually make it interesting to play longer than 10 minutes.

The verdict?

While my hands-on time with the game didn't make the former clear (largely because it was in the game's opening world, where the gameplay's very basic), the nearly hour-long demo the folks developing the game presented to me at CES 2010 made a better case for it. LEGO understands there are people who don't have access to a pile of LEGOs in their apartment but would relish the opportunity to bring their LEGO ideas to life and share them with a vibrant online community.

LEGO Universe CES 2010 Trailer »

LEGO Universe currently contains more than 80,000 different kinds of LEGOs. Here's an impressive fact: whenever NetDevil produced a piece of concept art, it was immediately sent to the folks at LEGO to have a professional LEGO builder make sure it could be properly recreated with actual LEGO pieces. When you build something within LEGO Universe, there will also be an option to have the game spit out a build order that will list what real-world pieces you need to purchase to make it. And when you design something in the game, it'll populate in the world as an example for others.

You can get more ambitious than that, too, in the game's world editor, which provides complete design control over an entire LEGO-based world. You can script the AI movements of enemies and objects using an impressive visual-based scripting language (meaning folks myself won't be completely left out) and if the prospect of building an entire world on your own seems daunting, bring some friends into the mix. LEGO Universe allows multiple people to be building within the same world simultaneously. It also means other users can act as beta testers of content you're building in real-time.

Thousands of CES attendees were signing up to become part of the upcoming LEGO Universe beta. There's no launch date for the beta, but since everyone who signed up at CES was being guaranteed a spot, it sounds like LEGO and NetDevil are going to make the beta pretty open.

Are you excited yet? I sure am.

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Tags: CES 2010, MMO News, PC Gaming, Videogames

Comments

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Displaying 1–16 of 16

Matt731

ok now, i enjoy the LEGO Star Wars games and im willing to try the LEGO Indiana Jones, but HARRY POTTER?!? REALLY??!??

Posted: January 11, 2010 4:49 PM | Reply | Report

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Matt731

oh, and im interested in this LEGO game, too.

Posted: January 11, 2010 4:50 PM | Reply | Report

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Gamelife1

Seeing how successful user creativity has been for LBP, this sound promising to me.

Posted: January 11, 2010 5:21 PM | Reply | Report

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Pwnproof

VERY INTERESTING........huh? unique. i did not see this type of thing coming,but if there is a monthly price to pay as most mmo's have, i doubt i will cancel WOW for it! but still thats kinda cool.

Posted: January 11, 2010 6:01 PM | Reply | Report

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SirDigbyChknCzr

been playing the closed alpha for a while now.. its pretty damn amazing.

Posted: January 11, 2010 6:17 PM | Reply | Report

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Nathiest

Looks crazy and fun.

Posted: January 11, 2010 8:19 PM | Reply | Report

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XwingVmanX

If it is a free mmo I will play for sure. If not then I will pass it up for Starwars TOR

Posted: January 11, 2010 8:24 PM | Reply | Report

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o_NIGHT_TRAIN_o

It looks pretty good for a lego game.

Posted: January 11, 2010 8:45 PM | Reply | Report

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swordgoatz

i love the recent wave of the build-your-own-games (like little big planet and lego universe). probably because i was always the type of person who spent more time designing paint jobs in Forza 2 than actually racing cars. games like this hearken back to what made games like sim city 2000 and roller coaster tycoon so much fun, but take it to another level, and lego seems like such an intuitive way to do it because everyone already understands how to build a world with legos. i wasn't ever really a big fan of the lego star wars games, but i'm excited for this one. building your own experience is incredibly appealing to me as a gamer, and building that world with my friends makes me super excited.

Posted: January 11, 2010 10:28 PM | Reply | Report

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Kizzpald

I think LEGO games are more popular than real LEGOs now. I can totally see someone playing the games then going to the store and being like "Woah! They made toys for the game!"

Posted: January 12, 2010 12:36 AM | Reply | Report

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Airgator

I grew up with LEGOs. I got excited a few years ago when I discovered a third party online LEGO CAD program at www.ldraw.org that lets you virtually build anything in LEGOs and post them. More recently LEGO had a PC pragram/game called Creator, I think, that let you build on the computer and activate what you created. I think it had some pre-built items as well. But it was a bit basic and single player so I lost interest. So when I heard about LEGO Universe MMO a year or so ago I got excited again. Now you can build online and interact with others...seems like a great idea. Operational vehicles would be great too.

Posted: January 12, 2010 8:02 AM | Reply | Report

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toothb14

DUDE!!!! im getin it

Posted: January 12, 2010 9:05 AM | Reply | Report

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peterIrishman24

I hope the games LEGO builder is better than the one I got from the lego website because I wasn't able to do a lot of things on it that were needed to create my virtual lego masterpiece

Posted: January 12, 2010 1:20 PM | Reply | Report

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Severnik

I can't wait for all the user created "junks" to be everywhere

Posted: January 12, 2010 1:26 PM | Reply | Report

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mark82234

lego nfl ????????

Posted: January 12, 2010 2:33 PM | Reply | Report

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GamerJoey

I admit when I first heard of this game, I didnt care but after looking at it now and reading the article i could definatly see myself playing this with my friends. And I love buildings games so it will probably be good but there arent any gameplay vids so i guess time will only tell if it will be good or not

Posted: January 12, 2010 3:19 PM | Reply | Report

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