A Pocket-Sized Adventure – LEGO Minifigures Online Review

<p>A while back&comma; a free to play MMO was released known as <em>LEGO Minifigures Online&period;<&sol;em> It was an interesting concept of a LEGO game&comma; involving <em>Diablo<&sol;em> style gameplay&comma; and tons of unlockables&semi; It also came with more than its fair share of paywalls&period; I tried the game out briefly when it first released&comma; but wasn&&num;8217&semi;t thoroughly impressed by the lack of actual <em>free<&sol;em> content&period; Maybe this was a universal complaint&comma; as the game was shut down after a short amount of time only to be re-released as a &dollar;30 game under the same title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &&num;8220&semi;New&&num;8221&semi; <em>Lego Minifigures Online<&sol;em> is very much the same game&comma; but with a few tweaks here and there&comma; and absolutely no microtransactions that I could find&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just a better game&comma; overall&comma; and I had much more fun with it this time around&period; I will always stand by the thought that paying full price for a game is much better than playing a game for free and not having access to 75&percnt; of the content&comma; and that really shows in this case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In <em>Lego Minifigures Online<&sol;em>&comma; you take control of a hero who is destined to save the land from evil with the power of a magical item known as The Crystal Compass&period; You go on adventures in various themed areas&comma; including a Pirate world&comma; a Medieval world&comma; an Alien world&comma; and much more&period; Each world has its own little story that you must follow in order to proceed to the next area&comma; along with optional mini-dungeons&comma; achievements&comma; and unlockable characters to add plenty of replay value&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;7ed362e6c8f35131d4ba946a25dc8b87&period;png" alt&equals;"" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gameplay is incredibly simple&colon; You run around a world and hack &&num;8216&semi;n&&num;8217&semi; slash enemies in a <em>Diablo<&sol;em>-esque style&period; You have one normal attack and a special attack&comma; which both vary from character to character&period; Along the way you will unlock tons of new minifigures to play as&comma; with a total of three in your &&num;8220&semi;hotbar&&num;8221&semi; at once&period; Each character will have different stats and abilities&period; The three stats are strength&comma; defense&comma; and creativity&period; The first two are self explanatory&comma; but creativity is a bit of an odd ball &&num;8212&semi; It simply governs how quickly you build things in the world&period; Sometimes you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to build objects to proceed in the game&comma; much like the LEGO games we&&num;8217&semi;re used to&comma; but some characters do it a lot slower than others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This feature outright confused me&period; Why make certain characters slower builders than others&quest; There is rarely a time when you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to build an object quickly&comma; save for one particular boss in the first world &&num;8212&semi; and I&&num;8217&semi;m sure there are more akin to this &&num;8212&semi; but even then I could still manage with a character that possessed low creativity&period; It seems like a complete afterthought thrown in for artificial difficulty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>New characters are unlocked by  playing through the story&comma; completing small dungeons known as &&num;8220&semi;Pocket Adventures&&num;8221&semi;&comma; and building them from pieces found at the end of said pocket adventures&period; This adds a great amount of variety to the game&comma; as you have a <strong>huge<&sol;strong> pool of characters to pick from&period; You can level up&comma; and obtain stars by completing quests and defeating enemies&period; These stars act as skill points in a way&period; When you get to a certain level&comma; all of your characters will unlock a new skill tier to pick&comma; which can give them better attack&comma; more health&comma; or even a new ability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; all of this doesn&&num;8217&semi;t stop most of the characters from being carbon copies of each other&period; Most do the same amount of damage&comma; have the same amount of health&comma; and no special ability is more powerful than the last&period; The characters may look different&comma; have different attacks&comma; and feel different&comma; but in the end they all pretty much get the job done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mmobomb&period;com&sol;file&sol;2014&sol;06&sol;Lego-Minifigures-Online-SS-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is the worst part of <em>LEGO Minifigures Online<&sol;em>&colon; It&&num;8217&semi;s much too forgiving and easy&period; Every minifigure you unlock is totally overpowered compared to enemies&period; Enemies hardly do any damage to you&comma; and have a quarter of the health you do&comma; which results in you being able to one-hit-kill most normal enemies&comma; even if they&&num;8217&semi;re to scale with your level &&num;8212&semi; Even most bosses can be killed in a matter of seconds&period; Most of the time I&&num;8217&semi;d find myself favoring one character over all of the others&comma; as they had a combination of attributes that made them totally unstoppable&comma; and that just doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem to fit with the style of the game&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re going to have three characters to choose from at once&comma; they should be balanced so that each character can be necessary for a specific situation&period; I understand that this game is more targeted towards kids&comma; but even kids need a little challenge here and there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even with that being said&comma; <em>LEGO Minifigures Online<&sol;em> is very addicting&period; Though enemies are basically as strong as paper&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s satisfying to hack and slash through huge groups of pirates or trolls&comma; and trying out new characters&period; Often times you&&num;8217&semi;ll run into &&num;8220&semi;Area Quests&&num;8221&semi; which require you to do a certain action in a specific area of the world to gain experience and stars&period; These offer a bit of distraction from the main quest&comma; and allow you to explore new areas&period; Each world also has its own set of little side achievements that you can complete by exploring&comma; defeating bosses&comma; and finding secrets&period; It all makes the game very enjoyable for completionists like myself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I do wish&comma; however&comma; that the game was actually open ended&period; The levels are incredibly well designed and look nice and detailed&comma; but the game is entirely linear&period; No side quests &lpar;aside from area quests&comma; which can be completed in a matter of two or three minutes&rpar;&comma; or really any side content at all&period; The only example of side content are the pocket adventures&comma; but those are just a small sprint through a hallway to a miniboss &&num;8212&semi; They don&&num;8217&semi;t add very much to the game other than some different places to look at&comma; as well as minifigures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;150e9b8e2a294ecfe079046558340766&period;png" alt&equals;"" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s such a shame that each world is basically a big hallway&semi; You can&&num;8217&semi;t deviate from the path you&&num;8217&semi;re set on at all&period; This&comma; in turn&comma; makes the game very repetitive&period; Very little actually changes throughout your adventures&period; You get a quest at the beginning of the level&comma; complete the level&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s it&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s nothing really stopping you from running straight through to the end&comma; because you&&num;8217&semi;re going to level up regardless of area quests and pocket adventures completed&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll always be strong enough to destroy everything&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Something I must point out is that all of the dialogue in the game is voice acted&comma; which is a very nice touch&period; On top of that&comma; the dialogue can be witty and humorous at times&period; While not in dialogue with another character&comma; your characters will shout gibberish as they battle and run around in the world&period; This is funny at first &lpar;Hearing my Roman Commander minifigure yell in pseudo-Latin was hilarious&rpar;&comma; but it quickly gets grating&comma; as there are few soundbites for each character&comma; and you start hearing the same ones over and over again&period; I eventually had to completely tune it out of my head&comma; because it was driving me insane&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the end&comma; <em>LEGO Minifigures Online<&sol;em> is a fun game &&num;8212&semi; Much better than its original incarnation&period; The environments look great&comma; the dialogue is funny&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s tons of replay value with the unlockables and achievements&comma; and the gameplay is good for wasting some time&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just such a shame that it&&num;8217&semi;s so darn easy and is basically a hallway disguised as an MMO&period; Maybe this will be changed in an update&comma; but for now&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for an in depth MMO&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d steer clear&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a fun&comma; entertaining&comma; visually stimulating&comma; easy to pick up <em>Diablo<&sol;em> clone to waste some time on&comma; give it a shot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A code for LEGO Minifigures Online was provided for the purpose of this review<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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