Lego Universe was a massively multiplayer online game that was available from October 2010 to January 2012. The game was developed by NetDevil and released on October 26, 2010, with an early opening (October 8, 2010) for Lego "Founders",. users who had pre-ordered the game. It was globally distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.. Its release was delayed from original estimates of 2009. Teasers were released by Lego in 2007 and late November 2008 to promote the game, and also in 2009 for one last promotion. The game was available in English and German.. The servers were shut down permanently on January 31, 2012, due to 'unsatisfactory revenue' from within the game's target audience..
Story
Plot Lego Universe took place in an alternate universe populated by Lego minifigures. The premise is that years ago, a team of four minifigures went on a great journey to seek the last essence of pure Imagination: Doctor Overbuild, Duke Exeter, Hael Storm, and Baron Typhonus. After having found it on the mysterious planet Crux, the greedy tycoon of the expedition, Baron Typhonus, was pulled into the source, fusing with it to create a maelstrom of chaotic dark energy. However, even though Doctor Overbuild plugged the hole, the stress caused Crux to explode into thousands of other worlds. After the incident, the explorers decided to form their own factions, Doctor Overbuild creating the Assembly, Duke Exeter forming the Sentinels, Hael Storm leading the Venture League, and the Baron's protégé Vanda Darkflame creating the Paradox. The factions worked together to create the Nexus Force in order to destroy the Maelstrom and its minions. The Venture Explorer, a ship carrying new recruits is being attacked by the Maelstrom. The player, aboard the ship, escapes to Avant Gardens with the aid of Sky Lane. Here, a disaster involving Paradox has infected Avant Gardens with Maelstrom and released a beast called the Spider Queen. After travelling through the world and discovering the Spider Queen's location, the player destroys the Spider Queen at the Block Yard and claims their first Property, where they could place collected models and bricks. At that point, the players can travel to Nimbus Station if they pay for membership, where they choose which faction to join. From there, the player could travel to other worlds like Forbidden Valley or Gnarled Forest.
Factions The game consisted of four factions - The Sentinels, The Venture League, The Assembly, and The Paradox. The player could only join one faction. Each Faction had three specialties that had 3 different ranks and gear. There were two valiant weapons per faction which could be bought at the Nexus Tower.
The Sentinels were combat based, using heavy weapons and armor. Their specialties included Knight, Samurai, and Space Ranger. The Venture League was based on exploring, utilizing combinations of light weapons and fast attacks. Their specialties included Daredevil, Buccaneer, and Adventurer. The Assembly focused on building and creating, using gear that builds weapons. Their specialties included Engineer, Summoner, and Inventor. The Paradox relied on studying the Maelstrom, and using it against itself, mainly using ranged attacks. Their specialties included Space Marauder, Sorcerer, and Shinobi.
Worlds
Venture Explorer After creating a minifigure, players came to the Venture Explorer. It acted as a tutorial for any newcomers, teaching the basics of running, jumping, and smashing. Ultimately, players built a rocket and headed off to Avant Gardens with help from Sky Lane. Also, members were able to participate in a "Return to the Venture Explorer" with difficult enemies such as Hammer Stromlings, Corrupted Sentries, Hammerhurl Stromlings, and Elite Dark Spiderlings; though this was not part of any tutorial.
Avant Gardens This is the second world players would visit. It introduces newcomers to the basic mission scenarios and gets them prepared for what they will soon come to face. In addition to the storyline missions, there were side missions and bonus activities such as survival and foot races. Players with memberships saw this as the first zone to see tamable pets in. The Maelstrom minions here are easy, such as the Stromling, Stromling Mech, and the Dark Spiderling, born from the Block Yard's boss, the Spider Queen. The mini-game here is Avant Garden Survival. Here you must survive against Stromlings, Dark Spiderlings, Stromling Mechs, and other enemies more difficult to destroy. Avant Gardens is where you can tame the pets such as Doberman, Triceratops, and Buffalo. The two properties where you can build your creations in Avant Gardens are Block Yard and Avant Grove.
Nimbus Station Nimbus Station acted as the Hub for members and was the third world players will visit. Here, you could access most of the other worlds. After the seventh mission, you must select one of the 4 factions (The Assembly, the Sentinels, the Venture League or Paradox.) Here you could enter yourself in a race against other minifigures in the Vertigo Loop racetrack. You could also participate in the Battle of Nimbus Station, an event similar to survival in Avant Gardens but incorporating a wave system and taking place in Nimbus Station's past, fighting off stronger enemies. Members enjoyed many numerous of features in Nimbus Station, including more pet choices. Also there was a rocket pad to Frostburgh [valid December - February 2010 / 11] near Christmas, the portal to Starbase 3001, and the Lego Club Door [near Red Blocks]. The properties here are Nimbus Rock and Nimbus Isle. The Pets here are Robot Dog and Skunk Pets. There were no enemies on Nimbus Station, except those in the Battle of Nimbus Station.
Pet Cove Pet Cove was primarily a hub for players with memberships to learn how to tame Pets and do stunts with their Pets. It had a large variety of Pets available to obtain.
Gnarled Forest Gnarled Forest is a pirate infested forest zone that introduces several standard gameplay features. Players can learn new abilities and obtain additional weapons, including firearms, which are introduced in this area. Pets available in the zone include a tortoise, boar, crocodile, elephant, and hermit crab.
Forbidden Valley Forbidden Valley was unlocked at the same time as Gnarled Forest. It was the first world themed on ninjas, and was primarily rocky, dark, and barren, with many drop-offs and cliffs. The central area of the Forbidden Valley was a huge tree which was a sort of safe zone. It included a mini-game in which the player could fight three dragons. It also introduced several new enemies, such as the Dark Ronin and a type of Dark Ronin which rode a skeleton horse.
Nexus Tower Nexus Tower was the hub of everything informational in terms of factions. Here one could accept missions from the faction leader and interact with other things within Nexus Tower. The last piece of the Imagination Nexus is kept here. Like Nimbus Station, Nexus Tower contained no enemies.
Crux Prime Crux Prime was the largest of the planetary fragments created in Crux's explosion. Here can you meet many enemies you have met before but in stronger form along with bosses of all varieties (such as Stromling Invaders), and also a myriad of Ninjago Skeletons, straight from the Ninjago Monastery, attempting to mine Maelstrom Crystals. There are only 7 characters that the player can interact with in Crux Prime. Enemies also included the 'leaders' of types of enemy (e.g. Butterscorch, the dragon leader). All leader enemies show up in a slightly different colour from other Crux Prime invaders. The only tameable pet here was the Skeleton Dragon which was tamable as part of the main story line on Crux Prime.
Ninjago Monastery The Ninjago Monastery was a new Lego Universe world added to the game within a new build of the game on September 20, 2011. It featured more expansively than Crux Prime the Lego theme Ninjago. The world in comparison to the other worlds was one of the largest. It included the Ninjago Monastery, Skeleton Battlefields and the Ninjago Caves. Players upon arriving followed a chain of missions to learn all four elements of Spinjitsu, from the four ninjas in their temples within the monastery, and help defend the Monastery from skeletons. With the world also came a new crafting feature known as game cooking. A vendor in the Ninjago Monastery traded a special consumable item in exchange for common consumable items found around Lego Universe. Aside from the main mission chain that was to learn Spinjitsu, there were several other sub-plot mission chains available to players. The Ninjago Monastery world included many new daily missions and puzzles. The Ninjago Monastery also included an Earth Dragon Pet that can be tamed after completing certain missions. The Ninjago Monastery was the last major addition to Lego Universe. A battle against Lord Garmadon in the fire temple was planned (and advertised) to be added into the game, but was not rolled out as a result of the server shutdown in January 2012.
Gameplay Lego Universe brought players from around the world together to build and fight against the Maelstrom and its minions. The player assumed the role of a Lego minifigure and travelled to various themed worlds, each with different enemies and challenges. Players could collect and earn gear that might be worn and fought with to aid them in achieving a wide range of set goals. Also, players could have Specialties, each one with their unique gear. In addition, minifigures could gain ranks which allow them to use more advanced gear.
The accessible full worlds were the pirate-themed Gnarled Forest, faction-oriented Nimbus Station, green and festive Avant Gardens, high-tech Nexus Tower, Maelstrom based Crux Prime, Ninjago's world Ninjago Monastery and the ninja-based Forbidden Valley. Custom-built rocket ships were used by players to travel between these worlds. Three racetracks are found on these worlds that allow players to race against each other with custom race cars.
Throughout the game players could collect Lego pieces that can be used to freely build models on their personal properties. Properties could be set to only allow in certain friends or to give access to anybody in the game.
Promotion
Trailers The original trailer, leaked around early 2008, showed early concepts of the game. These include character customization using the traditional Lego method, a workshop where a car is created from Lego bricks, a Lego city populated with sets from numerous different themes, and a short theatrical battle between an eye-patched Lego minifigure and a "Darkling". In January 2010, six new gameplay videos, an interview, and another trailer were shown at CES 2010 and released on the internet. A theatrical-style trailer depicting the background story was revealed at the E3 Gaming Expo.
Bradford Rant In November 2009, a website for the fictional "Bradford-Rant Institute for Cosmic Kinesis" was linked on the Lego Universe web page. The institute was supposedly tracking seven Lego "Pods", which landed in various parts of the United States and Europe. Fans could track and find these pods, all of which landed between November 2009 and early January 2010. Once a pod was found, its data was put up on the Bradford-Rant page. After all of the Pods were found, a new trailer for Lego Universe and the tagline for the game, "Answer the Call: Save Imagination," was released.
The Great Minifig Mission