LEGO Universe is just a memory, some random screen shots, and a painful timeline at this point. But that doesn’t mean LEGO is out of the MMO business or that a LEGO MMO isn’t a good idea. LEGO has a new MMO going, LEGO Legends of Chima Online.
LEGO has teamed up with Warner Games for to take another run at the whole MMO idea.
I am not sure why they haven’t gone with Traveller’s Tales on this plan, as they are the people who have made pretty much ALL the good LEGO games, from LEGO Star Wars forward. Then again, TT does seem to have a pretty set formula, one that might be getting old by this point.
Anyway, with lessons learned from LEGO Universe, things have a new flavor. The game will be web based, using the Unity Plug-in as a platform. It will be free to play, with premium options. And it will be focused on a single, LEGO owned property, the Legends of Chima, which LEGO is starting to roll out as building sets, games on the DS and Vita platform, and a television show on Cartoon Network. So a big cross channel cash-in is being attempted here, and it looks even more ambitious than the Ninjago campaign.
The site for Legends of Chima is up and running and the game is in open beta and seems to include all of the standard MMO features from levels to combat to inventory management. The critical game features that LEGO is calling out are:
Free to Play – LEGO Legends of Chima Online is a free-to-play online game! Membership and Premium currency are available to further enhance the experience but are never required!
Build – As the new commander of your Outpost, it is up to you to decide what you want to build and where you want to build it. Every building provides benefits from generating and collecting studs, creating weapons and armor, or providing your hero with special skills and abilities! You can also build and destroy LEGO creations within the game world.
Create & Customize – Be the hero you want to be. Your skills depend on what kind of Outpost you choose to build! There are no classes, no restrictions – you can play the way you want to play! Customize items by picking which color brick you want to build them with!
I suppose we will see how a new LEGO MMO stands up in world that already has Minecraft and EverQuest Next Landmark on the way. But this time around, the goals seem to be more modest and the focus a lot more concentrated for LEGO.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
The game is pretty decent, at least if you’re a 7 or 9 year old boy (my sons). They think it’s the best thing ever.
The game actually feels slightly innovative to me, or at least I’ve never heard of another MMO doing the same thing. The “Build” part is lifted straight out of an RTS game and you do your crafting with the buildings in your base. You upgrade using in-game currency that either comes from questing and killing mobs or is produced in a time-gated fashion from buildings in your base.
There’s another currency you buy for real cash but it’s not needed for basic gameplay and you get a small amount it from in-game activities anyway.
At least in the first few hours I saw no evidence of any need to invest any money in it at all. I’m sure there’s a pay gate at some point but you can totally check it out and get a feel for it for free.
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Nice find. Site is saying “Coming Soon – check back tomorrow” right now, though.
I missed Lego Universe but I’ll give this a go as soon as it lets me in.
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@Bhagpuss – I think it region checks. The base URL sends me to na.chimaonline.com. I am going to guess that it sends you to something like eu.chimaonline.com. When I get to the “na” site, it has a big “PLAY” button ready to go.
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Lego has another MMO in development too, slated for a release 1st or 2nd quarter of 2014. Not much else is official other than Funcom waving the fact they are the company building it at their investors to let them know something else was in the pipe after the lackluster sales and subscription performance of The Secret World.
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was in the close beta and not to interesting to be honest lego chima online is not a mmo either its merely a multiplayer game where you play with few friends or few strangers
heres hoping the minifigures mmo will be better than this from what ive heard so far it is.
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