NOTE: This is a lengthy, detailed review so if you don't want to read the whole thing then I recommend skipping down to the Tips and Tricks section at the end of this review. For just a few minutes of your time, there are some tips there that will save you a lot of time and effort if you're new to the game.
INTRODUCTION: Long time gamer here. I've played many MMOs over the years. Normally I'd pass on a Lego MMO but since my 9 year old son is such a huge Lego fan, I picked up a couple of the "Awesome Packs" for both of us to play. I imagine some of you reading this will be parents such as myself so I'll tailor part of my review to help you make a more informed decision.
GAMEPLAY: Lego Minifigures Online is a solid game for kids or Lego fanatics but if you're a hardcore/serious gamer I'd certainly look elsewhere. I'd classify it as a MMO-lite or a MMO for beginners/kids. You'll find many of the aspects of a typical MMO here but they are presented in a much simpler manner. For example, you'll get a couple combat skills to work with and no more than that. As you level up you can increase the power of your character via a skill tree but you'll be limited to 2 different choices at each branch. There are instances/dungeons, some of which contain multiple bosses but most of them are fairly straight forward, basically just a matter of sticking and moving at the right time.
MINIFIGURES: There are currently close to 70 minifigures in the game and they're fun to collect but just bear in mind that all minifigures were not created equal. Personally, I find some of them to be subpar but there are few that really shine in the right situation. Out of the 40 or so minifigures my son and I have unlocked at the moment, some my most favorite/powerful characters are piggy guy, wizard, forest maiden, cyclops, and the knight . There are 3 different types of charcters , strikers (offensive, often glass cannon types), defenders (defensive but can still dish out decent damage), and builders (useful for building legos quickly). I generally find the defenders to be the most well rounded of the bunch.
GRAPHICS: They do the job I guess. With the graphics maxed out they're passable but far from noteworthy. By comparison, I find the graphics in Lego Minifigures to be inferior to the other single player Lego games available.
PROGRESSION IN THIS GAME: Make no mistake about it, this game really puts pressure on players to spend cash on in-game purchases in order to progress. Many of the game's levels are locked until you unlock a certain number of minifigures. You can grind out certain minifigures for free but it will take some time/repetitive grinding. It's far quicker and easier to just buy minifigure packs from the in game store. In addition, the game uses diamonds for currency and to level up characters. Personally, I struggle just to make enough diamonds to level up my characters in game. I can't imagine trying to grind addional diamonds to purchase minifigure packs.
PURCHASE ADVICE: As of the date of this review, the free version of this game is not available on Steam. If you're on the fence about sinking money into this game, I'd recommend downloading it for free from their website, Just do a seach on "Lego Minifigures Online" and the first search entry should be the official web site.
TO PARENTS: I don't see a recommended age on this game but personally, I think the ideal age is 10+ if your child will be playing without your regular supervision. Anyone younger than that playing solo will likely struggle with what they're supposed to be doing and will have serious issues trying to progress in this game. If you plan to play with your kids then of course it's a moot point since you can just guide them along yourself. As previously discussed, you can play this game entirely free but you'll likely have a difficult time progressing without sinking at least a little cash into the game. If the idea of paying a monthly subscription or buying additional minifigures bothers you, you may consider checking out some of the fantastic single player/co-op Lego games available on Steam if you haven't already. One last thing, this game does have in-game text chat but it's filtered and constantly monitored to prevent profanity/misconduct so my hats off to the developers for including that feature for a game such as this one.
OVERALL RATING: For what it is, I give it a 7 out of 10. My son and I have had some fun times with it already but realistically I don't expect to be playing it long term. I have no regrets dropping the $50 for 2 "Awesome Packs" and may subscribe further into the future if there is enough quality content to keep us busy.
TIPS AND TRICKS: This game isn't overly complex but the in-game tutorial leaves a little to be desired. Here are some things I picked up along the way that made life a lot easier.
1) You can do instances/dungeons over and over to unlock character pieces. When you first click on an instance, it'll let you know which character pieces can potentially drop from that instance. Once you get a head, body and legs for the same character, you can use a baseplate to combine them and unlock a new minifigure. Instances/dungeons are on timers so once you clear them you'll likely have to wait several hours before you can clear them again. Fortunately, there are numerous dungeons so it's not much of a problem unless you're gaming for long periods at a time.
2) There are waypoints that you unlock as you progress though a zone. Once unlocked, you can open up the world map and teleport to any of these waypoints. It makes things easier and quicker when you're re-running instances over and over to unlock minifigure pieces. Simply teleport to the waypoint closest to the instance you're trying to run and save yourself some time and hassle.
3) Instances have symbols next to them on the world map, such as leaves or moons. Those symbols correspond with the element type that will be the most powerful in that insance. So, if you see an instance with a leaf, then ideally you'll want to use characters with leaf on their character descpription in order to have an easier time in that insance. You can still make it though the instances with characters of a different element type; it's just more challenging. If you've played Skylanders, it's similar in that aspect.
4) Switching between your characters is the key to effective combat. It's far better to switch to another character when you're low on health, than to die and not have that character available again until the revive timer resets. It's also worth mentioning that you can also use a character's special ability and then quickly switch to the next character. This is borderline OP when using the piggy guy minifigure. His AOE dot special power will continue to tick after you land it so I use his special mud pit ability and then move on to the next character. I can then do additional damage that will simultaneously stack with the piggy guy's dot.
5) When choosing your character's name, you'll choose 3 words from a pre-set selection of words. The 2nd word you choose will be the name that others see you as in game. So if I go with Tough Paladin Knight, others will see me as Paladin in game.
6) If you're serious about buying characters, I would recommend buying series 12 Lego Minifigure packs at your local department/toy store. Each minifigure will have an online code that you can use in-game. So if you get a wizard lego figure out of the pack, you'll get a corresponding code to unlock the wizard in game. I bought a bunch of these and received double bang for my buck, my son got the actual physical lego minifigures to play with in real life and we were also able to use the codes to unlock the characters in game. One caveat, series 12 is the ONLY series of minifigures you can do this on. The earlier series do NOT have the codes.
Thanks for reading, hope this review helps!
Loading reviews... 
Steam News 
