Lego Dimensions

[Skye Prower 386]

So Lego's new crossover (and Skylander/Disney Infinity rip-off :P ) game is coming out soon.  For those of you who don't know, well I've kinda just explained it, but the new Lego game covers multiple franchises and has a serise of figures and kits to buy to unlock more character and levels.  

 

The main franchises (that I've seen so far) are The Lego Movie, DC Super Heroes (and not Marvel because they're in Disney Infinity most likely), Lord of the Rings, and Lego's ninja franchise.  There's also levels for The Simpsons, Back to the Future, Portal (never thought I'd see that in Lego), Scooby-doo, The Wizard of Oz, Jurassic World and, most exciting for me, Doctor Who.  I also really hope they add Ghostbusters to that list!

 

I would like to the website, but for some odd reason it's just a front page right now.  So if you want more info, there's a heap if you look it up on Amazon.

 

But speaking of Amazon, that takes us to the price.  Lego is pretty infamous for high prices but..... Wow!  The basic kit, which contains Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle, as well as a little Dimension Portal kit, costs £85.  Now, a new game here is around the £35-£40 mark, the Kit itself would be around... £15/20.  So...that's a markup of £25... wow.  A level pack, which contains a Minifig and two tiny kits, is £25 to £30.  And a character pack is £15.  So... yeah.... wow.  I'm really looking forward to this... but they're helluva expensive even for lego.

[Seviper the Fang Snake 368]

I might play this...then again I haven't played a Lego game since Lego Indiana Jones.

[Danny Felixe 331]

Lego Indiana Jones was awesomeness! It was the first lego one I played abd the closest I ever came to completing one (until I moved house and lost the save file D:)

Anyway... I likes Lego games. Even if its expensive I'll probably buy it. Sounds awesomeness

[Skye Prower 386]

I feel I should highlight, in case you missed it, the inclusion of Scooby-doo Dylan!

[Danny Felixe 331]

Oh I saw alright! And Doctor Who! ;P

[arekpowalan 12]

I don't quite get it. Will it be a game? Will it be a toy line? I searched on Internet and the marketing was confusing. The packs seem to be made with real minifigs and bricks.

 

 

Hoorey for DeLorean.

[Skye Prower 386]

It's the same idea as Skylanders and Disney Infinity.  It's a game, but you can buy extra kits which can be used to unlock new characters and levels in the game.  The pack above gives you a level, a character, and two gadgets to use in game.

[NegaMetallix 27]

I think the LEGO minifigures can also be used as standard toys (maybe even mix-and-match?) while the bases are used for the game. I could be wrong, though.

 

I like the look of this game, and was glad to see some franchises that I honestly didn't expect to be LEGO-fied, 'Portal' being the prime example for me. Also glad to see that certain characters (or at least Gandalf, Batman and Wildstyle) will have actual cutscenes interacting with the characters of each world, such as GLaDOS. Though I am curios as to how cutscenes will work in this game. Will certain moments only happen if you have/use a particular character (such as that clip with Homer Simpson in the Aperture Test Facility)? Either way, this looks like it could very-well be a fun game, if not definitely a large money-grabbing game. So I'll be keeping an eye on it.

 

(Now I just need to decide what I want to see more: LEGO Batman taking on GLaDOS' tests, or Ultron and Darth Vader taking over the Grid from 'TRON: Legacy'.)

[Skye Prower 386]

And I thought World's Unite was a crazy crossover!

 

Yep, I've spent some time on it now.  So... my first impressions.

 

Well, it's a Lego game, with all that that implies.  Which means you probibly already know if you'll enjoy the gameplay or not.  Compared to Lego City, the combat is a step back, back to button mashing as opposed to using throws and counters.  But then there are a lot of characters with different combat styles, and abilities to use in combat, that was maybe inevitable.  While the combat might be a little weaker, I'd say the humor is much better.  The usual Lego humour is there, but this time rather than being buoyed up with parody jokes, most of the humour is simply from these characters from different worlds interacting.  A gameplay addition, which surprised me, was the use of the Figure Board in the game.  I dunno how other collectible games work, but I assumed you put the figures on the board to choose who is in game and that was that.  Nope.  Moving the Minifigs around the board is crucial to gameplay and puzzle solving, so make sure it's close.  Tricky, as the USB cable isn't that long.  Also, I found that too many minifigs makes such puzzles harder as you have to move ones around to make space.  I ended up leaving the vehicles off the Figure Board unless I actually needed them for a puzzle.n  You could have up to seven minifig in a level, but I'd recommend only four of five to keep spaces.

 

Gameplay is divided into levels (a la most Lego games, but now with the addition of save points) and Adventure Worlds.  Both are based on the different franchises available in the game.  Another thing that surprised me is that levels already exist for franchises that have separate 'Level packs'.  Which means with a level pack you have two levels for that franchise.  One main story, one extra.  The Adventure worlds are open world areas of each franchise, with lots of hidden secrets and mini-games around.  In size they are maybe twice the size of a city district in Lego City, maybe a bit bigger, I haven't spent much time on them.  However, they are locked unless you own a mini-fig from that franchise.

 

Which leads me to the bad part of the game, the pay-wall.  The game is fully playable with just the three main characters (Batman, Wyldstyle and Gandalf) but in order to get all the secrets, hidden minikits etc etc, you need to buy more figures with different abilities.  At first, this actually didn't appear too bad.  The initial obstacles had a massive list of characters (or vehicles, each one of which has three modes) with the ability to bypass to chose from.  So it looked as if you'd need to buy some characters, but had a lot of freedom to choose who.  But then there were some obstacles that could only be bypassed by a few characters, or even just one in some cases.  And there are so many abilities...

 

Buying a fun-pack (a characters plus vehicle) in the UK is about £13.  A team pack (i.e. two fun packs) is £25.  And a level pack (one character, two vehicles and a level) is £30.  Which is very expensive.  However, factoring in Adventure Worlds makes it a little tricky to work out value for money.  As a rule of thumb, the first pack you buy for a franchise (excluding the three you start with) is worth it.  After that, you're paying too much.

 

And how much do you need to buy to access all worlds and have all the abilities?  Well... You'd need the Base Set, all the level packs, and at least one pack from each franchise not covered by the base set and the level packs.  PLUS, another 5/6 fun packs to have all the different abilities (depending on what abilities some vehicles have which you can't look up easily in-game).  Which works out at approximately...  £430.  And it's about £715 to buy every set.

 

That is a *bleep*ing lot of money.... Considering most lego games are £40.......

 

I do wanna recommend this game.  It's fun, it's funny, it's big....  But... at the prices they're asking, I can't, I really can't.

[Device 6]

It sounds a lot like Skylanders. You would need certain element characters to access different areas, but could still play through the game with only a few. But yeah, that sounds way too expensive for my taste... plus I'm not a big LEGO fan anymore. I played with them back when I was a kid, but stopped right before they started making all these sets based on major franchises.

With that being said, I think Nintendo has done the best with their Amiibo. I have spent waaaaaay too much on them, but they aren't absolutely needed in any games. They unlock fun costumes and other bonus stuff AND they work across multiple games! It might be mainly because I'm a nintendo fanboy... but I do feel like I get a lot more for my money. They run about $13 each... not sure what that translates for everyone else though!

[Skye Prower 386]

Yep, that's pretty much it.  The more I play through, the more I despair at the price tag cause the game is just so much fun, beyond even other lego games I'd say.  

 

But yeah, if you're not a fan of Lego, it loses a LOT of it's appeal.  As Lego based crazy crossover is pretty much what it is about.

 

Nintendo hasn't done their best, some of those Amiibo's are near impossible to get.  From a software POV they're great, but from a distribution, it's a disaster. 

[Seviper the Fang Snake 368]

I just now started getting back into the Lego games but I dread at the cost of the box.

[Skye Prower 386]

Yeah, the price of the main box alone is pretty crazy, and it's almost not worth it if you don't plan on buying more.

Basically, here's three questions to ask yourself before you get the game.

 

1) Do you like Lego Games?  If not, don't go near it, even if you really like some of the franchises involved.

 

2) Sauron leading a Dalek attack on Metropolis defended by Benny the Spaceman riding a Raptor from Jurassic Park, does that appeal to you? If not, don't get it.

 

3) Do you have a lot of money?  This is the big question, cause if not, or you're not willing to spend it on the game, you won;t get even near the full experience.

 

If all the packs were £5 cheaper, they be expensive, but reasonably expensive.

 

However, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a price drop across the board after christmas....

[Device 6]

Nintendo hasn't done their best, some of those Amiibo's are near impossible to get.  From a software POV they're great, but from a distribution, it's a disaster. 

As someone who has sat out in front of a few stores in the early hours of the morning for amiibo, I know how true this is. lol  With that being said, the last few waves of amiibo have surprisingly been in-stock even if you didn't camp out and get them day one. I think Nintendo has finally caught up on amiibo and have said they will be producing more of the really hard-to-find ones in the coming months.

[Skye Prower 386]

You mean Nintendo has finally realised how popular they are? ;-P

 

About time.  And they weren't exactly polite about the lack of stock before.

[Skye Prower 386]

Well I just got the Doctor Who level pack yesterday.  Now, I don't wanna babble about that (though it was great fun) but about an interesting mechanic I bumped into.

"Hire-a-hero" 

Spend 50,000 studs (in game points) to acquire the Minifig you need to bypass a puzzle for 30 seconds.  Now.... that is very interesting.  A good way of breaking the pay-wall.  However, I only encountered this once during the mission and it was for an ability I already had the mini-fig for.  Interestingly, the game seems to know which vehicles you have an the abilities they give, but not what mini-figs you have.

 

Whether this works for all abilities, or just a handful, I don't know.  I'll need to poke around more.  But it is an interesting development.

 

Edited 7 Nov 2015 by Skye Prower

[Skye Prower 386]

So yes, with the original releases over, we now have a trailer for the new ones.

A few expected releases (Harry Potter, new Ghostbusters) a few more 80's nostalgia properties (ET, Gremlins) and a few surprises.

Including... skip to 1:20...

 

SONIC!  Well I have to say that was an unexpected but pretty awesome surprise.

*crosses fingers* Please make a Tails minifig too.  Please make a Tails minifig too!

What's to bet it's gonna be better than the more recent Sonic games...

 

[Seviper the Fang Snake 368]

Now I really want to play it. I have been meaning to get it even before I watched this. Now that I'm back in the Lego game it's a no brainer!

Edited 9 Jun 2016 by Seviper the Fang Snake

[Skye Prower 386]

Er... it's not a no brainer thanks to that rather massive price wall that a lot of content is locked behind alas.

[Skye Prower 386]

I might have just pre-ordered this! ;-p 

 

 

There are some interesting things to note.  While in the Sonic trailer we only saw Green Hill Zone and some of the Adventure World, on the box we're also shown the Orca Chase from SA1 in Lego form, AND the Death Egg.  Is it too much to hope for a Lego Death Egg Robot boss fight?  Or do I NOT want to see it cause all it will make me do is desperately want a kit that will never exist!  

 

Also, the choice of vehicles.  The Tornado was inevitable, but I was surprised by the All-Star Racers car.  Now, the moment I saw it I basically thought 'that makes perfect sense' given the accessories/vehicles in the game all have 3 different modes, so the transforming car fits perfectly.  The reason for the surprise is that level packs usually have one vehicle, and one non-vehicle accessory, and I was seriously expecting a power up box! ;-p 

 

But there's something else I wanna bring up, mainly this:

And this:

 

These are the new Story Packs for Lego Dimensions.  Unlike the level packs which only give you a single level, these give you around six level, basically a whole game. Though at about half the size of a normal Lego game. 

BUT... does this mean we won't get many full Lego games anymore?  Will games now merely be Story Packs for Dimensions from now on?  From a business point of view it might work.  Everyone would have to buy a Dimensions starter set, and each game is half, or less, the work of a full Lego Game, but costs the same by the time you include the lego accessories.

[Skye Prower 386]

Gonna leave this here!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV493ncWwyk

 

Yep!  I've got my copy.  And also, YAY!  Lego Death Egg Robot.  Now if ONLY that would come out as a actual kit!

 

[Skye Prower 386]

About a month ago I said I got ahold of the Sonic Level Pack.  And not a peep since!  While I doubt anyone cared, it wasn't cause the pack was bad, it was because I was having trouble with the download which finally has been fixed now.

So, what's the pack like?  The level is designed to be like a normal Sonic side-scroller.  Now, keep in mind that two things Lego games aren't great at are high speed controls, and precise platforming.  Yeah.  If you're expecting to be playing a Sonic game with a Lego skin, you're going to be disappointed.  If you are expecting to play a Sonic-based Lego game, then you'll have great fun.  The main issues are the camera (which doesn't zoom out far enough when going fast) and that the levels are actually fully 3D, despite appearing to have 2D gameplay, so it can be a little awkward to hit buttons, land on platforms etc.  Having said that, it's not bad but any means, except for two bits.  The first is where you fly the Tornado after Eggman, but there is SO much going on on-screen that you can't tell what's a threat, what's background, and what's you're own missiles.  The second are the StH 2 style Special Stages.  Now, imagine those, but with controls that feel like laggy treacle, and when you hit a mine, you can't move while the invincibility frames play, so when they come off you're very likely to slam into another bomb before you can react.  At least you get the Emerald just by reaching the end, you don't need to get a set ring total.  

And that sorta sums up why I'm not being too harsh on this, it's STILL a Lego game.  You die, you respawn immediately, not back at some checkpoint.  So any small niggles that lead to death are brushed off in moments.  And there is the self-aware good natured parody humour from all Lego game, which is absolutely great.  And plenty of opportunity given some of the stuff in Sonic's past!  The story is fun if light, and the whole thing has a Generations vibe as it goes through the different levels.  Though, the Death Egg Robot is smaller than I expected.

TL;DR This is a great Sonic themed Lego pack, but it doesn't play like a fine-tuned Sonic game no matter what the trailers showed.