Lego Dimensions

These days, new games are pretty pricey, but at £74 (£69 on older consoles) Lego Dimensions is expensive. This is also for the ‘Starter Pack’, so it doesn’t even get you the entire game. That said, it comes with a Toy Pad on which you place characters to play in the game. You get Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle in the box, along with the Batmobile (see below). Furthermore, you get the Lego Gateway, which sits on top of the Toy Pad and is what the game’s characters jump through to visit different worlds. Don’t just build this from the manual though, as the process is part of the game.

As we’ve touched upon, the Starter Pack doesn’t get you the entire Lego Dimensions game. You can play through the story mode with the provided characters and vehicle, but there are more levels and also plenty of things you can’t do without buying more figures.

Level packs cost around £25 to £30 and come with three extra figures – a character and two vehicles. These can be used in the regular levels and the new one that the pack unlocks. There are also Fun- and Team Packs, which simply come with extra characters and vehicles to use in game. Collecting them all will, however, cost over £300 in total.

Gameplay

Previously, you’d buy a Lego game related to the franchise you’re interested in – whether that be Harry Potter, Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean. What Lego Dimensions does is create a mash-up of worlds. You can play either on your own or with someone else.

Lego Dimensions includes characters from DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, The Simpsons, Portal 2, Lego Ninjago, Doctor Who, The Wizard of Oz, Lego Chima, Jurassic World, Scooby-Doo, Ghostbusters, and Midway arcade games.

The story, in a nutshell, is that Lord Vortech (voiced by Gary Oldman) is trying to merge all the universes into one under his control using 11 Foundational Elements, or keystones. The three starter characters are sucked into a vortex from their respective worlds and must join forces to set things right.

We loved that we could be Batman in the The Simpsons’ house or get Gandalf to drive the Batmobile around Doctor Who’s TARDIS. There are so many combinations and the voice-overs are excellently acted.

If you’ve played previous Lego games, you’ll be familiar with the third-person system and most of the mechanics. You’ll still be running around collecting studs, looking out for the illusive blue ones, and switching characters as and when you need to.

The big difference is the Toy Pad. Not only do you get the thrill of building it yourself, but it’s more advanced than other offerings in the so-called ‘toys-to-life’ market. A long cable is provided, so you can have the base near you, which you’ll need to do as we found out. It has three sections on which you can place up to seven NFC-enabled toys. This means if you buy extra packs, you can choose which characters and vehicles you use on a level. These can be swapped as and when you need them – they appear and disappear on the screen through the ground via a vortex.

The Toy Pad also lights up and changes colour, which both looks great and is part of the game. This moves it from a nice functional idea to an integral part of the game. For example, a boss might zap a character with a force field and you’ll need to move them to a