Lego Dimensions

Gameplay

Lego Dimensions features the same style of gameplay as the previous Lego video games of Traveller's Tales, in which up to two players control Lego minifigures based on various represented franchises. Players progress through linear levels, using their characters' abilities to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and attempt to reach the level's end. Characters are entered into the game by placing their respective minifigures onto a USB toy pad, with each character possessing unique abilities that can be used to solve puzzles or reach hidden areas. Using a character from a certain franchise will also unlock that franchise's Adventure World, an open-world area for players to explore and complete in-game objectives. The Starter Pack includes the toy pad and the game's 14-level main story campaign, which revolves around Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle, while additional levels are made available by purchasing Level Packs and Story Packs. In addition to the minifigures, players can also build models of vehicles, such as the Batmobile, TARDIS, Mystery Machine, or DeLorean, and put them into the game for characters to drive. Completing objectives in the levels and adventure worlds will reward players with gold bricks, which can be used to upgrade vehicles and give them new abilities. Each adventure world also contains a red brick for players to retrieve; these will unlock special bonuses, such as visual modifiers for characters or extra assistance at finding collectible items. Unlike series such as Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Amiibo, the minifigures, vehicles, and the USB toy pad are all made from real Lego pieces and can be freely built and customized. All minifigures and vehicles can be used in any available level.

Plot

Arriving on the planet Foundation Prime in the center of the Lego Multiverse, Lord Vortech (Gary Oldman) and his robot minion X-PO (Joel McHale) seek the twelve Foundation Elements, the cornerstones of time and space itself, in a bid to merge all the universes into one under his control. These elements, such as the ruby slippers, the One Ring, and kryptonite, were scattered across the dimensions long ago, but gathered together at Foundation Prime's palace can unlock the power to control the multiverse. When X-PO voices his doubts of Vortech's evil plan, he decides that he no longer needs X-PO and banishes him to the planet Vorton. Unfortunately, Vortech's own body cannot handle too many more dimension jumps, forcing him to open vortexes to different worlds and recruit local villains to help him search for the Elements while imprisoning heroes pulled through the vortexes. These actions damage the boundaries between worlds, causing them to merge and characters to be displaced.

When Robin (Scott Menville), Frodo (Elijah Wood), and Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) are each pulled into the vortices, each unknowingly in possession of one of the Elements, Batman (Troy Baker), Gandalf (Tom Kane), and Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) all jump in after them. The three get pulled into the same vortex and appear on Vorton, where the vortex generator they came out of explodes, prompting them to rebuild it. Aided by X-PO, the three use the generator to travel through the multiverse to search for the five missing keystones that power the generator and the Foundation Elements, hoping to find their missing friends and stop Vortech's plan from succeeding. Along their journey, they meet and assist the various heroes of the worlds they visit, such as Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta), Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and Dorothy Gale (Laura Bailey) while fighting numerous villains, including Vortech himself in 1885 Hill Valley and a haunted circus. However, Vortech eventually finds out that X-PO is helping them. The heroes travel to Foundation Prime to find their friends and fight Vortech, but it turns out it was a diversion that allows the villains to ambush X-PO and retrieve the Foundation Elements that the trio had previously collected, allowing Vortech to unlock the foundation of the multiverse: a green Lego building plate. This imbues Vortech with near-unlimited power, and he merges Frodo, Metalbeard, Robin and a piece of himself into a giant robot mutant known simply as the Tri, sending it to wreak havoc on the trio's worlds. Meanwhile, the villains that Vortech recruited decided to bail out, feeling doubtful of Vortech's actions.

After freeing their friends from inside the Tri, they destroy the Vortech piece, causing the Tri to implode. After the Tri's defeat, Batman realizes that they are going to need all the help they can get to defeat Vortech. The trio recruits The Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Mystery Inc., the Ghostbusters, the space ship Defender, and even GLaDOS (Ellen McLain) to defeat him. While the Doctor, GLaDOS, and X-PO work on a plan to seal Vortech in a rift loop, the heroes head to Foundation Prime, fighting Vortech along the way. With their allies' help, they are able to destroy the Lego plate, which causes Foundation Prime's palace to collapse and infuriates Vortech. He grows to an enormous size and attacks the trio, but the Doctor is able to manipulate the portal technology and sucks all of them into a rift loop. Using a special device he, GLaDOS, and X-PO designed, the heroes are able to seal Vortech in an endless rift prison for all eternity, saving the dimensions.

In a post-credits scene, an unknown figure finds a piece of Vortech's giant body in the remains of Foundation Prime's palace. He picks it up and instantly becomes corrupted, yelling in pain as he converts into a Vorton being. Vortech's laughter is heard as the scene fades out, suggesting that the figure has been transformed into another Vortech.

Franchises

The game currently features characters and worlds from twenty-five different intellectual properties, consisting of:

The game also features character and setting cameos from other IPs, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, CW's The Flash, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Red Dwarf.

Five more franchises are planned to be released during the game's second year, including Beetlejuice, The Goonies, Lego City Undercover, The Powerpuff Girls, and Teen Titans Go!. Unlike games like the Skylanders and Disney Infinity series, Lego Dimensions will allow all planned future figures to be compatible with the existing title, rather than releasing a sequel.

Packs

In addition to the game's starter pack, Lego Dimensions has a wide range of packs available, split into four categories: story packs, level packs, team packs, and fun packs. Packs from Wave 6-9 will also unlock Adventure World Battle Arenas, competitive four-person multiplayer areas themed after each figure's respective franchise.

Story packs

Story packs add six new levels to the game based on the represented franchise; these levels retell the story of their respective film, with characters from other franchises making occasional appearances. The packs also include one or two characters, a vehicle or gadget, and a new gateway design for the toy pad. Story packs will each also unlock a new keystone for the portal, unlocking additional abilities.

Level packs

Level packs contain a character with two items, which are either vehicles or gadgets, along with a new level to play in, based on the represented character's franchise.

Team packs

Team packs are similar to Fun packs except they contain two characters and a combination of two vehicles or gadgets, one for each character.

Fun packs

Fun packs each contain a character from a certain franchise and a gadget or vehicle to play with.

^§ : Everywhere in all other countries and Toys "R" Us stores in U.S. only.
^† : Everywhere in all other countries and GameStop stores in U.S. only.
^‡ : Everywhere in all other countries and Target stores in U.S. only.

Polybags

Polybags are limited-edition releases of a single character figure, distributed only at events and via special offers.

Reception

Lego Dimensions received generally positive reviews before release, earning a score of 80% on Metacritic. IGN awarded it a score of 7.7 out of 10, saying "Lego Dimensions' great characters and fun references consistently left me with a big dumb grin on my face." GameSpot awarded it a score of 8.0, saying "In any game within the toys-to-life genre, there's sometimes an unspoken question: is this also a great toy or just a great game? In Lego Dimensions' case, the answer is easy: it's both." They also praised the open world sections of the game, stating that "While they don't feature the same level of intricacy the main game provides, they do add several more hours each to the overall experience." Polygon awarded it 8 out of 10, saying "Where the game's innovative designs push forward what it means to blend toys and games into a single experience, the writing and both companies' willingness to dig deep into their vaults, pull the whole game together."

Sales

In the UK and Ireland, Lego Dimensions landed at number 2 on the sales charts in its first week. Sales had surpassed in comparison to first week sales of other 2015 toys-to-life game competitors Skylanders: Superchargers and Disney Infinity 3.0.