Warner Bros franchise hopping Toys-to-life game has won a lot of fans since its release in September 2015 and this year sees another set of new franchises appearing in the game, but what do you need to start your journey, what packs are worth buying and what is this LEGO Dimensions all about, anyway?
LEGO Dimensions is a ‘Toys-To-Life’ game. Simply put, this is a game that uses real toys to bring characters and items into the game world, so kids (and adults) can have the best of both worlds; a physical toy and a game and the publisher can sell extra levels and characters with the lure of a physical product.
The Basics
Your first port of call should be the Starter Pack. This is available for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3 and Xbox 360. It consists of a portal, which you place characters on, with a build-able Lego background and three characters that span three different franchises; Batman, Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Wyldstyle from the Lego Movie.
This pack also contains the game disc and it’s the only disc you’ll need for now. The game is fully playable just with this starter pack and even if you don’t want to buy any of the other packs, you can ‘rent’ heroes from the other franchises for a short time using in-game currency. The main story actually runs through all the game worlds and lets you meet characters from each world, a sort of preview of their hubs.
Many of the characters in the game are voiced by the original artists that provided the voices in films and cartoons. Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons) and others have provided their voices for the game.
The main storyline revolves around Lord Vortech, played by Gary Oldman, who wants to take control of the universe by collecting twelve Foundation Elements found throughout the game’s worlds. Batman, Wyldstyle and Gandalf are brought together from their various Lego worlds due to Robin, Metalbeard and Frodo being captured and they need to work together with other characters in the game to beat Lord Vortech.
Hubs
Outside of the main story, the game has a hub that links all the franchise worlds together. If you have any character from that franchise then you can enter the game world for it, so if you own Homer Simpson you can pop into the Simpsons world hub, Gandalf lets you into the Lord of the Rings Hub and so on. These are small game worlds with open plan gameplay and tasks to achieve, though they don’t have a story of their own.
Packs
There are currently 3 different types of pack you can buy;
Level Packs
Level Packs come with a figure and 2 different items, usually a vehicle and another item from the franchise.
They feature a self-contained story around that character, usually fairly short. You can also use other characters in this story by placing them on the portal.
Team Packs
Team packs contain 2 characters and a vehicle and  item from their franchise. They don’t provide any extra gameplay but they can open the portals for that franchise’s open world area.
Fun Packs
Fun packs contain a single figure and an item or vehicle. They can also open the portals for that franchise’s open world area.
In addition to these 3, Warner Bros announced a new style of pack for September 2016.
Story Pack
These add a new story level to the game based on the franchise in the pack. They link to the main story of the game but feature the playable character that comes with the pack. The story mode is larger than the Level Pack add-ons.
Check out all the packs from Year 1 and Year 2 on the next page
