Everything is seriously awesome.
When it was announced WB would be entering the Toys to Life competition with Lego, many were rightfully baffled. Sure, Legos started out and continue to be popular as real life toys you can buy pretty much anywhere, but where would this go? With the recent success of the Lego movie, Legos could now break borders and do anything, which didn’t help narrow down the direction of this new endeavor.
This seems to be exactly what WB wanted with the franchise: an excuse to do anything with an already popular series. Everywhere you looked during E3 there were signs encouraging use to “break the rules” and showcased a plethora of Lego characters from vastly different franchises.
It was clear right away that Lego Dimensions wanted to stand out in the toys to life genre with their distinct portal. Of course you can customize it with Legos, but the more interesting aspect was that it can handle up to seven figures and objects and is divided into three sections. These sections don’t matter at first, so players can put the toys anywhere, but it does come in play later.
Dimensions' portal takes the game to a new level with its level of interaction with the game, something you don’t see in competing titles. Instead of just plopping a figure down and forgetting about it, Dimensions requires you to keep it close by. There were many different ways the game utilized the portal. At one point the Wicked Witch stunned my characters with a spell. However, only characters that were in a certain lit spot of the portal were affected. All I had to do was pick up the characters and move them to a different color to free them.
The portal was further tested as a teleporter, where characters placed on the right color on the portal would be transported to a corresponding colored wormhole in the game. There was even a point where I played hot/cold with the portal: it lit up in a gradually stronger green as I moved closer to a hidden object in the game. This amount of interaction was fantastic and finally brought meaning to the idea of connecting real life toys to a digital game. Players have to actually care about both aspects to progress.
Currently there are two things you can put on the portal: characters and vehicles. Each vehicle, being made of Lego, can be rebuilt into three different vehicles. Instructions, and the ability to recode its chip so it appears that way in the game, are unlocked as you progress. The best part about these items is that the piece that contains the RFID chip pops right off, which makes sense; it’s just a Lego brick after all. The problem with Skylanders or Disney Infinity figures is that they fail to live up to what they are advertised as: toys. Their arms don’t bend, they are stuck to their platform, etc. However, Lego Dimensions toys are still Legos and can be played with exactly the same way you’d play with other Legos.
WB showcased three different worlds during the expo: sweet as candy Oz, the retro-fantastic world of Scooby-Doo and, surprisingly, Portal 2. Each world had its own distinct feel and was filled with the classic Lego humor we’ve come to expect. Batman wants to arrest Dorothy’s Scarecrow in a case of mistaken identity, GLaDOS promises a naïve Gandalf cake, and Scooby-Doo’s Fred doesn’t understand why it’s weird his aunt lives in the scariest looking house on the block. Each world really pushed its inside jokes and left in treats for diehard fans to enjoy. They also paid great detail to the overall design. For example, Scooby-Doo’s world has a different type of shading and texture to it to match the old 60’s cartoons.
There are a lot of other worlds already confirmed for Lego Dimensons such as Back to the Future, The Simpsons, Doctor Who, Lego Chima, and more. These choices really reflect a variety that doesn’t exclude an adult audience, ensuring a mass appeal for the game’s eventual release in September. The game itself will come with the portal, the Batmobile, Gandalf, Batman, and Wildstyle. Other packs will be sold that will include additional characters, vehicles, and new levels.