Monday Gaming Diary: LEGO Dimensions Fun and Sadness

I’ve been hard at work all week (when it wasn’t Halo night, of course) playing LEGO Dimensions for review. I was super pumped about LEGO Dimensions after E3, and I looked forward to getting my hands on the full game at launch. That day has come and gone, and I have to say that overall I’m pleased with the game, but it makes me sad at the same time.

It’s as fun as I would have expected the game to be, despite the fact I have NO FUCKING CLUE what went on in the Dr. Who level. I’m still convinced I needed to be high to understand it. I had a friend who has watched Dr. Who try to explain what I saw to me, and I’m still confused. I’m guessing Dr. Who is one of those series that you either adore or don’t care about; no middle ground. All I know is, what I saw was batshit crazy and none of connected for me. I’m told that what was referenced were two core manifests for the show, and then I fell asleep during the explanation.

Aside from Dr. Who and the Legends of Chima, I really enjoyed the levels, the dialogue, and the hilarious cut scenes that TT Games is known for with their LEGO Games. I mean, how can you not laugh at genius like this:

Or this?

The only real problem I had with the game was its paywall. I’ve played a few toys-to-life games before, so I’m aware there’s always a paywall, because they want you to buy more toys. That’s just the way the world works. However, how they did it was take the tried-and-true formula TT Games has always had with LEGO games and give it a paywall.

LEGO games always have areas or collectibles that are inaccessible until free play mode and specific characters are unlocked. Now, instead of a free play mode, the way to unlock these areas is to buy new characters. There are plenty of packs I want, of course, but I don’t want all of the franchises, and buying at least one pack from each franchise is the only way to unlock everything. I’ve always made it a goal to complete a LEGO game to 100%, and this time, I can’t do it. Even if I wanted all of the franchises, it’s too expensive to buy them all. The toy packs are more expensive than other toys-to-life games, and the fact that the level packs add in more content only eases the price pain a wee bit.

It honestly lowers my motivation to play much of the game at all. I’m not sure I can even get a platinum trophy without buying everything, which really sucks if so.

I really did have fun with the game, and I don’t regret picking up the Portal expansion pack at launch at all, as the Portal levels were by far my favorite. I just wasn’t a fan of constantly seeing everything I’m missing out on at every turn of the game. It’s not going to stop me from unlocking as much as I can throughout the game, though!