Multiple dimensions in the LEGO universe are colliding! Characters, objects, and even buildings are being swapped around, creating complete chaos! It's up to Gandalf, Wyldestyle, and the real Batman (not the one from the LEGO Movie) to set everything back in order once again.
LEGO Dimensions is the newest game series where physical objects are used to interact with the gaming world, much like Skylanders and Disney Infinity. Aside from just characters, there are level packs which have objects you can build, and you can ride those sweet objects around the world. Basically, it's another game where you buy a bunch more stuff for a game you already own. Call me jaded, but I've gone through this with both Skylanders and Disney Infinity already, and it's expensive and doesn't always pack a big bang for your buck.
When Back to the Future was announced, my heart almost exploded. It's one of my favorite film franchises and a huge part of my childhood, so of course, aside from LEGO Dimensions, I also picked the Back to the Future level pack. There is also a Doc Brown Fun Pack, but it won't be released until January. This set comes with Marty McFly, with his trusty guitar and two other objects: the hoverboard and the DeLorean.
The story for the BTTF level pack is a very familiar one. You play as Marty McFly and you head to Doc Brown's house, but he's not there. So, Marty finishes building a giant amplifier and plays his guitar. Later that night, Marty heads to the mall to meet Doc, where he's showing off his new creation: a time machine. However, it doesn't go smoothly as Libyans have shown up and they shoot Doc. Marty escapes in the DeLorean time machine and heads back to 1955. Marty gets stuck in the barn and has to figure out how to get out of there. Marty finds Doc and they head to the Hill Valley Clocktower to get the 1.21 Gigawatts needed to power what essentially looks a lot like a cosmic treadmill, which the DeLorean to get back to the future.
Obviously, the game took some liberties with events in the film, so you wouldn't have to have moments in this game where your mother spies on you in your underwear. The gameplay is a ton of fun and exactly like every other LEGO game you've played. What really won me over is that the gameplay felt a bit more stripped down and focused more on puzzles over fighting, which has been the focus with more of the LEGO games as of late.
Here's the kicker, aside from the time it took to put together the Hoverboard game piece and the DeLorean game piece, the story took 30 minutes. You pay roughly $30 for 30 minutes of gameplay. After I beat it, I felt a little ripped off and a whole lot of disappointed that I did not get my money's worth. Honestly, after I beat it, the game crashed and I had to play the last level all over again. Since I knew what I was doing, it only took 5 minutes.
Obviously, there's replayability when it comes to the levels because different characters have different abilities and you can use them to beat the level 100%, like using Cyborg to blow up gold sections and collecting those sweet, sweet hidden items. However, there was a light at the end of the "I feel ripped off" tunnel." After you beat it, you can mess around in Hill Valley in an open world format. There are tasks to complete and it had a LEGO City Undercover feel to it, which I still hold as the best of the LEGO games.
You might be wondering "what year is the Hill Valley you get to mess around in?" That's up to you. You start in 1985, but you can travel to the futuristic world of 2015 or head back to the Wild West in 1885. Ultimately, what happened was that I spent a whole lot more time in Hill Valley than I did playing the BTTF story. Did I chase after Griff Tannen with my son and beat up a bunch of bullies? You bet I did, except I had Cyborg helping me out because he's Cyborg. Did I sing along to the Huey Lewis soundtrack while I was in 1985? Of course, I did.
When it all comes down though, is $30 worth the price tag for so little gameplay? If you really love the franchise the product is utilizing, then yes, but only if you can accept the fact the story is only 30 minutes long and the focus and fun are really in the free roaming part of the game. The problem with doing a game like this is that you're paying $100 for the base game and you feel like you're not getting everything and the extra money you pay doesn't give as much "bang for your buck" as it should. If I'm paying $30 for an extra level, I'd really like to get at least, at a bare minimum, an hour of story mode.
One of the nicer things about how LEGO is going about doing these level packs is that they're all not being released at once. As the months go on, more packs will be released. On the downside, I REALLY want to get my hands on the Doctor Who set and I'll have to wait until November for that one, which luckily isn't that far away.
However, the game is fun and it's so cool to see these characters in this format. It's always great to see what the LEGO games have to offer and LEGO Dimensions is a really cool way to present something fresh to the franchise that gets user involved in something outside of the game, even if it doesn't take that long to build the pieces. Overall, if you own LEGO Dimensions and are interested in the BTTF level pack, it is mildly worth it. It's much more worth the price if you're a fan of the movie series. It's all nostalgia and childhood whimsy. It'll make you smile if it appeals to you.