Today’s Power Hour review is really a review of a game within a game. I love LEGO Dimensions, but as I’ve written before, it’s pretty expensive. I’ve been mostly skeptical about the Level Packs, which come with both LEGO builds and a new level, but also come at a pretty steep price of around $30. I picked up the Portal 2 level pack on launch day because I knew I was going to end up wanting it regardless, and Toys R Us had a gift card promo going. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying playing through LEGO Dimensions, so it’s taken me a while to add the Portal 2 pack to the game, but I finally played it today. This review contains no spoilers and is mostly concerned with the value of the level packs.
Once I added Chell to the toy pad, the game prompted me to go to the Vorton store to purchase my new level. I was thrown off by the use of purchase because I had obviously already purchased the level. I also didn’t know where the Vorton store was located, so I had to wander around a bit. I finally found the store, and it’s within that area that players can access all the levels. I like this set up a lot because the free play areas are next to all the other available levels. If you haven’t purchased a level, you must do so before accessing it, of course, but I do like that it is separated from the main play area. This separation makes me feel less like I am missing something if I haven’t yet purchased a level.
I jumped on in the Portal 2 level, and it’s a fun level, but I also had my frustrations. The level didn’t progress as linearly as the other levels in the game. I felt like that was both good and not so good. Good because it seemed a bit more challenging to me than the other levels, but not so good because I ran into a situation where I couldn’t complete the task just yet because the game had yet to let me build the companion cube. I’ve already written about how annoying I find the instructions (or lack thereof) in this game, but this time I was really annoyed. To know that I needed the companion cube, but not be able to use it seemed to defeat the purpose of figuring out puzzles in the game. Obviously the game wanted me to do something else first, but I have the pieces sitting right here, and I wanted to build it and use it. At this point the game has been out long enough that I could probably find the instructions online, but that wouldn’t help me in the game because you can’t program the toy tag until the game decides you can build the thing.
Ultimately, I just don’t know about these level packs, especially at $30. The base game was $99 and it comes with 14 levels, which makes the level packs seem even more expensive. On one hand, I like the options. When the main story of the game took me to the Ninjago level, I groaned a bit because I’m not a fan of the show. The level was fun, but it wasn’t something I would seek out. So in that sense, LEGO Dimensions becomes sort of a build your own game. I don’t want to play Ninjago anymore, so I won’t buy that level pack. But, I’m just not sure we are getting a lot of bang for our buck here. I don’t regret picking up the Portal 2 level pack, but I imagine I will be pretty choosy when it comes to future purchases. Thirty dollars is just a little too much for what we get. I think $15 or $20 would be much closer to the sweet spot.
